Beatson clinical trial offers new hope to ‘incurable’ cancer patients

A clinical trial at Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre has brought new hope to cancer patients who would have previously been considered incurable, with doctors suggesting that high-precision radiotherapy can double the time a patient can live without cancer.

The trial involved 99 patients from the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada, including patients with cancers that had previously been treated but returned in other parts of the body.

The treatment involved a form of high-precision radiotherapy (known as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)), which delivers higher doses of radiation to the area of the tumour across one or several sessions.

Usually when a patient has metastatic cancer (where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body) they are considered to be incurable. However, this trial suggests that this form of radiotherapy can double how long a patient can live without cancer.

Study co-author Dr Stephen Harrow, said “I truly believe it could be a game-changer for many.

“Traditionally when a cancer has spread to other organs other than the original site of the disease, patients were considered incurable.

“However, there is a theory called the oligometastatic theory – that if a patient only has a few spots of cancer returning, those spots could be killed with radiation or with surgery to improve their survival.

“But this has never been shown in a randomised trial before now.

“It has been a great opportunity for Scottish patients to take part in this ground breaking clinical trial and now we’ve been able to show that if, indeed, a patient’s cancer has spread to only a few spots, those tumours can be targeted with high-dose radiation which has been shown to increase survival by a median of 13 months.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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