Academic radiation oncology: achievements
Since 2000, Academic Radiation Oncology (ADRO) has had a number of key achievements.
ACORRN
In November 2004, Professor Pat Price was awarded £351,000 over three years by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), the Department of Health (DoH), the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to set up the new Academic Clinical Oncology and Radiobiology Research Network (ACORRN).
The aim of ACORRN is to revitalise UK radiotherapy and related radiobiology research. The network was launched in February 2005, and the National Office established within ADRO. The ACORRN Scientific Administrator, Nicola Stones, and Research Manager, Dr Gillian Heap, were appointed in September 2006 and November 2005 respectively. This is a significant achievement not only for ADRO, but for Manchester and the UK research community as a whole.
Educational programme
ADRO has established an extensive educational programme for consultants, trainees and researchers within the University, Trust and PICR. It consists of a regular oncology seminar series, journal clubs and research meetings, and was highlighted in the Christie Hospital NHS Trust’s application to the Health Service Journal for the ‘Acute Healthcare Organisation of the Year’ award in 2005, for which the Christie was shortlisted.
Honorary membership of Royal College of Radiologists
In July 2004, Dr Catharine West was awarded honorary membership of the Royal College of Radiologists, in recognition of her many contributions to the field of translational radiobiology, including her international research reputation, her role in teaching and examining the radiobiology section of the FRCR examinations, and her commitment to the training of Clinical Research Fellows.
Clinical senior lecturer appointment
Funding was secured from National Translational Cancer Research Network (NTRAC) and the Christie Hospital NHS Trust to support the appointment of Dr Susan Davidson as a half-time Clinical Senior Lecturer. This appointment will allow Dr Davidson to develop the nationally and internationally important outcome-measures research programme further.
Awards and grants
Dr Natalie Charnley was awarded a CR-UK pilot project grant of £20,000 at the first NCRI Cancer Conference in October 2005 for her project entitled ‘multi-modality study of blood flow and hypoxia in head and neck cancer’.
At the same conference, Dr Melanie Green was awarded the 2005 Royal College of Radiologists Ross Award for her poster entitled ‘Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in locally advanced prostate cancer is prognostic for radiotherapy outcome’.
Dr Gillian Hutchison received an award from the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) for her presentation entitled ‘predicting radiotherapy outcome using dynamic MRI in cervix carcinoma’ at the BIR Northern Branch meeting in November 2005.
RAPPER project
Funding of £354,000 was obtained from CR-UK for the RAPPER project in collaboration with Professor Bruce Ponder and the Sanger Centre in Cambridge. This is a national study, initiated by Dr Catharine West and Dr Neil Burnet (University of Cambridge), and managed by ADRO. It is an important study both locally and nationally, as it is the first coordinated multi-centre prospective study investigating biological mechanisms behind normal tissue radiosensitivity. Development of the study and grant application was complex, and was carried out in a series of face-to-face project development meetings. This development model formed the basis of the operating strategy for ACORRN, and has been instrumental in securing two further Translational Research in Clinical Trials (MARCHON-trans and VORTEX-biobank) awards.
Hypoxia transcriptome
In collaboration with Professor Adrian Harris at the University of Oxford, we have succeeded in deriving a hypoxia transcriptome. Preliminary tests have indicated that this signature is predictive for recurrence-free survival, outperforming the original intrinsic classification.
Epidermal growth factor receptor expression
We have discovered a relationship between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression and the previous gold standard measurement of intrinsic radiosensitivity (SF2), and have shown for the first time in primary human tumours that EGFR-expressing tumours are more radioresistant than non-expressing tumours. This finding has implications for the potential targeted treatment of radiation-resistant tumours.
X-ray volumetric imaging
With Professor Chris Moore (North Western Medical Physics), we completed a clinical study evaluating the clinical utility of cone beam X-ray volumetric imaging (XVI) for radiation treatment verification. This study established on-treatment XVI as a new standard for verification which will facilitate novel adaptive radiotherapy techniques.
User-friendly questionnaires
In collaboration with groups in the UK, Europe and the US, we have developed user-friendly questionnaires to facilitate collection of reproducible toxicity data which were used in the RT01 prostate cancer randomised trial. Our questionnaire approach is now being applied to the US National Cancer Institute CTCAE.
National meetings
ADRO organised national meetings on late effects of cancer treatment (May 2004) and 2D and 3D radiotherapy treatment verification (March 2005), and an international meeting on PET and Radiotherapy on behalf of the BIR (February 2005). These meetings received excellent feedback, and will be followed up by future workshops.
Dalton Institute
ADRO has developed a close relationship with the Dalton Institute at The University of Manchester.
Department of Health (DoH) investigation
Professor Price chaired a DoH investigation into potential DoH involvement in the Centre for Acceleration Science Imaging and Medicine (CASIM) proton therapy proposal at Daresbury.
Research Assessment Exercise
Professor Price was invited to sit on the cancer sub-committee for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008.
