ReIrradiation Biology

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  ReIrradiation Biology

• IRAS ID

  357152

• Contact name

  Jean Uniacke

• Contact email

  governance-ethics@leeds.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leeds

• Duration of Study in the UK

  6 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Reirradiation is a second course of radiotherapy to treat cancer in a part of the body that has already had radiotherapy. Reirradiation is most often used to treat cancer which has come back after a previous course of radiotherapy. Reirradiation is increasingly being used for many types of cancer. It is a promising treatment which might give long term control of the cancer and prevent or delay the need for treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy. At present, however, there are several questions about reirradiation that we don’t fully understand. These include:

  i) Which patients are best suited to treatment with reirradiation
  ii) Which types of cancer are likely to respond best to reirradiation
  iii) How much radiotherapy dose can be safely given to normal parts of the body
  iv) Which patients are more or less likely to get reirradiation side effects

  In this study, we will look at information from up to 50 patients who are undergoing reirradiation to help us work out the answers to these questions. This will include:

  • Collecting any tissue samples from the original cancer operation or biopsies and any samples which are taken around the time of reirradiation
  • Collecting new blood samples before, during and after reirradiation
  • Collecting any scans used to diagnose the original cancer and any scans done around the time of reirradiation
  • Collecting any scans used to design the original and reirradiation radiotherapy treatments
  • Checking what happens to the cancer after reirradiation and what side effects patients have
  • Asking patients to complete questionnaires about their quality of life before, during and after reirradiation

• REC name

  South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  26/SW/0002

• Date of REC Opinion

  11 Mar 2026

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion