Immune Priming Effect of Radiotherapy in Rectal Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
IMmune Priming effect of RadioTherapy on the Tumour microenvironment in Rectal Cancer (IMPaRT)
IRAS ID
277129
Contact name
Rajarshi Roy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Bowel cancer (colorectal cancer; CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in the UK with an approximate 16,000 deaths per year. Though survival rates for CRC have improved over the past 40 years, there are still major improvements that can be made to treatments to increase patient survival.
One of the treatments for CRC is radiotherapy which works by damaging DNA and this leads to cancer cell death. Studies have shown that radiotherapy can also cause the body’s own immune system to produce cells that attack the cancer cells. However, little is known about the changes in the number of these immune cells before, during and after treatment.
Another treatment, known as immunotherapy, is used to treat some forms of CRC (less than 15%). This treatment also works by interacting with the immune system causing it to attack cancer cells. The use of immunotherapy has been shown to increase survival and decrease tumour progression in other tumour types such as bladder, lung and melanoma. Yet, methods to establish and broaden its usefulness for the treatment of rectal cancer need to be investigated. When radiotherapy and immunotherapy are given together the effects of both are increased which leads to better patient survival.
In this study, we will look at whether there is variation in density and types of immune-infiltration within rectal tumour tissue and surrounding normal tissue in response to chemo-radiation or radiation alone at different time points and to explore whether there is an optimum time to include immunotherapy within the current standard treatment.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EE/0264
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion