Enhancing radiotherapy outcomes for oesophageal cancer

Inhibition of ATR (a DNA damage checkpoint kinase) is currently being evaluated with radiotherapy and chemoradiation in patients with oesophageal cancer in the Cancer Research UK/MRC funded CHARIOT clinical study, whilst dose escalation is being evaluated in the SCOPE 2 clinical study. We have done initial in silico planning to show that protons significantly reduce the dose received by heart and lung and dose modelling to predict toxicity of dose escalation. Furthermore we have shown that heart substructures have a critical role in non-cancer related mortality.
The aims of this project are:
1. to evaluate acute and late lung and cardiac toxicity based on the radiobiological dose modelling.
2. to optimise the radiotherapy delivery strategy in the pre-operative and definitive settings for oesophageal malignancies when MRI linac or protons are used, particularly when novel radiation sensitisers or immune modulators are incorporated into the treatment paradigm.

Students are strongly advised to contact their prospective supervisor before applying to discuss their interest in the group’s research. Supervisor contact details can be found on their website profile page.