PRIMER V1.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of daily online magnetic resonance imaging for magnetic resonance image guided radiotherapy (MRIgRT).
IRAS ID
208449
Contact name
Robert Huddart
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Institute of Cancer Research
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
In radiotherapy high-tech scans with x-rays (CT scans) are taken before and during treatment to locate the tumour and ensure the radiation is hitting the target
These x-rays expose patients to additional radiation and the quality of these scans is often poor which makes it difficult to distinguish tumour from normal tissue and there may be uncertainty in the tumour position due to movement or shrinkage. To allow for these uncertainties a large margin around the tumour is also treated, but this means that large volumes of normal tissue also receive significant doses of radiation, which can result in early and late toxicity.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is better than CT scanning at being able to tell the difference between tumour and normal tissues and does not expose patients to additional radiation. A new machine called an MR Linac (or magnetic
resonance imaging-guided linear accelerator) integrates high quality MRI with a state-of-the-art radiotherapy machine and the ICR/RMH are currently installation a prototype, which will be one of the first in the world. This revolutionary technology has the potential to change the way radiotherapy is delivered. We hope the improvedprecision and accuracy in hitting the target will mean reductions in margins around tumours and that this will lead to higher cure rates with ignificantly fewer side effects. Studies are required to simulate treatment on the MR Linac before it can be used in routine clinical practice and to conduct these studies, we need to obtain MRI scans on volunteers and patients who are currently undergoing treatment. This study
will involve imaging with MRI in healthy volunteers as well as in patient volunteers before and during their standard course of radiotherapy to allow us to develop MRI sequences derived on the MR Linac for MR Linac-based research focusing on clinical application and establishment into a MR-CT and MR only workflow, treatment adaptation and quality assurance.REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0907
Date of REC Opinion
16 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion