Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2009 | Page 101

FASHION, HEALTH & BEAUTY

Aiming for
excellence

life

The improvements Consultant Breast Surgeon Mr Richard
Sainsbury has made at St Mary’s and his hopes for the future.

Since taking up his post at St Mary’s
in September 2007, consultant breast
surgeon Mr Richard Sainsbury has greatly
improved treatment for breast cancer
patients on the Island and people are even
travelling from the mainland to be treated
by him. But it is his dream that in the
future St Mary’s Hospital could become a
Centre for Excellence in the treatment of
breast cancer, with a dedicated building
and more essential equipment.
“I was made very welcome here,” said
Mr Sainsbury. “I’ve got a good team,
treat nice people and I want to move it
forward.”
A pioneer in the discipline of breast
cancer surgery, Richard Sainsbury moved
from the Royal Free and University
College Medical School, London
where he had been Senior Lecturer and
Honorary Consultant Surgeon and Head
of Breast Services at UCH since 2000.
He has retained his ongoing research
programme at University College Hospital
in London, concerning the mechanisms
of breast cancer, and he works there one
day a week. He is also Consultant Breast
Surgeon at Southampton University
Hospitals NHS Trust, has a weekly private
clinic in Harley Street and is actively
involved in advising government bodies on
the optimisation of breast services.
Mr Sainsbury’s work often brings him
into the corridors of power. “I was at a

Article by Jo Macaulay
dinner at the House of Lords and met
Lord Sainsbury,” he recalled. “We argued
amicably as to who had the name the
longest and which family was the oldest.”
The first new addition Mr Sainsbury
made when he moved to the Island was
to introduce the testing of the sentinel or
guardian nodes during the operation to
remove breast cancer. This was something
he had pioneered during his work at the
Royal Free and UCH in London.
“We’re now one of only two units in
the country where the sentinel node
injection can be given without the patient
having to travel to a Nuclear Medicine
Department,” explained Mr Sainsbury.
A sentinel node probe was purchased
in 2007, totally through the efforts of
fundraising across the Island. It can mean
less invasive surgery for patients as the
one or two sentinel nodes, are detected,
removed and tested and if found to be
clear no more need to be taken.
Previously many nodes were removed
during a lumpectomy or mastectomy
and this could cause problems with
lymphoedema later – a chronic disease
that can make the arm swell which cannot
be cured. “The sentinel node probe is a
big success and is working very well,” said
Mr Sainsbury.
“We now want to test the pathology of

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the sentinel nodes during the operation
but need the money for the OSNA
(One-step nucleic acid amplification)
machine to do this,” said Mr Sainsbury.
£75k is needed and local fundraising is
nearing the halfway mark.
“It is hoped that at some stage that
the use of an Ultrabeam radiotherapy
machine will be explored on the Island
too,” said Mr Sainsbury. This machine,
which gives radiotherapy during
lumpectomy surgery, is a very expensive
piece of technology at £400k.
“We would really like a proper building
for the breast cancer unit – you can
overhear conversations in the building at
the moment,” said Mr Sainsbury. “We’re
very keen to provide the whole service
under one roof, particularly so that
patients don’t have to walk across the car
park between clinics. It woul B