SABR Trials Aiming To Put Kidney Cancer To The Sword
A/Prof Shankar Siva, from the University of Melbourne and collaborative team have received $589,000 from Cancer Australia (CA) to investigate the use of cutting-edge Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR) to treat patients with inoperable kidney cancer.
The funding, which has been awarded under CA’s Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme, will fund a multicentre study involving dozens of patients from across the globe.
“Often kidney cancer is resistant to standard forms of radiation therapy, so this is offering something different,” A/Prof Siva said. “This treatment allows the cancerous area to be targeted more effectively and accurately.
The team’s work will build on a previous three-year early phase study conducted at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, which was concluded in 2015 and involved 33 kidney cancer patients undergoing SABR treatment.
A/Prof Shankar Siva is looking forward to exploring the possibilities of SABR treatment.
“We have found that SABR treatment has greater effectiveness on kidney cancer,” A/Prof Siva said. “We hope this study will allow us to investigate this further.”
Over the next five years, 70 patients from across the world will take part in this trial. SABR treatment uses small, thin beams of radiation directed from different angles that meet at their cancerous tumour. The tumour itself receives a high dose of radiation, while the surrounding healthy tissues receive a low dose, lowering the risk of damage to surrounding ‘normal’ cells.
Assessments of quality of life, cost effectiveness of treatment and the impacts on kidney function following SABR will be included as part of the study, which has been endorsed and supported by the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG). The Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) is also partnering the research.
A/Prof Siva said the study was the next potential step in making the treatment more widely available for patients while also underlining the importance of radiation therapy in modern healthcare.
“Radiation therapy is one of the most effective tools in the fight against cancer,” A/Prof Siva said. “It costs less than nine cents in the cancer dollar but is associated with more than 40 per cent of cancer cures.
“I think it is an exciting time to be a radiation oncologist. Receiving funding also means a lot to the team that has been involved in this work as this is a great opportunity to get this treatment ‘out there’.
“This is why we do research – to show how scientific advances can help achieve advanced outcomes in patient healthcare.”
This was one of 24 projects focusing on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a range of cancer types to receive a share of $8.6m funding under CA’s funding scheme in 2017.
For more information on how radiation therapy can treat kidney and other cancers, click here.
For more information on SABR treatment, click here.
