Can Personalised Radiotherapy Defeat Bladder Cancer?

Radiotherapy has been in use since around the turn of the 20th century, making it a very well-established area of medicine. Nevertheless, like any other form of medicine, nothing has stood still; as well as establishing more kinds of cancer (and other ailments) that radiotherapy can treat, its use has been refined and new technology developed.

Alongside that has emerged a wealth of research that goes on to this day, highlighting where and when the treatment is most effective, as well as highlighting problems such as temporary and lasting side effects.

What all this has achieved is to enable every radiotherapy centre that exists today to offer better treatment and a wider range of options to patients than was ever the case in the past.

Personalisation Research Shows Promise

Among the areas of research in recent years is the use of more personalised medicine. This approach rejects the assumption that there is a standard one-size-fits-all approach to treatment and operates on the theory that each patient has requirements that are best met by tweaking the treatment according to a specific combination of characteristics.

New research on personalised care has produced some interesting conclusions in the area of muscle-invasive bladder cancer, suggesting this may be a more effective approach to delivering radiotherapy to sufferers.

A study by the Institute of Cancer Research in London, co-funded by bodies in Australia and New Zealand and published in the journal European Urology, has indicated that the use of personalised radiotherapy can be particularly effective for patients with this form of cancer.

A particular difference about this approach is that the amount of radiation delivered to any given part of the body will vary in each session, reducing side effects while in no way diminishing the impact the radiation has on the cancer.

Explaining the significance of this approach, Professor Robert Huddart, one of the leaders of the research, said it “has allowed us to deliver effective treatment safely and allowed us to use a high dose which promises to cure more patients, with relatively few long-term side effects”.

He added that further research would find out more about the effectiveness of this approach in treating cancer in comparison with other methods.

How The Research Was Carried Out

The research split 345 bladder cancer patients into three groups, one of which was treated in a standard way, while the other two received adapted treatment plans, with each patient getting a different treatment each time. One of the latter two groups saw patients receiving higher radiation doses in each session.

Group Leader at the Institute for Cancer Research, London Professor Emma Hall, said: “As medical technologies continue to improve, it means that we can investigate delivering more complicated and personalised forms of radiotherapy to treat certain cancers.”

Such treatments may be of benefit to more than just bladder cancer patients, but help sufferers from many other forms of cancer that are treated with radiotherapy, using modified approaches to suit the circumstances of each patient.

Other Personalisation Research

Indeed, investigating ways to develop the use of personalisation across a range of cancer treatments (not just radiotherapy) using the power of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) is central to a new project headed up by the Universita Cattolica in Rome.

Known as the Horizon IHI product, the stated aim is that of developing “Thera4Care – Theranostics Ecosystem for Personalised Care,” (theranostics being the name given to the deployment of next-generation personalised therapies).

With funding of €28 million and 29 partners in industry and academia, this may go a long way towards further advancing the personalisation of radiotherapy for cancer treatments.

This does not necessarily mean that if you come to our radiotherapy centre you will be receiving a personalised treatment. Part of the reason for that is that you may have a cancer where there is already a clear treatment path to take that would not be enhanced by attempting to personalise it.

Alternatively, it may be your condition is in an area where there is insufficient research to date to indicate clearly what benefits (if any) would be gained by taking a novel, non-standard approach to treatment. It is by no means certain at this time that all cancer treatment will be personalised in the future, even after much research has been done.

What you can be assured of is that the radiotherapy treatment you will receive will be the best available, based on the latest research and knowledge, in order to obtain the most optimal outcome for somebody in your condition, whether that includes an element of personalisation or not.

Radiotherapy, like other cancer treatments, will continue to change and advance, but we can provide you with the best treatment there is today.