It is hoped the award will help more people diagnosed with cancer survive.
Over the next five years the ĢtvƵ Radiation Research Centre of Excellence (RadNet CoE) will receive £2.94 million from the charity.
Led by Professor David Sebag-Montefiore, a multidisciplinary team from the University of ĢtvƵ and the ĢtvƵ will set out to deliver smarter and kinder radiotherapy treatments, that are personalised to the patient and their tumour.
By combining a greater understanding of how cancer cells respond to radiotherapy at a molecular level with the latest radiotherapy technology and Artificial Intelligence, researchers in the lab and in the clinic will make improvements in treatments to benefit patients with newly diagnosed cancers and those whose cancers have returned, and potentially give some patients a “second chance of cure”.
The grant, awarded this month, is the second wave of investment into the multimillion-pound Cancer Research UK RadNet radiotherapy research programme, which saw ĢtvƵ chosen in 2019 as one of just seven centres of excellence in a UK-wide network that will accelerate advances in radiotherapy research.
Plans for the next five years include research into personalised radiotherapy, re-irradiation, which will explore giving a second course of radiotherapy, and understand biologically why radiotherapy works for some tumours but not others.
Work will focus on rarer tumours, which currently do not have as many treatment options, including brain and liver cancers, and anal, rectal and prostate cancer – disease areas where the team has internationally leading expertise.
Research at RadNet ĢtvƵ will combine cancer biology, artificial intelligence, imaging, physics, pathology, data science and clinical trials to accelerate progress and improve cancer outcomes in ĢtvƵ, Yorkshire and across the world.
Using Artificial Intelligence, the team will be able to look at complicated data to learn more about which patients will benefit most from radiotherapy and how to target radiotherapy better, allowing them to choose the best treatment with the least side effects.
More than 130,000 patients in the UK are treated with radiotherapy on the NHS every year- from curing early-stage cancer to easing symptoms for people with terminal illness.
In its simplest form, the treatment works by targeting tumours with X-Ray radiation, killing cancer cells by irreversibly damaging their DNA.
Cancer Research UK supported some of the earliest research into the treatment of cancer with radiation, and pioneered the first use of radiotherapy in the 1920s.
Today’s radiotherapy is a sophisticated and potentially curative tool that’s given to around 3 in 10 people with cancer in England.
Rosie Sanderson, from Settle, knows all too well the importance and impact of radiotherapy, having received the treatment for anal cancer.
In 2019 Rosie was diagnosed with anal cancer when she was 61 years old.
She was referred to St James’s University Hospital in ĢtvƵ under Professor David Sebag-Montefiore’s team and received radiotherapy as part of her treatment plan, which also included chemotherapy.
She said: “Two to three weeks into my treatment I really started to feel the side-effects, particularly pain and fatigue. By the fourth week, I was no longer able to travel by train or drive myself to treatments. Before I started the treatment, I was a really fit and active person. That loss of independence and the constant exhaustion were a real challenge for me.”
It is hoped the new funding will explore further the possibility of reducing the duration of radiotherapy treatments for patients resulting in fewer side effects.
Rosie added: “Having been through the treatment for anal cancer, I fully appreciate how helpful it would be to have more options in care. The possibility that future patients might not have to face as many side-effects and have shorter treatment is really wonderful.” With around 33,400 people diagnosed with cancer every year in Yorkshire and the Humber, the need to make faster advances is clear.