CLATTERBRIDGE Cancer Centre has stepped up its fight against the disease by launching a mobile phone app to help specialists decide what treatment is needed.

The Wirral trust is the first in the UK to launch ONCOassist, which will centralise all information around cancer care. The user-friendly technology will help to deliver even more precise treatments for patients.

The app is only the third worldwide to get CE approval – the safety gold standard for medical apps – and will provide a one-stop solution for cancer care at the touch of a button.

Cancer specialists will have immediate access to relevant information for all cancers, including managing the side-effects of existing treatments and advice on new drugs – something which has never before been accessible from one digital location.

Jo Upton, a skin cancer advanced nurse at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, who has been involved in the development of this new technology.

She said: "We constantly need to be looking at new ways of providing patients with the highest quality of care as smoothly and promptly as possible, keeping waiting times to an absolute minimum.

"That means we must work efficiently whilst, most importantly, maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety.

"The app will offer rapid and convenient access to treatment protocols, which is essential for the safe delivery of cancer treatments.

"This new system will aid clinicians in all of these areas and offer patients an even greater sense of security, with treatment plans being put into place much more quickly."

The innovative app will also assist cancer specialists in calculating the correct dosage of specific drugs to be given to the patient much more quickly.

Jo continued: "It often takes some time to pull together tailored treatment plans as every patient is different.

"We need to assess what drugs have previously been taken and how the patient is likely to react to new drugs.

"This feature on the ONCOassist app will mean all of this information is available in one easy-to-navigate location, resulting in easier clinical decision-making. We will be able to calculate chemotherapy doses and make prognosis predictions."

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre will be the first UK Trust to use the new technology. It is networked across nine sites in the Merseyside and Cheshire region and has more than 220,000 patient contacts, with more than 30,000 patients annually.