A procedure to carry out radiotherapy by operation could save breast cancer patients in Barnet from spending hundreds of hours travelling to and from hospital.

The treatment was carried out at the Royal Free Hospital for the first time two weeks ago on 83-year-old Audrey Holman, who underwent breast cancer surgery and radiotherapy at the same time.

When Mrs Holman was diagnosed with breast cancer in October, she was scared she would lose her independence.

Conventional cancer treatments would have involved her making 30 separate visits to the hospital to be given radiotherapy - a form of treatment using radiation on a diseased part of the body - to stop the cancer coming back.

Radiotherapy can have serious side effects in patients, leaving them exhausted, but Mo Keshtgar, a consultant breast surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, in Pond Street, Hampstead, offered to make Mrs Holman the first patient at the hospital to be treated using a new technique, intraoperative radiotherapy, which he is helping to develop.

Mrs Holman accepted the offer and surgery was carried out to remove the tumour in October and two weeks ago she had surgery to remove tissue around the tumour site and had radiotherapy at the same time.

She said: "It was wonderful. Mr Keshtgar kept me in hospital for 48 hours to make sure I was OK after the operation, but I felt back to normal after 24 hours.

"At first I felt a bit odd, as though something wasn't right, but now I'm completely back to normal.

"If I'd had to visit the hospital five times a week for six weeks I don't know how I would have coped. My family - I have seven grandchildren - has been hugely supportive but they don't live nearby and I wouldn't have had time to go shopping or do the other things you need to do to keep a house running. I dread to think what would have happened."

Under the treatment, the tumour lump is removed under general anaesthetic. While the patient is still unconscious, radiotherapy is delivered to the areas of tissue surrounding the tumour, killing any remaining cancer cells.

"There are many benefits to this sort of treatment, as opposed to conventional treatments," Mr Keshtgar explained.

"The patient does not have to keep coming back for radiotherapy, which can be exhausting.

"I use a specialist portable machine which can be taken into an operating theatre. There is an applicator which I use to deliver radiotherapy to the affected tissue for around 30 minutes, destroying cancerous cells."

He added: "This means the patient is given radiotherapy immediately after surgery to remove the lump. They do not have to wait for a radiotherapy appointment."

Doctors at the hospital suggest that the introduction of the treatment could lead to waiting lists being reduced because there is no need for patients to keep returning for radiotherapy, although all conventional breast cancer treatments will still be offered.