A Sutton MP volunteered himself last week to help The Royal Marsden in their research into a new radiotherapy machine.

Paul Scully was scanned by the MR Linac radiotherapy machine, which is the first to be installed in the UK.

The machine aims to transform radiotherapy treatment by allowing radiation to target tumours with sharp precision.

Scientists believe there will be fewer side-effects due to the precise nature of the treatment.

Mr Scully was one of the first volunteers to be scanned in the initial trials.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Scully said: "Thanks to The Royal Marsden and ICR, Sutton is home to some of the most cutting-edge medical research in the world and it’s fantastic to have such an exciting piece of technology here.

“I feel truly honoured be a part of the study and, by volunteering, I’m delighted to help bring this promising new cancer treatment closer to being used to help people with cancer.”

Professor Uwe Oelfke, leader of the physics research into the MR Linac, said: “We managed to get some excellent images of Paul during his scan. The high quality of the images is helping us feel very confident about the MR Linac’s potential for when we begin to scan and treat patients.”

Dr Katharine Aitken, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden, commented: “The MR Linac is going to make a big difference in radiotherapy treatment for a wide range of cancers.

"But for pancreatic cancer, which is very difficult to treat effectively with standard radiotherapy, the fact we were able to visualise the pancreas and nearby organs so clearly is very exciting. We hope the MR Linac will enable us to safely increase the dose of radiation we can use to treat pancreatic tumours without damaging the surrounding healthy tissues such as the small bowel."

The MR Linac is unique because of its ability to create magnetic resonance images (MRI) at the same time as sending X-ray radiation beams to the tumour.