Chris Oates, Architect director at BDP, explains how the latest cancer care facilities are enabling patients to be treated in increasingly personalised environments. Drawing on recent UK case studies, he also highlights the considerable advantages of co-locating specialist cancer treatment facilities, scientific research, and academic centres, on one site – both to medical personnel and scientists / academics.
The pace of scientific research in the global development of new cancer treatments is astonishing, with precision medicines dramatically improving survivability rates; these have doubled since 1970. Immuno-oncology therapies empower the immune system to recognise and react to tumour cells, and biomarkerguided therapies target the mutation in tumour cells at a molecular level, in effect creating a completely personalised approach to treatment, treating the disease at a systemic level.
In parallel with the developments in clinical treatment, new cancer care environments are enabling patients to be treated in increasingly personalised environments, or even in the comfort of their own homes, if their circumstances allow this. Individual flexible chemotherapy bays incorporated into departmental layouts allow patients to control their own environment, and choose a level of interaction with others that suits them. This sense of control over environment and choice extends to the design of waiting areas and provision of external spaces adjacent to treatment areas. Production pharmacies co-located on hospital sites allow individualised medicines to be created locally to the patient, taking place side by side with biological research and clinical trials.
The power of personalised treatments
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