Andy Giddings<\/span>West Midlands<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n A woman who successfully underwent a newly-approved form of cancer treatment has said it allowed her to avoid the need for surgery.<\/p>\n The method, known as Papillon, uses low energy X-rays to treat rectal cancer patients and it has recently been recommended for use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).<\/p>\n Sharon Price, an NHS worker from Newcastle-under-Lyme, was diagnosed with rectal cancer at the age of 45 and said: “I was faced with the possibility of surgery, which would mean that I’d have to live with a stoma for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n “That was devastating – I was just too young to have to go through that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A stoma is an opening in the abdomen connected to the digestive system that diverts waste into a bag worn on the outside of the body and the procedure allows patients to avoid the need for one.<\/p>\n Nice said it could “substantially improve” quality of life as a result.<\/p>\n The treatment is currently used on patients whose tumours measure 3cm (1 inch) or less and who choose not to have surgery or are too high risk.<\/p>\n People with larger tumours may also become eligible for the Papillon procedure if other treatments reduce their tumour to 3cm or less.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The consultant who pioneered Papillon, Prof Sun Myint from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Merseyside, said: “It is wonderful that patients will now be given a choice of treatment and many of them will have a much better quality of life later because of it.”<\/p>\n His trials followed patients for five years and he found Papillon helped preserve organs 93% of the time in cases of rectal cancer where tumours measured 3cm or less.<\/p>\n Prof Myint, who is 77 and still working as a consultant, said he was ready to retire once the treatment became “embedded as the standard of care in the NHS and across the world”.<\/p>\n Colorectal cancer includes cancers of the rectum, bowel and colon and is the fourth most common cancer in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Family](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/dc20\/live\/5da91b20-ceed-11f0-9606-97a48f45f0d3.jpg.webp\")
Family photo<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20251120-101800-81b2dab7dc-web-2.34.1-2\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Clatterbridge](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/cb53\/live\/78f97230-ceed-11f0-9fb5-5f3a3703a365.jpg.webp\")
Clatterbridge Cancer Centre<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n