Scientists awarded £1.5m to find 'better and kinder' cancer treatments

Scottish scientists have been awarded £1.5m by Cancer Research UK for radiotherapy research, which could help more people survive cancer with fewer side effects.

The CRUK Glasgow RadNet team, based at the University of Glasgow, will receive the funding over the next five years to pioneer new radiotherapy technologies and techniques.

They aim to find new ways to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy to improve outcomes in patients, particularly those with cancers which are hard to treat such as lung cancer, glioblastoma, head and neck cancers, mesothelioma plus cancers of the pancreas and rectum.

In Scotland, around 34,600 people are diagnosed with cancer every year so the need to find new and better treatments is vital.

Lung cancer has particularly poor outcomes with around 3,300 people in Scotland diagnosed with lung at a later stage (stages 3 and 4) out of around 4,900 in total diagnosed, making the search for more effective treatments essential.

The RadNet Glasgow team is already making important contributions to lung cancer research through the CRUK funded CONCORDE trial, which is combining radiotherapy with new molecular targeted drugs to improve treatment outcomes without worsening lung patients’ side-effects.

Over the next five years, the team will use the new funding to investigate emerging areas of research, with particular focus on the effects of cancer metabolism on responses to radiotherapy. Another key focus will be the effect of social deprivation on outcomes for patients receiving radiotherapy.

The new funding will also support the development of future clinical trials with the aim of getting new and better treatments to patients more quickly, as well as training the next generation of radiotherapy researchers.

The grant, awarded this month, is the second wave of investment into the multimillion-pound radiotherapy research RadNet programme which saw Glasgow chosen as one of just seven centres of excellence in a UK-wide network that will accelerate advances in radiotherapy research.

Professor Anthony Chalmers of the University of Glasgow, who leads the programme, said: “This funding will help us continue our work bringing the next generation of radiotherapy treatments to patients sooner.

“We aim to develop new radiotherapy technologies and treatment combinations to help more people survive cancer, with fewer side effects and to have a better quality of life after treatment.

“Our work looks at how the latest technologies can work in tandem with other therapies to help more people have kinder and better outcomes.”

Radiotherapy is a way of harnessing the power of radiation to destroy cancer cells. Cancer Research UK scientists pioneered research in the 1920s to determine effective doses against the disease, laying the foundations for modern radiotherapy which has become a powerful treatment option.

However, radiotherapy passes through healthy tissue to reach cancerous tumours and in the past has been associated with unpleasant side-effects.

Over the past 20 years, breakthroughs in imaging and radiation technologies have transformed the accuracy and precision of radiotherapy increasing cure rates and reducing side-effects.

There is still room for improvement, however, and greater investment is urgently needed to maximise the benefits of this powerful technology.

Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation, said: “Radiotherapy is a cornerstone of cancer medicine, with around three in ten patients receiving it as part of their treatment.

“By investing in this area, we are enabling scientists to combine advances in our understanding of cancer biology with cutting-edge technology to make this treatment more precise and effective than ever before.

“One in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lives but the good news is, thanks to research, more people are surviving the disease than ever before.

“Survival has doubled in the last 50 years in the UK and Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of that progress.”