The NCRI Bone Metastases Group identified their strategic priorities in January 2023 to address challenges faced in bone metastases research and to ultimately improve outcomes for patients affected by metastatic bone disease.
NCRI Bone Metastases Group strategic priorities 2023-2026
Improve patient care in metastatic bone disease.
The clinical issues highlighted by specialists in metastatic bone disease (MBD) underline a lack of evidence, focus and resource. When should we intervene, how should we treat and in which sub-groups? This priority seeks to address these issues through clinical research.
Exploiting the cellular interplay within the tumour microenvironment to prevent progression to bone metastasis.
This priority seeks to address several related key questions, including: how does the cellular crosstalk in the tumour microenvironment drive progression to bone metastasis, and can this be therapeutically targeted for prevention and/or utilised to identify patients at high risk of bone metastasis? This will include the development of basic science and translational studies to evaluate new approaches to detection and/or prevention of bone metastasis.
Seeking to develop new assessment tools and interventions that align with the current vision of early diagnosis and a minimally invasive approach that allows the patient to maintain a high quality of life.
This priority is seeking to develop new assessment tools and interventions that align with the current vision of early diagnosis and a minimally invasive approach that allows the patient to maintain a high quality of life. The role of medical engineering is to work in unison with other interventions, such as radiotherapy, to deliver a holistic patient centre approach. Possible research areas include new modelling techniques to predict metastatic evolution, new mechanisms for the delivery of therapeutic agents locally in combination with other therapies and new approaches to exercise that counter the obvious risks of fracture.