HIGH-QUALITY staff throughout Basingstoke hospital have helped to improve results for a ground-breaking unit dedicated to operating on a rare cancer.

Patients with cancer of the appendix - pseudomyxoma peritonei - are sent to the unit from all over the country and operations can take more than 10 hours.

The Basingstoke Pseudomyxoma Peritonei Centre's annual report says: "The enthusiasm, skill and support of all hospital personnel and departments has been instrumental in achieving the continuous improvements in outcomes in these complicated cases."

The report says better results - including less infection - are also being achieved because staff at the centre have more experience.

Out of 36 operations there was one death, which occurred four days after discharge from the hospital, the report notes, with the patient dying from pulmonary embolus.

In his introduction to the report, the centre's director, consultant surgeon Brendan Moran, says some patients are sent with tumours which are diagnosed as being too aggressive to operate on.

Mr Moran says it is becoming clear from data that pseudomyxoma varies considerably in the way it attacks patients.

He says the centre, which receives special funding from the NHS, has continued to dev-elop and staff have helped set up the second centre in the country in Manchester.

Among other developments to happen this year are plans for twice-yearly clinics to be held in Dublin.