CANCER treatment with radioactive glass microspheres is to be trialled for the first time in the UK at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking volunteer patients as part of the global EPOCH clinical trial of selective internal radiotherapy for bowel cancer that has spread to the liver and has become resistant to chemotherapy.
The EPOCH trial will investigate the use of tiny glass microspheres in patients with liver metastasis from colorectal cancer whose cancer has progressed after first line drug therapy.
At least 20 patients will take part in the Oxford trial, to start this month.
The glass microspheres are 20-30 micrometres in diameter, about a third of the width of a human hair and contain the radioactive isotope, yttrium-90.
Using a thin flexible catheter inserted via the groin, the microspheres are delivered directly into tumours in the liver through the tumour’s own blood vessels. The microspheres become permanently lodged in the tumour’s small blood vessels.
Because the procedure delivers the treatment directly to the liver tumours, the radiotherapy destroys tumour cells with minimal impact to the surrounding healthy liver tissue.
The radioactive microspheres continue to deliver radiotherapy for weeks after the treatment.
The clinical trial will compare the new radiotherapy treatment combined with standard drug therapy (chemotherapy) to standard drug therapy alone.
Patients eligible to participate in the clinical trial have metastatic bowel cancer (also called “colorectal cancer”) with spread to the liver, when the cancer has progressed despite chemotherapy.
Professor Ricky Sharma, Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted that patients in Oxford will have the chance to participate in this clinical trial.
“It offers a new radiotherapy treatment option to patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver when chemotherapy has not worked.
“In Oxford, we have considerable experience of this new, minimally invasive approach to treating cancer.
“We are very excited to be the first centre in the UK to offer this clinical trial to patients who meet the eligibility criteria. “Within the past month, two patients have volunteered to participate and they have both been enrolled.”
Common side effects of this therapy include mild to moderate fatigue, the possibility of some pain immediately after the procedure and the possibility of mild nausea.
Doctors sometimes describe these symptoms as similar to those of mild flu. Some patients experience some loss of appetite and temporary changes in several blood tests. This therapy is already approved in the European Union for the treatment of certain types of liver cancer.
The sponsoring partner for this clinical trial is Biocompatibles UK Ltd, a BTG group company.
For further information about this clinical trial or how to participate in this clinical trial, please contact Professor Ricky Sharma, Consultant in Clinical Oncology, Churchill Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, OX3 7LJ, telephone number 01865 235209.
For more information please contact Oliver Evans Communications Manager (Research and Development) on 01865 223070 / 07747 456443 or the Media Office on 01865 231471 / media.office@ouh.nhs.uk
Captions:
Photograph 1 - the beads used in this study alongside a human hair.
Photograph 2 - illustration showing the radioactive beads in the artery feeding a liver tumour.
Notes to editors:
About colorectal cancer:
Colorectal cancer, which includes cancers of the colon and rectum, is the second most common cancer in women and third most common in men according to research by the World Health Organization, with nearly 1.4 million new cases diagnosed worldwide in 2012.i
Around 41,600 people in the UK were diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2011, more than 110 people every day.
In the UK, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men after prostate and lung cancer, and the third most common in women after breast and lung cancer.
There were around 16,200 deaths from colorectal cancer in the UK in 2012 according to Cancer Research UK. Colorectal cancer incidence rates have increased by 6% over the last decade.ii
In approximately 60 to 70 per cent of people with colorectal cancer, the cancer spreads to the liver.iii
While surgery offers the greatest likelihood of a cure for metastatic colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver, many patients are not eligible for surgery.
For some of these patients, using chemotherapy to control disease progression is their only option. Selective internal radiotherapy is being evaluated as an additional option to stop or slow disease progression, increase quality of life and overall outcome.
About EPOCH:
The EPOCH trial is a prospective, multicentre, controlled, randomised, open label clinical trial in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have failed first-line chemotherapy.
The trial aims to recruit over 350 patients in approximately 100 locations worldwide, including several trial locations at leading hospitals in the UK.
The treatment under investigation is already approved in European countries, Canada and Singapore for use in treating patients with cancerous lesions in the liver.
About Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUH):
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUH) is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in the UK, with a national and international reputation for the excellence of its services and its role in patient care, teaching and research. The Trust supports world-leading research programmes in cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s through its designation as one of the UK’s five comprehensive biomedical centres and units. It works in close partnership with the University of Oxford and is a leading centre for cancer, neurosciences, diabetes, genetics and many other fields. Research themes of particular strength are: cancer, cardiovascular science, diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, infection and immunology, musculoskeletal science, neuroscience and reproduction and development. The Trust has been designated as a major trauma centre and is one of four UK centres for craniofacial surgery. The Trust employs 11,000 staff and consists of four hospitals: the Churchill Hospital, John Radcliffe Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. www.ouh.nhs.uk
i World Health Organisation International Agency for Research on Cancer – GLOBOCAN 2012 : Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence in 2012 http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_cancer.aspx
ii Cancer Research UK Bowel Cancer Fact Sheet, November 2014 http://publications.cancerresearchuk.org/downloads/Product/CS_KF_BOWEL.pdf
iii http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/adult/liver-metastases-secondary-liver/about-liver-metastases
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