Defining a research programme in advanced radiotherapy Dr Ann Henry Associate Professor in Clinical Oncology a.henry@leeds.ac.uk
Leeds Radiotherapy Research Group 2008 Move to Bexley State of art equipment but no people nor time! UoL research group established 2012 Pump priming through Burton family and LTHT Charitable Foundation Aims To become an internationally recognised Centre of Excellence To deliver world class patient focused research embedded in the NHS To realise patient benefit from new radiotherapy technology
What did we do? Building a multi-disciplinary team research team Appointing UoL clinical academics with dedicated academic time Supporting NHS research active clinical oncologists Grants to support additional staff across physics and radiographers External PhD/MD fellowships Promoting industry links Elekta supported research on FFF and Agility heads More recently MIRADA and Raystation Radiology support Essential in radiotherapy research Charitable funding to buy out radiologists time, support clinical fellows and imaging costs
What did we do? Promoting interdisciplinary research Translational Imaging Psychosocial Oncology Research Group Health Economics Leeds Institute of Data Analytics Clinical Trials Research Unit support YCR support for early phase clinical trial unit Access to trial methodologists and statisticians Increasing national and international profile CTRad group NCRI clinical studies groups
Translational work Professor Susan Short Leeds centre for translational neuro-oncology programme grant The Brain Tumour Charity. 2014-2019. 1.4 M
erapid: electronic patient self-reporting of Adverseevents: Patient Information and advice. Patient recruitment and retention in pilot and randomised studies in oncology Galina Velikova, Kate Absolom 1, Simon Pini 1, Trish Holch 2, Lorraine Warrington 1, Marie Holmes 1, Andrea Gibson 1, Zoe Rogers 1, Sarah Dickinson 1, Robert Carter 1, Beverley Clayton 1, Susan Davidson 3, Jacqueline Routledge 3, Kevin Franks 1, Ann Henry 1 University of Leeds, The Christie Hospital Manchester, Leeds Beckett University
NIHR erapid Multi-centre programme in systemic therapy, radiotherapy and surgery (2011-18) Chemotherapy Radiotherapy Radiotherapy erapid Electronic patient self-reporting of Adverse events, Patient Information and advice system Upper GI surgery Improve the safe delivery of cancer treatment Enhance patient care and experiences Standardise documentation of AE
PLATO - PersonaLising RadioTherapy dose for Anal Cancer T1 N0/X Anal margin Local excision ACT3 T1,T2<4cm N0/X ACT4 T3/4 Nany,T2N1-3 ACT5 Margin 1mm 53.2Gy 28F 58.8Gy 28F 61.6Gy 28F Obs n Phase II trial N=90 41.4Gy 23F 41.4Gy 23F 50.4Gy 28F Randomised 2:1 Phase II trial N=162 Pilot Ph II Ph III Pilot/Ph II/PhIII N=640
CRUK CTRU Core funding - 2018 1.8m over 5 years Two themes Radiotherapy Haematology Radiotherapy trials Drug Radiotherapy Combinations Novel radiotherapy including Proton Beam Innovative design including platform studies
2017 CRUK Network Accelerator award ART NET: Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies award 4.2m over 5 years across five centres Leeds 0.9m Optimising SABR, MRI and Proton RT Three posts Research physicist Research radiographer Clinical PhD Biostatistician Manchester Oxford Leeds UCL ICR/RMH
CTRad Centres of Excellence in Academic Radiation Oncology National bench marking Outcomes 2009-2015 Leeds
CTRad Centres of Excellence
Sustainability: developing future academic leaders YCR / University of Leeds University Academic Fellows (UAF) with 5 year funding (to Associate Professor) Academic component of salary Consumable budget, support costs Dr Louise Murray Clinical Oncologist CRUK PhD Leeds Fellowship Toronto Highlights MRC Confidence in Concept Reirradiation EPSRC eproms SABR toxicity Dr Ane Appelt Physicist PhD Copenhagen Post doc Denmark Highlights Co-lead YCR Aphrodite trial in rectal cancer Big data distributed learning anal cancer
Current PhD and MD students Dr Chris Jones Clinical Oncologist Unravelling non-genetic oncogenesis in oesophageal adeno-carcinoma: characterising the stress-inducible FGFR2-Grb2-miRNA axis Dr Katie Spencer Clinical Oncologist Dr Fin Slevin Clinical Oncologist Early mortality outcomes and cost-effectiveness of palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases in the English NHS Optimising pelvic SABR (ART NET) Dr Fei Sun Clinical Oncologist Cardiovascular outcomes in lung cancer Mr David Bird Physicist Mri-only treatment planning for Anal and Rectal cancer radiotherapy (MANTA-RAY) Ms Emily Johnstone Physicist Automated MRI based radiotherapy planning for brain tumours
My story Intercalated degree with breast cancer project MD Christie IGRT NHS consultant post Leeds Work within CTRad and ESTRO Co-investigator on national trials (PROMPTS,HYBRID,RAIDER) PhD supervision (clinical fellow and medical physicist) Departmental support to buy out time Challenge with clinical work and future uncertainty 2015 Move to University of Leeds Associate professor post Initial probationary period Move to tenure
Challenges Performance management (Self and others) Accepting rejection and moving on Developing a thick skin Balancing NHS and academic workload (letting go) Understanding culture and working within University Advantages Growing a team Informing clinical practice Flexibility Variety New people and new places Supervision and mentoring Lifelong learning and participating in University life
University metrics Publish Grant income PhDs Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine Radiation Therapeutics
Prof David Sebag- Montefiore Research Group Prof Susan Short Radiotherapy Clinicians Imaging Clinicians Clinical Trainees Biostats Imaging Trainees Manager Radiographers Physicists