FAZA imaging of hypoxia in planning VMAT radiotherapy in anal cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
FAZA & FDG PET/CT imaging in the evaluation & contouring of tumour & affected lymph nodes for volumetric modulated arc radiotherapy (VMAT) for the radical treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the anus.
IRAS ID
226784
Contact name
Leslie M Samuel
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Grampian
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 9 months, 27 days
Research summary
Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is a new radiotherapy technique that allows the treatment areas to be shaped far better than previously achievable. This allows the target (tumour) to receive the dose of radiotherapy required, at the same time as sparing or reducing, the dose received to the surrounding normal tissue/body organs. One key part in VMAT is the outlining, or ‘contouring’, by the oncologist of not only the cancer & areas affected by the cancer, but also the normal tissues & organs in the same part of the body. VMAT also allows different doses of radiotherapy to be given to different targets, so a normal lymph node could be given a lower dose than a cancerous lymph node, but only if they can be identified.\n\nFunctional imaging with PET scanning, which highlights how different cells are working, can assist the oncologist in correctly identifying what to contour. The new anal cancer VMAT technique requires the oncologist to decide if a lymph node is affected by cancer or not. In this study the impact on the dose given to surrounding normal tissues by using two different types of PET scanning will be modelled, as the PET images change what the oncologist contours.\n
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
17/NS/0085
Date of REC Opinion
5 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion