St Mark’s Hospital specialises in colorectal disease. Because of this the Consultants are all highly experienced at managing patients with, or at risk of inheriting polyposis. St Mark’s is a National Health Service Hospital and anyone can ask to be referred to one of the four Consultants who care for the majority of patients with this rare condition. On a day to day basis the Registry is run by five nurses and two administrators under the Directorship of a Consultant Surgeon. They look after over 1000 patients who belong to polyposis families and attend St Mark’s but they are also available to speak to anyone who wishes to obtain information about polyposis. The St Mark’s Polyposis Registry is the oldest in the world. Started in 1924 by Dr Cuthbert Dukes and Mr J.P. Lockhart Mummery. This statement made by Dr Dukes in 1958 remains true today:
“It would be difficult to find a more promising field for the exercise of cancer control than a polyposis family, because both diagnosis and treatment are possible in the precancerous stage and because the results of surgical treatment are excellent”. The aim of the Registry remains unchanged – to study polyposis and prevent cancer. At the beginning, in 1924, a young man called Dick Bussey was an assistant to Dr Dukes in the Research Department. Over the years, in addition to his research work in the Pathology Department, he was involved in setting up and maintaining the database, a paper system that recorded all the details about the polyposis families. He also talked with the families and would take down the details and draw the family trees. He became fascinated by polyposis and eventually submitted a thesis on the subject for which he was awarded a PhD. Dr Bussey continued to work at St Mark’s after his retirement right up to 1991 when he was 83 years old. It is to him that we owe the continuity of documentation that makes The St Mark’s Register unique. More importantly, perhaps, was the nature of the men who created this Department. It was, and still is, a Department designed for research but where the primary aim is the care of the people. For information about referral, NHS or private, please contact The Polyposis Registry on: +44 (0) 20 8235 4270.
