CHROME
Research type
Research Study
Full title
CHROME: Comprehensive Radiological Mapping of Metastases in Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma
IRAS ID
282266
Contact name
Kieran Foley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Velindre University NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Patients with cancer of the gullet (oesophageal cancer) have a very poor prognosis. The most common type of oesophageal cancer is adenocarcinoma and the number of new cases is increasing each year in the UK. The majority of patients with oesophageal cancer have advanced cancer when they are diagnosed and metastases are commonly found. Treatment options are limited when metastases are present. It is crucially important that doctors know where the metastases are so they can decide whether treatment is possible or not. After patients are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, they have a series of scans that aim to assess tumour invasion into nearby structures and whether it has spread to other locations (staging). Almost all patients have a CT scan first, which is reasonably accurate for detecting large metastases. If no metastases are seen, then patients have more detailed scans called a PET/CT scan with an injection of radioactivity and an ultrasound camera test called an EUS. These tests are better than CT for detecting metastases, but none of the radiology tests that doctors use to stage the tumour are perfectly accurate. However, studies have shown that small metastases are often missed. Less frequently, metastases are over-diagnosed (not actually malignant). This study will adopt a new approach to staging metastases to improve the diagnostic accuracy of radiology tests. Information from radiology, pathology and genetics will be used to discover how often metastases occur in each part of the body with different types of tumours. These findings will be used to develop a tool that can be used by doctors to calculate the chance that a metastasis is likely to occur in that specific anatomical location, rather than using the often unreliable radiological appearances.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A