Highlights
- cfDNA liquid biopsy test to provide in-treatment measurement of efficacy and toxicity of radiotherapy in prostate cancer
- Will allow for adjustments of the dosing in the first half of the course of the treatment, improving acute and long-term toxicity
- Will allow toxicity to surrounding tissues to be reduced while maximising cure rate
The opportunity
In prostate cancer patients with a life expectancy of 10 years or more, management options include radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy/brachytherapy alone or in combination with hormone therapy and active surveillance. Radiation therapy is a good choice for many men with early-stage prostate cancer, and is also the best treatment for older patients or those who have other health problems.
However, doses of radiotherapy are currently the same for every patient and are only adjusted if the patient presents severe symptoms of toxicity. No biomarkers are being used to reduce toxicity to surrounding tissues while maximising cure rate. Side effects of radiotherapy to bladder, bowel and sexual function varies from patient to patient. Most side effects of radiotherapy gradually go away in the weeks or months after treatment, but long term side effects can continue, or begin months or years after treatment.
The cfDNA test will enable real time toxicity testing and allow for adjustments of the dosing in the first half of the course of the treatment, improving acute and long-term toxicity. The test will predict efficacy at prostate tumours and toxicity to nearby organs such as bladder and bowel during radiotherapy.
The research team previously demonstrated the feasibility and accuracy of building whole-genome methylation profiles on the Oxford Nanopore single-molecule platform for relevant tissues and cfDNA. The team are currently working to establish a robust dataset to scope the entire genome for discriminative markers that will give maximum power and efficiency to measure treatment and treatment toxicity. The existing feature space with 2,751 markers will be expanded to genome level.
This test was developed by Professor Tim Aitman at the University of Edinburgh.
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