ALLEGRO

Early and late health risks to normal/healthy tissues from the use of existing and emerging techniques for radiation therapy

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Curative cancer treatment with radiation seeks to optimise the magnitude of the radiation dose to the treatment volume while restricting the dose to normal healthy tissue. With an increasing population of surviving cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, the harmful effects of the radiation to normal tissue are becoming more evident. The ALLEGRO project will address the many aspects of normal healthy tissue damage that are not yet well understood in both conventional treatment techniques and emerging techniques (protons, heavy ions). The project will include measurement of radiation doses outside the treatment volume and investigation of the accuracy of methods of dose calculation in this region. The extensive existing databases of radiation treatments and outcomes will be used to investigate models of normal tissue damage and second primary cancer. The measurements and data analysis will be supported by theoretical modelling and surveys to develop the link between radiobiological mechanisms and empirical normal tissue complication (NTCP) models, and to extend conventional models to apply to the emerging techniques. The project is restricted to two years, so there will be a limit to the amount of new research possible. Therefore an essential part of the project will be to engage a forum of experts to redefine the current knowledge on normal tissue damage following radiotherapy, identify gaps in the knowledge and make recommendations for future research, data collection, and technological developments. The final report will consist of a series of focused documents directed to clinicians (for the application of normal tissue risks in treatment optimisation), equipment manufacturers (recommendations on safety design), and the research community (summary of knowledge and recommendations on data collection and project proposals).'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Treating cancer with modern radiation therapy has proved successful and cost-effective. However, concerns remain about the damage done to healthy tissue in the process.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

When eradicating cancer cells with radiotherapy, the radiation dose delivered to surrounding normal healthy tissue must be kept in mind; the harmful effects are becoming all the more evident with cancer survivors living longer.

The 'Early and late health risks to normal/healthy tissues from the use of existing and emerging techniques for radiation therapy' (Allegro) project is working to mark gaps in knowledge, evaluate current methods of measuring and calculating dose, and recommend future directions for research, data collection and technological developments.

Bringing together 13 partners from 8 European countries, Allegro is collecting information from databases of radiation treatments and outcomes. The data will be used to study models of normal tissue damage and the emergence of radiation-induced second cancer. This will also help assess the biological effectiveness of contemporary therapies.

The project is progressing according to the original time schedule. Partners have already completed measurements of out-of-field doses while work on analyses of clinical data has been geared towards ensuring consistency of format and overall design of case-control studies.

Work in the second year of this two-year Euratom-funded study will result in a series of focused documents defining the current state of knowledge and highlighting factors that limit the confidence with which a clinician can predict normal tissue response to different treatments.

The Allegro project aims to assist clinicians making radiotherapy treatment decisions to assess the potential of medium- and long-term healthy tissue harm. This will ultimately enhance survival and after-treatment quality of life for cancer patients.