Patients in Herefordshire to benefit from new faster cancer diagnosis technology

Herefordshire patients can now benefit from new advanced technology recently introduced at Hereford County Hospital histopathology department, which will revolutionise processing of diagnostic cancer specimens and assist in patient cancer diagnosis.

Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) is one of the first hospitals in the region to introduce this latest technology which will assist in the more rapid detection of cancers including breast, kidney and colon.

The hospitals’ laboratory can process patient tissue samples within 14 hours, half the time of the traditional method which is speeding up patient diagnosis.  The new equipment is also used to process large tissues, which would previously have taken up to 48 hours to process.

Andrea Johnson, histopathology manager at Wye Valley NHS Trust, said: “This processing technology is significantly advanced for use in histopathology and we are delighted to secure this for the benefit of our patients to provide a quicker diagnosis. 

“We’re also able to process more samples within the same time frame due to its efficiency, and test larger pieces of tissue more quickly for difficult to detect carcinomas, types of cancer, to determine future treatment and prognosis for patients. 

“The next step is to use this new technology to enable quicker turnaround times for urgent tissue biopsies, to provide same day diagnosis.

“This is a significant development for the department and will assist in the transformation of the local diagnostic pathway of cancer in Herefordshire”.