IMPRESS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
IMPROVING SPINAL STEREOTACTIC RADIOTHERAPY IN DIFFICULT TO TREAT CASES (IMPRESS)
IRAS ID
263065
Contact name
Merina Ahmed
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Marsden NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Prone treatment is currently available at centres in limited cases. It is unclear which patients benefit and recommendation for supine or prone spine stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) are largely on an ad hoc basis. This study will aid work on guiding physicians to prospectively recommend patients for supine or prone SBRT.
The study aims to prospectively evaluate if a change in patient positioning in the planning phase can improve delivery of radiotherapy in a carefully selected group of patients. For certain patients with particular tumour characteristics prone (lying on your front) spine stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) may be superior in radiotherapy delivery outcomes than supine (lying on your back) treatment.
The study requires patients to undergo an additional 'investigational' position CT scan which will be either prone or supine depending on which position has been recommended as the treatment position for spine SBRT treatment. All ten patients will have both supine and prone setup and imaging so radiotherapy plan comparison can take place. The outcome measures that are expected to improve patient treatments include better coverage of the tumour and less radiotherapy dose to normal tissues to reduce toxicity.
Patients then continue on their standard planning pathway and complete spinal SBRT treatment in the position recommended by their physician and agreed at a Royal Marsden stereotactic radiotherapy multidisciplinary meeting. Patient treatment does not alter from spine SBRT in the position recommended originally by their direct care team, and the ‘investigational’ position imaging is not available for the direct care team.
It is expected to take 12 months to recruit at the single Royal Marsden Hospital site. Currently supine SBRT is the only recommended position treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital and therefore the majority of patients are expected to be treated with supine spine SBRT
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0877
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion