Mount Vernon Cancer Centre

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre is a well renowned, highly specialised cancer centre based in Northwood in Middlesex.

As a centre of excellence we pride ourselves on both our technical treatments and our patient care. Our staff is highly trained in non-surgical oncology.

The consultant team are highly respected and each specialises in one or two particular cancers. There is also a team of doctors who support the consultants’ clinical work both in the outpatient clinics and on the wards. Nurses deliver chemotherapy treatments and radiographers deliver radiotherapy treatments all supported by teams of physicists, administration staff and engineers.

There are over 500 members of staff, but we are united in our goal to provide high quality and timely treatment to our patients.

We treat from a large catchment population of almost 2 million people and some patients are referred to us from across the country into areas where we have specialist knowledge and expertise. Over 5,000 new patients are registered with us each year.

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre prides itself on being at the forefront of the latest technology available for treatment and many patients being offered clinical trials for both chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. The centre has the latest pumps for the delivery of chemotherapy and in radiotherapy the most up to date linear accelerators can deliver the latest treatment techniques.

Our facilities include:

• A chemotherapy/immunotherapy suite, which treats around 300 patients a week using 21, providing systemic anti-cancer therapy using established and cutting edge drug treatments for all cancer types
• Inpatient ward, which has 26 beds
• A comprehensive radiotherapy service from the point of clinical referral to the first follow-up appointment
• Seven linear accelerators providing radiotherapy treatments, including CyberKnife and TrueBeam
• Nuclear Medicine Imaging and Outpatient Therapy service
• Iodine suite treating 120 patients per year

Our team of volunteers is available to help patients way find their way around our rather complex site. If you need help, just look out for the people wearing a yellow sash or a yellow lanyard and a yellow badge.

Also part of the cancer centre are three facilities that support our patients:

The Paul Strickland Scanner Centre

Provides comprehensive scanning services to the NHS and private health sectors for the diagnosis, treatment monitoring and research of cancer and other serious diseases, using leading edge PET/CT, MRI and CT scanners.

The Lynda Jackson Centre

Provides support and information to people affected by cancer.  Supports patients and families helping them cope with all aspects of the disease from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

Coronavirus guidance

For the latest Covid-19 information for East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust patients and visitors, please click here.

Building works

Mount Vernon Cancer Centre has been awarded £7.5 million to make building improvements. The works began in February 2023 and will be ongoing in a phased approach until Summer 2025. You can find out more about how we’re improving the cancer centre by visiting the ‘Building works at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre’ section of our website.

Mount Vernon Cancer Services Review

In May 2019 NHS England launched a Strategic Review about the future sustainability of services. An Independent Clinical Review concluded that there needed to be immediate and longer-term changes including relocating specialist cancer services to a new centre on an acute hospital site and recommendations to maintain the current service. A series of options for Mount Vernon Cancer Centre were developed and you can find details on these on the Mount Vernon Cancer Services Review website.

In 2023 the government announced that proposals to relocate Mount Vernon Cancer Centre had not been selected as part of the New Hospitals Programme and there is more information about this on the Mount Vernon Cancer Services Review website.

Update: May 2024

It has been agreed by the government’s national Strategy, Planning and Investment Committee that a public consultation on proposals to relocate Mount Vernon Cancer Centre will go ahead. You can find detailed information about the announcement and the public consultation on the review website.

We will share a further update on the public consultation when timings are confirmed.

We understand that news of changes can be concerning for patients and would like to offer reassurance that during this review and subsequent consultation period there will be no immediate or short-term changes to where patients go for their treatment.