Most children, teenagers and young adults will be initially referred to their local hospital where they will receive a diagnosis of their condition and possibly receive some of their treatment. Some centres may offer treatment that can be delivered at a local level, and while local treatment is preferred, your doctors may also have to refer you on to other centres that can offer additional or specialist treatment. We carefully work out the pathways for individual patients so that optimal care can be provided.
The three main Primary Treatment Centres (PTC) are Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. There are ‘shared care’ centres in Inverness, Dundee, and Dumfries where care is delivered jointly by the clinicians in those centres in conjunction with a Primary Treatment Centre. Some services (e.g. bone marrow transplant) will be carried out in one location only (Glasgow). There are pathways of care in place which are designed to give access to the best, safest and most rapid treatment for all children teenagers and young people with cancer in Scotland.