Advanced Radiotherapy
Velindre Cancer Centre is the largest non - surgical cancer Hospital in Wales providing Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy and other specialised anti-cancer treatments. Velindre Cancer Centre also manages an award winning programme of research into a wide variety of cancers and has a long and successful history of important developments in both radiotherapy and clinical trials. We want to continue to deliver high quality patient care and innovative research for the people of Wales. We want to ensure that Velindre is recognised as a ground breaking radiotherapy research centre in the future.
Funds raised will be used to appoint an Advanced Radiotherapy Clinical Research Fellow each year for the next 5 years. The Fellows will be experienced oncology doctors who have excelled in their radiotherapy training and have an interest in academic research. Young clinical academics are the life blood of the healthcare professions and the Clinical Research Fellows of today may well advance to become the Professors of tomorrow.
The Advanced Radiotherapy Clinical Research Fellows will:
1. Lead the development of new radiotherapy techniques at Velindre that are designed to improve the accuracy of radiation delivery.
Improving the accuracy of treatment can allow us to increase the dose of radiation that can be delivered to a tumour (cancer) and this may increase the likelihood of a cure. Also, improving accuracy may allow us to reduce the dose of radiotherapy to normal tissues surrounding a tumour and this can reduce the often devastating side-effects associated with radiotherapy. Techniques that improve accuracy include IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy) and IGRT (Image Guided Radiotherapy). We already have the necessary equipment to deliver both IMRT and IGRT at Velindre, but the Clinical Research Fellow will drive forward and develop their use in clinical practice to benefit our patients. These techniques offer the greatest potential for patients with head & neck, prostate, bladder, pancreatic and breast cancer but are likely to become increasingly important for all types of cancers over the next 5 -10 years.
2. Develop new schedules for delivering radiotherapy
Conventional radiotherapy is delivered using a standard radiotherapy dose, once daily, 5 days per week, for up to 37 visits. There is emerging evidence that some cancers may be equally well treated with alternative schedules which use larger doses of radiation given over a shorter time period. This has the advantage of shortening the treatment time for the patient, easing the burden on our radiotherapy machines and for some cancers, there is evidence that it may produce higher cure rates than conventional radiotherapy. We are keen to advance our work into scheduling, and the Clinical Research Fellow will work alongside Velindre’s Dr John Staffurth who has a track record in leading UK research in this area.
3. Lead Velindre’s research programme in Advanced Radiotherapy Technology
Research in Advanced Radiotherapy is still in its infancy in the UK, and especially in Wales. The historic strength in clinical trials at Velindre will be expanded to develop local radiotherapy trials. The Clinical Research Fellow will also ensure that Velindre can take part and lead in National and International trials of new and emerging radiotherapy techniques so that the treatment we offer our patients matches the best in the rest of the world.
4. Develop a radiotherapy education programme at Velindre
As technical radiotherapy developments at Velindre gather momentum, the Clinical Research Fellow will play a pivotal role in educating trainee and consultant oncologists, radiographers and physicists about the new, often highly complex, treatment techniques. This will ensure that the potential of the new technology can be maximised to benefit all patient groups treated with radiotherapy at Velindre.
The Clinical Research Fellow will have a central role in the development of a world-class radiotherapy centre at Velindre and with your support, we hope that this work can be ongoing for at least the next 5 years.
To support this and other Appeals please donate to Velindre Fundraising.
Click here to donate to the Advanced Radiotherapy Appeal |
