In our ODN, the Providers have implemented Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR), highly focused radiation treatment that gives an intense dose of radiation concentrated on a tumour, while limiting the dose to the surrounding organs.
ProKnow
ProKnow is a cloud-based radiotherapy dose plan repository that includes dose analysis tools to support providers in demonstrating and improving quality of radiotherapy planning.
ProKnow allows collective data groups to be analysed, offering oncology teams big data insights, and can also streamline workflow challenges, improve contouring accuracy, and improve treatment plan quality.
NHS England and Improvement Specialised Commissioning invested £1.4m on a three-year programme of evaluation of Proknow, supported by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to determine the quality benefits that this innovation can bring to the treatment of cancer patients, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.
Thames Valley and Wessex Radiotherapy ODN is in the process of implementation in line with the national Proknow road map enabling radiotherapy providers to benchmark their treatment planning metrics against UK best practice and support ongoing consistency and clinical excellence.
Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR)
Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR) is a highly focused radiation treatment that gives an intense dose of radiation concentrated on a tumour, while limiting the dose to the surrounding organs.
SABR uses many smaller, thin beams of radiation. The beams are directed from different angles that meet at the tumour. This means that the tumour gets a high dose of radiation, while surrounding healthy tissues get a much lower dose from the individual beams. This lowers the risk of damage to the normal cells.
In June 2020, NHS England announced the national initiative to implement Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy for treatment of patients with lung cancer in all radiotherapy centres in England by April 2021.
In Thames Valley and Wessex there were only two radiotherapy centres in Oxford and Southampton delivering SABR for lung cancer patients before April 2021.
Since spring 2021 the Centres in Portsmouth, Reading and Poole have been treating their patients closer to home using the SABR techniques.
The further expansion of SABR is underway to treat also other types of tumours to improve access to this innovative radiotherapy techniques for the patients across the ODN.
Research and Clinical Trials
The Radiotherapy providers within the Network are involved in a range of clinical studies and trials.
A clinical trial is a research project that compares two or more treatments in patients with a particular condition or at risk of a condition to help generate high quality evidence about which is the more effective treatment or preventative strategy. Clinical trials are an essential part of the process of evidenced based practice and can help guide treatment decisions for both health care professionals and patients.
The NHS trial site or the National Institute for Health Research are excellent resources providing a wealth of information regarding clinical trials and the benefits.
Clinical research studies running in the Wessex area can be easily identified by using the online search tool Wessex CancerLine.
