PLATO - Personalising anal cancer radiotherapy dose
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PLATO (Personalising Radiotherapy in Anal Cancer) is a collection of three clinical studies (ACT3, ACT4 and ACT5) aiming to tailor radiotherapy doses to different situations in patients with anal cancer. At the moment the same treatment (5.5 weeks of daily radiotherapy with chemotherapy alongside) is recommended for all patient with anal cancer irrespective of tumour size or lymph node spread, both of which confer differing chances of cure. Similarly patients experience uniform rates of side effects. We think that some patients might receive more treatment than is optimal; others less. For very small tumours that have been removed with an operation we are then testing the addition of a short course of chemotherapy or radiotherapy (ACT3). For patients with anal tumours less than 4cm in size we are testing whether a shorter course of chemotherapy or radiotherapy gives similar rates of cure to current recommended treatment (ACT4). In patients with more advanced cancers (bigger tumours or evidence of lymph node involvement) we are testing whether higher doses of radiotherapy are safe and more effective at curing the cancer (ACT5). The aligned translational projects that comprise this sample collection aim to better understand the biological features that might also affect how patients’ cancers respond to treatment, and test new ways of monitoring response to treatment to try and improve outcomes. To do this we are collecting samples taken from each patient when they were first diagnosed and analysing the samples for molecular markers that might guide chances of cure. In the group of patients with higher risk disease we are taking additional blood samples before and after treatment and looking for actual cancer cells or DNA shed by the cancer as markers of active disease in the blood.

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Last Updated: 02/04/2021

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