A CANCER patient has attacked the Government for failing to make a revolutionary therapy available to thousands of sufferers.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound was developed by doctors in France in the late 1980s but the first machine was only installed in the UK - at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport - this year.

So far, just a handful of patients have received the treatment, which uses high-frequency ultrasound to kill cancer cells without invasive surgery.

Bob Norburn, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer two months ago, says the Government should have acted many years ago to help save, prolong and improve the lives of some of the 27,000 men a year who contract the disease in this country.

Mr Norburn, aged 56, of Bolton, says the Government should have provided funding to develop centres for treatment across the UK when the therapy was first introduced. More than 5,000 people have been treated across Europe and more than 80 per cent of those treated have made total recoveries.

Mr Norburn, came across the treatment when he was searching the internet, said: "Hundreds are being treated regularly in other countries but, so far, our Government has done almost nothing to develop it - even though it has been shown to be a very worthwhile and effective therapy.

"Are we not already paying enough into the health service to have an option of this treatment?

"It has improved the lives of thousands of people who have had it and should be available to more people by now."

Since finding out about the treatment, Mr Norburn has been told that his cancer is too far advanced and must now look for alternative treatments.

Doctors in France and Germany have further developed the technology to allow them to use it to treat cancer in other parts of the body.

Doctors at cash-strapped Stepping Hill Hospital, where the pioneering machinery has so far only treated eight people, today admitted that a lack of Government funding could mean that just 20 more people are treated before the end of the year.

Consultant urologist Stephen Brown said: "It's coming on very slowly but we would like to have more funding available from the Government.

"There are more patients coming forward for the treatment than we are currently able to treat."

He said the treatment has been around for about five years but the Government wanted to test its effectiveness before making it available to patients.

"It is difficult to say when it will be available to all sufferers but the initial signals are that it will be a very useful treatment," Mr Brown said.