CANCER patients suffering excruciating pain can now undergo a spinal operation to relieve the symptoms for the first time ever in Scotland.

From today, medics at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow will be able to offer patients a procedure known as a cordotomy, which has previously only been available at centres in Liverpool and Portsmouth.

The operation, which is performed under local anaesthetic and takes around 45 minutes, uses a specialised needle to disable very fine pain-conducting fibres within the spinothalamic tract of the spinal cord to remove the sensation of severe pain.

The four-inch needle is inserted in the neck and uses radio frequency to “burn” targeted pain nerves without affecting other nerves in the body, and can transform patients' quality of life.

To be eligible for the procedure, patients will be referred by a palliative medicine consultant if they are experiencing overwhelming cancer-related pain or unbearable side effects as a result of their cancer pain medications. It is estimated that around 25 people per year will benefit with consultants already recruiting potential candidates.

Previously, Scottish patients had to travel to Liverpool for the treatment and the launch of the service in Glasgow has taken six years.

Dr Alison Mitchell, the lead consultant for interventional cancer pain service at the Beatson, said: "The percentage of patients we were able to send to Liverpool for cordotomies was a fraction of those that would have benefitted from it. Patients with advanced cancer are not only in pain, they may be frail too, and unable to travel that far.

"Hopefully we will be able to treat many more patients here than we could by sending them to Liverpool."

Dr Margaret Owen, consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, has been training in every second week for the last year in Portsmouth in order to offer cordotomies in Scotland.

Once in theatre, Dr Owen uses a machine called an image intensifier to take X-rays of the patients neck which are then projected onto a computer screen, helping to guide the needle with millimetre precision.

She said: "It's not quite like any other procedure you do, so it's not something people can just start doing. There's a lot of training and skill to it. It's a procedure on the spinal column, so it's not to be taken lightly."

The type of cancer most commonly treated with cordotomies is asbestos-related Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs or abdomen which is most prevalent in areas with a history of shipbuilding, such as Glasgow.

Around 150 people a year in Scotland are diagnosed with the condition each year, of which 100 are in the West of Scotland. The Beatson will accept referrals from across the country.

Funding for the purchase of equipment, reconfiguring the theatre table and upgrading the image intensifier machine, was provided by charity Mesothelioma UK, with additional funding to maintain a patient database and a radiofrequency machine coming from the Beatson Cancer Charity.

Decades ago, "open cordotomies" were performed which involved the removal of a vertebrae to relieve pain. The growth of radiofrequency as a medical technology has transformed the procedure, however, and is also used in other surgeries such as correcting abnormal heart rhythms or blasting tumour deposits.

Dr Jennifer Armstrong, NHSGGC medical director, said: “This is another example of the determined efforts of our staff to deliver targeted clinical care and technological advancement to those who will benefit from it.”