July 28, 2015

radiotherapy – present and future

Polls show that the public do not recognise radiotherapy as a modern form of cancer therapy, and many would describe it as ‘frightening’. Yet radiotherapy is one of the most effective cancer treatments available, and a staggering array of new developments should allow radiotherapy to become increasingly personalised to individual cancer patients.

Major advances, such as Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), proton therapy, Cyberknife technology and research combining radiotherapy with MRI imaging, viral therapy, and chemotherapy, promise to revolutionise radiotherapy in the future.

Leading experts in radiotherapy came to the SMC discuss things such as:

• How are new radiotherapies reducing side-effects?
• How can radiotherapy be combined with drugs and viruses to become more effective?
• How is a robotic arm delivering radiotherapy to patients in a way that targets cancer and spares healthy tissue?
• How can radiotherapy be personalised to a particular cancer and a particular individual?
• Why is it so difficult to run clinical trials for radiotherapy?
• How can a radiotherapy and imaging machine change the future of radiotherapy?

Speakers:

Prof. Kevin Harrington, Joint Head of the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Prof. Uwe Oelfke, Head of the Joint Department of Physics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Navita Somaiah, Clinician Scientist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Aisha Miah, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust