The first specialist unit for teenage cancer patients in Scotland is being opened today.

Complete with flat screen TVs, games consoles and cafe, the ward is said to be the best facility of its kind in the UK.

Experts predict survival rates could improve by as much as 15% in the long term by bringing adolescent patients together in one place.

At the moment youths with the illness are split between paediatric and adult hospitals.

Simon Davies, chief executive officer of the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), said this can isolate them among much younger children or older patients at a time in life when peers are particularly important.

He continued: "Being in a ward where young people are together helps them feel much more supported and confident and they get staff who are experienced at supporting them."

The six-bed unit is based inside the recently built Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. It boasts a day room with panoramic views of Glasgow. There are also comfortable seats and two giant TV screens - one for computer games and one for watching films.

Each bedroom has a flat screen TV, internet access and a games console with wireless controls, although when they are well enough patients will be encouraged to socialise.

Furnishings have been chosen to make the rooms feel more like home, with some of the clinical equipment hidden behind panels.

The TCT has invested £500,000 in the facility which will look after young people from the age of 16 to around 25.

Younger children with cancer will continue to be treated in the Schiehallion ward at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Work with the TCT to create a centre for younger adolescents on this site is already under way. A unit will also be incorporated into the children's hospital when it is built at the Southern General in Glasgow.

Mr Davies said the TCT had been striving for the creation of an adolescent cancer ward in Scotland for at least 12 years.

Roger Daltrey, frontman of rock band The Who and a patron of the TCT, is due to launch the new unit today.

He said: "Teenage Cancer Trust units give our teenagers the moral support to help fight this terrible disease. It's great we've been able to open a ward in Glasgow but we need more of them so that every teenager in the UK can have access to one."