INSPIRE
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating National Solutions for Personalised Iodine-131 Radiation Exposure – Measuring absorbed dose to tumour and organs at risk following routine iodine ablation therapy
IRAS ID
266326
Contact name
Kate Newbold
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is the most common endocrine cancer, with a UK incidence of around 3,500 per year. Treatment with radioactive iodine following surgery has been standard for over 70 years. Nevertheless, there remains controversy over the optimal amount of radioactivity to administer, which varies in different countries from none to 3700 MBq.
The hypothesis underlying this proposal is that treatment outcome is dependent on the radiation doses delivered to the remaining thyroid tissue. These doses will depend on the local biodistribution of the iodine and not only from the amount of radioactivity administered. Recent developments in hardware and methodology now enable this biodistribution to be quantitatively assessed.
An ongoing CRUK/AZ funded study (SEL-I-METRY) has created the first network of UK centres that are able to perform these standardised quantitative assessments. The Royal Marsden hospital is the lead centre with respect to this network and as such has developed considerable expertise in this area. In parallel, a European (Horizon 2020) funded study (MEDIRAD) has begun to record measurements of radioiodine biodistribution at European centres in Germany and France. These centres have been set up for quantitative imaging as for the UK SEL-I-METRY study.
This is a non-interventional observational study which will not affect patient treatment. Post treatment imaging assessments of radioiodine uptake will be made using gamma cameras set up to quantify the amount of radioactivity observed. Patients will be followed-up at their standard-of-care clinic visits to assess the success of treatment as well as for short to mid-term toxicity.
Analysis of the radioiodine imaging data will be carried out to establish the range of radiation doses to remaining thyroid tissue as well as normal organs. Analysis of the relationship between these doses and outcome data will be performed.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EM/0022
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion