Dr Gina Brown, Consultant Radiologist in Gastrointestinal Imaging, Royal Marsden Hospital, in collaboration with Imperial College, London.
Rectal cancer patients are often given radiotherapy before surgery. Its purpose is to damage and kill tumour cells enough to improve surgery’s outcome. This process results in tumour cells being replaced by scar tissue (fibrosis).
After radiotherapy patients have an MRI scan to plan their subsequent operation. The scan shows where the surgeon must cut to remove the tumour, leaving no cancer behind. If cancer cells are left behind, the cancer is obviously much more likely to recur.
Radiotherapy scarring is often located where the surgeon wants to cut, but we do not currently know whether this scarring contains cancer cells or not. Therefore the surgeon is unsure whether it is ‘safe’ to cut through this fibrosis (in that it contains no cancer cells) or whether more extensive surgery should be planned. By examining MRI scans of patients after radiotherapy for rectal cancer, scarring will be identified. These areas will then be examined for cancer, after surgical removal from the patient.
This study aims to determine if MRI scanning can reliably predict whether or not radiotherapy scarring contains tumour cells. A positive result will help with planning the extent of surgery, which has a direct effect on patients’ quality of life (the less extensive surgery is, the better).
NB Funding for staff is already in place.
This page was last updated on 20-07-2011