SPECIALIST cancer treatment that caused a family to take their child out of a Southampton hospital and flee to Europe will soon be available in the UK.

Three proton beam therapy centres are to be opened by 2017 in a move hailed as a cancer treatment milestone.

As reported by the Daily Echo, the treatment was the reason five-year-old brain tumour patient Ashya King was taken from Southampton General Hospital by his family against doctors wishes.

And after receiving the proton therapy at a centre in Prague his family say Ashya is now cancer-free.

Now centres will be opened by Proton Partners International Ltd in Cardiff, London and Northumberland – with the Cardiff base up and running as soon as next year.

The Proton Therapy Centre (PTC) in Prague, where Ashya received the treatment last year, said it was ''thrilled'' to hear news that a recent scan showed no sign of a tumour.

The new UK centres will be available for NHS patients from England, Scotland and Wales, medically-insured private patients and self-paying patients.

Daily Echo: Ashya King, 5, arrives for pre-cancer treatment examinations at the Motol hospital in Prague

Ashya King

Proton Partners International has been formed following discussions between Professor Sir Chris Evans, the life sciences entrepreneur, and UK life sciences and healthcare investors on addressing cancer treatment in the UK.

Institutional and private investors have committed to almost £100 million equity finance in the company.

Professor Gordon McVie, senior consultant at the European Institute of Oncology, has been appointed chairman, and Professor Karol Sikora has agreed to become chief medical adviser to the company, alongside a range of renowned cancer and healthcare experts.

Prof McVie said: ''This is an exciting and important development of the provision of cancer treatment in the UK. As things stand, patients who can benefit from this treatment have to go abroad for treatment, often at great expense to the NHS.

''The creation of these centres will go a long way to ensuring the very best of treatment is available in the UK.''

Sir Chris said: ''We are delighted that the UK's first centre will be based in Cardiff and Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund is proud to support this breakthrough. There are more than 150,000 people treated for cancer each year in the UK and the demand for treatment is growing.

''It is anticipated that NHS demand for proton beam therapy abroad will reach 1,500 patients by 2017. Proton Partners will be able to play a leading part in helping meet demand in the UK as of next year.''

In addition to state of the art Proton Partners' treatment services, the Cardiff centre will provide conventional radiotherapy, chemotherapy and supportive care. This could then be offered through other centres.

Proton beam therapy is a highly-targeted type of radiotherapy that can treat hard-to-reach cancers, such as spinal tumours, with a lower risk of damaging the surrounding tissue and causing side effects.

The Government has announced that it is to create two NHS proton beam therapy units which will open in 2018.

As reported by the Daily Echo, Ashya’s parents Brett and Naghmeh disagreed with doctors at the General over conventional radiotherapy treatment and took him out of the hospital, fleeing to France via a ferry.

They then hid in Spain but sparked a major police search over concern for Ashya’s health as he was recovering from surgery on a brain tumour and could only eat through a special tube.

His parents were arrested but released soon after with the NHS agreeing to pay for the treatment in Prague.