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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christopher Morris, Professor Nicola CurtinORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2021 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research published by The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Half of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy, which makes a substantial contribution to their long-term disease control/cure. There are significant inter-patient differences in response, both in terms of efficacy and toxicity (frequently delayed onset) which are difficult to predict. With the introduction of technological improvements (e.g. stereotactic body radiotherapy and proton therapy) and development of combination therapies (e.g. radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibition), predictive biomarkers are needed even more. Whilst genomic studies have contributed significantly to predictions of response to anticancer therapy, there is no doubt that more information can be gathered from patient tissue samples. Patients are willing to donate their tissues to biobanks and wish them to be used as widely as possible for high-quality research. We report here a survey of the current practices in the UK from several groups collecting material from patients in radiotherapy trials and have identified barriers to collecting and sharing data and samples. We believe the current situation represents a significant missed opportunity to improve the personalisation of radiotherapy. We propose a greater involvement of patients and/or their advocates, a standardisation of the patient information leaflet, consent form content and data set, with easy linkage to clinical data, which would facilitate widespread sample and data discovery and availability to other researchers. The greater sharing of data and samples, nationally and internationally, would facilitate robust multicentre studies and avoid duplication of effort.
Author(s): Ward TH, Gilbert DC, Higginbotham G, Morris CM, Speirs V, Curtin NJ
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research
Year: 2022
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Pages: 3-13
Print publication date: 01/01/2022
Online publication date: 17/10/2021
Acceptance date: 21/09/2021
ISSN (electronic): 2056-4538
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/cjp2.246
DOI: 10.1002/cjp2.246
