South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has reached an important milestone by recruiting its 100th patient to a national cancer trial.
The radiotherapy department at The James Cook University Hospital was among the first centres to start recruiting patients to the Post Advances in Comparative Evidence (PACE) Nodes trial in September 2022.
The study is for men with high risk localised prostate cancer, deemed suitable for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and planned for 12 to 36 months of hormone therapy.
It compares delivering conventional stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) to just the prostate with delivering it to both the prostate and lymph nodes.
Previous clinical trials have shown that delivering SBRT to the prostate is a safe treatment for men with low and intermediate risk localised disease.
They now want to find out whether additional targeting of the lymph nodes, alongside the prostate, can further reduce the risk of prostate cancer returning in patients with high-risk disease.
Consultant in radiotherapy and oncology Darren Leaning, who has recruited many of the 100 patients to the study, said: “Patients are allocated to one of two treatment arms – prostate alone SBRT or prostate and pelvic node SBRT.
“Importantly, this treatment delivers a potentially curative dose of radiotherapy in only five treatments over two weeks instead of 20 treatments over four weeks.
Keith Harland, radiotherapy research team lead highlighted that the Middlesbrough hospital is currently one of the highest recruiters to the trial across the UK.
He added: “Key to successful recruitment has been the collaboration across all our teams employed in the treatment of prostate cancer and their determination to offer all patients the best possible radiotherapy treatment.”