Optimisation of Radiotherapy in Rectal Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimisation of Radiotherapy to Achieve Increased Organ Preservation in Rectal Cancer. (ORREC)
IRAS ID
265989
Contact name
Peter I Mbanu
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 0 days
Research summary
The treatment of rectal cancer is primarily radiotherapy (+/- chemotherapy) followed by surgery. The reason for radiotherapy is to reduce the risk of recurrence after surgery or to shrink the tumour first so that when surgery is done all the cancer will be successfully removed otherwise some will be left behind to grow. More than 80% of patients require a stoma after their surgery, some get reversed by two years after surgery but a third have it lifelong. About 15% of patients after radiotherapy have no disease left (clinical complete response) and can be monitored closely after radiotherapy and will not need to have surgery or stoma. Surgery carries a risk of death and complications, having a stoma has a lot of complications and has an effect on the patient’s quality of life, most end up not going out much and withdraws from friends and family. This study is aimed at looking at ways to increase the number of patients that do not require surgery after radiotherapy by looking at the differences between those that responded well to radiotherapy and the ones that did not by comparing their diagnostic and treatment scans.
The main question to answer is why some patients have complete response to radiotherapy and others don’t. Is there a way to increase the number of these patients through changes in radiotherapy. The study will be looking at the diagnostic images and radiotherapy planning scans to compare these two groups. Is there a way of predicting who will respond to radiotherapy treatment? If we can, can we modify treatment given? This study will be looking to radiomics techniques to develop this. This retrospective study will only make use of scans that patients have already had for their diagnosis and treatment so no patient intervention is required. Patients will be recruited using the clinical and research database of the Christie hospital which is the largest cancer centre in the country. The study is funded by the charitable fund of the Christie hospital NHS Foundation Trust.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0539
Date of REC Opinion
6 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion