Stock Photo - 1957 - New hospital branch is like vision of the future, latest ideas in cancer research are incorporated ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Exceeding the wildest dreams of Florence Nightingale, the new Sutton, Surrey, branch of the famous Royal Marsden Hospital is a model of comfort and functional modernity. Here, every new development, from radiation equipment for cancer treatment to new materials in furniture has been incorporated. The stark white walls of old have given way to pleasing pastel murals, and carpets add to the generally hotel-like atmosphere. Communications and liaison ere emphasized: pneumatic message-carriers, individual 'phones for patients to call the nurse, and a staff calling system The Royal Marsden became the first hospital in this country to use artificial radio-isotopes in the treatment of a patient. That was in 1948, but since then, as stronger links have been forged between medicine and science, a new branch to promote cancer research was needed After many delays, the present Sutton site was acquired in I960 By 1960, plans had been drawn up, and the necessary funds made available. Gradually the building, a combination of bricks and concrete, rose from the chalk sub-soil. Now, three years later, the nurses are admiring the well-lit, glass-panelled wards; the two, huge six-million electron-volt linear accelerators for the cancer treatments which are burled deep in the radiation-proof ground. And in the laboratories, scientists continue the endless quest to make the word 'cancer less terrifying to man. Doctor at lunch. The hospital staff take tea. (Credit Image: © Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com)