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Proton Beam Therapy Group To Raise £20m

Proton Beam Therapy Group To Raise £20m

A company whose focus on a specialised form of cancer treatment sprang to prominence last year during the case of five-year-old Ashya King will disclose on Monday that it is in talks to raise tens of millions of pounds from investors.

Sky News understands that Advanced Oncotherapy, which is listed on London's junior AIM stock market, will issue a statement in the wake of a recent surge in its share price.

Spun out of the CERN site in Geneva, where scientists discovered the Higgs-Boson Particle, Advanced Oncotherapy makes specialist machines which use proton beam therapy to treat cancer patients.

The company is expected to say that it is in discussions about raising funds to accelerate the development of the machines, and has begun a roadshow of prospective investors to raise the additional capital.

Sources said on Sunday that it was likely to involve a placing of new shares with blue-chip investors, with one saying that it was seeking at least £20m.

Advanced Oncotherapy announced in January that it had signed an agreement to lease a site on London's Harley Street to establish the UK's first Proton Therapy Centre, which is now under development alongside a sister facility in the US.

Formally known as a Linac Image-Guided Hadron Therapy (LIGHT), the machines are regarded as representing an important breakthrough in the treatment of difficult-to-reach cancers because they are able to target cells more precisely.

Proton Beam Therapy is used by around 150 British children in the US each year, but the cost, at up to $100,000 (£67,000) each, is far cheaper when LIGHT machines are used.

The technique became a national news story last year when the parents of Ashya King took him to Spain to receive treatment or brain tumour that was not available in the UK.

The boy's family engaged in a lengthy legal battle to secure approval for him to be treated abroad, eventually taking him to a Proton Therapy Centre in Prague in the Czech Republic.

Last month, his parents told a newspaper that their son was free of cancer.

Advanced Oncotherapy has seen its shares soar by 418% during the last 12 months, and it now has a market value of more than £150m.

The new fundraising is expected to be led by Westhouse Securities, which acts as broker to Advanced Oncotherapy.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment on Sunday.