Standard or high dose chemoradiotherapy, with or without the protease inhibitor nelfinavir, in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer: The phase 1/randomised phase 2 SCALOP-2 trial.

Background: The multi-centre two-stage SCALOP-2 trial (ISRCTN50083238) assessed whether dose escalation of consolidative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) or concurrent sensitization using the protease inhibitor nelfinavir improve outcomes in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) following four cycles of gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel.

Methods: In stage 1, the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of nelfinavir concurrent with standard-dose CRT (50.4 Gy in 28 fractions) was identified from a cohort of 27 patients.

Implementation of Oxygen Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (OE-MRI) and a Pilot Genomic Study of Hypoxia in Bladder Cancer Xenografts.

Background/aim: Patients with hypoxic bladder cancer benefit from hypoxia modification added to radiotherapy, but no biomarkers exist to identify patients with hypoxic tumours. We, herein, aimed to implement oxygen-enhanced MRI (OE-MRI) in xenografts derived from muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) for future hypoxia biomarker discovery work; and generate gene expression data for future biomarker discovery.

Materials And Methods: The flanks of female CD-1 nude mice inoculated with HT1376 MIBC cells.

Conformal 3D computed tomography planned endoluminal brachytherapy for the local control of esophageal cancer.

Purpose: To outline the toxicity, tolerability, and efficacy of a 3D conformal computed tomography planned endoluminal brachytherapy (ELBT) treatment for esophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) or squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Methods And Materials: A retrospective single-center analysis of toxicity, tolerability, and outcomes for 65 consecutive patients with OAC/OSCC who received 6-8Gy in one fraction or 12-16Gy in two fractions of high-dose-rate ELBT as salvage postchemoradiotherapy (n = 7 and n = 14 respectively), or as a boost to external beam radiotherapy (n = 14 and n = 30, respectively).

Results: Median overall survival from the first brachytherapy application was 7.

Efficacy of early PET-CT directed switch to carboplatin and paclitaxel based definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with oesophageal cancer who have a poor early response to induction cisplatin and capecitabine in the UK: a multi-centre randomised controlled phase II trial.

Background: The utility of early metabolic response assessment to guide selection of the systemic component of definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) for oesophageal cancer is uncertain.

Methods: In this multi-centre, randomised, open-label, phase II substudy of the radiotherapy dose-escalation SCOPE2 trial we evaluated the role of F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) at day 14 of cycle 1 of three-weekly induction cis/cap (cisplatin (60 mg/m)/capecitabine (625 mg/m days 1-21)) in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or adenocarcinoma (OAC). Non-responders, who had a less than 35% reduction in maximum standardised uptake value (SUV) from pre-treatment baseline, were randomly assigned to continue cis/cap or switch to car/pac (carboplatin AUC 5/paclitaxel 175 mg/m) for a further induction cycle, then concurrently with radiotherapy over 25 fractions.

Use of a non-endoscopic immunocytological device (Cytosponge™) for post chemoradiotherapy surveillance in patients with oesophageal cancer in the UK (CYTOFLOC): A multicentre feasibility study.

Background: Effective surveillance strategies are required for patients diagnosed with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or adenocarcinoma (OAC) for whom chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is used as a potentially-curative, organ-sparing, alternative to surgery. In this study, we evaluated the safety, acceptability and tolerability of a non-endoscopic immunocytological device (the Cytosponge™) to assess treatment response following CRT.

Methods: This multicentre, single-arm feasibility trial took place in 10 tertiary cancer centres in the UK.