CTRad leadership and membership appointments

  • CTRad is pleased to announce that following the co-chairs application and interview process, from 1 June 2015 four of the eight Workstream co-chair roles have new appointments:
    • Science Base
      • Susan Short (newly appointed)
      • Kaye Williams (ongoing)
    • Phase I/II trials
      • Richard Adams (newly appointed)
      • Ricky Sharma (ongoing)
    • Phase III trials & methodology
      • David Sebag-Montefiore (newly appointed)
      • Emma Hall (ongoing)
    • New technology, physics & quality assurance
      • Phil Evans (newly appointed)
      • John Staffurth (ongoing)
  • We are very thankful to the outgoing co-chairs for their time, dedication and leadership in the past few years to move forward the national radiotherapy research agenda.
  • Membership rotation is also complete and around a third of the group are newly appointed. We would like to thank the 22 members who have rotated off CTRad for their contribution in the past few years, and we will still be involving them in various activities, workshops and
    meetings.
  • A list of all workstream leads and members is available on the CTRad website http://ctrad.ncri.org.uk/about-ctrad/leadership-and-members
  • Thank you to everyone for their interest and enthusiasm, and we look forward to working closely with you all in the coming years.

Proton beam therapy (PBT) research ‘town meeting’, April 2015

  • A ‘town meeting’ was organised by Karen Kirkby (WS4) in April to discuss research plans at the proposed NHS PBT treating centres and the Oxford research facility, and the important ongoing PBT-related projects at supporting UK research centres.
  • The aim of this meeting was to bring the UK PBT research community together to stimulate discussion and to consider the key research areas to help develop a national research agenda, including providing an evidence base of the best possible treatment approaches for the first NHS patients in 2018. The meeting was attended by over 80 delegates including clinicians, physicists, radiobiologists, engineers, scientists, radiographers and patient representatives.
  • The first part of this meeting consisted of a series of presentations from the PBT research community, including an invited speaker from CERN. The second part was a breakout group session designed to stimulate discussion to help develop a research strategies in three themes. Delegates agreed that the UK will provide an excellent environment for the evaluation of PBT treatments, with a view to improving outcomes for patients.
  • An executive summary of the meeting can be found on the CTRad website’s report page under the ‘2015’ list: ctrad.ncri.org.uk/resources/reports-and-tumour-site-reviews

CTRad proposals guidance and all-Workstreams meeting, June 2015

  • CTRad hosted its 10th proposals guidance meeting in London in June. The morning saw CTRad members provide feedback for 13 radiotherapy proposal ideas in four breakout groups. We were delighted to see 4 very early ideas in proton beam therapy (PBT)-themed
    proposals, while the majority of the other ideas were in lung cancer. Several presenters fed back that the comments in their discussion groups were very helpful, and that during the meeting they met some really inspiring people.
  • After a networking lunch, newly appointed CTRad members met with current and outgoing members at individual Workstream meetings to discuss projects, work packages and plans for the coming three years.
  • The next proposals guidance meeting will be on 4 November after the NCRI Conference in Liverpool and the deadline for submitting your proposals will be in September. PBT study ideas would again be especially welcome. More details will be available in due course on the
    CTRad website: ctrad.ncri.org.uk/news-and-events/whats-new
  • If you require offline advice on a proposal at any time of the year, you can access the radiotherapy clinical trials advisory service (RADCAS). Find out more from the CTRad website: ctrad.ncri.org.uk/research-support/trial-development-service-radcas