Validation and qualification of a multiplex hypoxia biomarker for radiotherapy individualisation

这项研究的背景是什么？在英国，每年约有30万名患者患上癌症，其中约50%将在治疗期间的某个时候接受放射治疗。缺氧(意思是低氧？)肿瘤中的癌症与放射治疗的抵抗有关。如果医生能确定肿瘤是否是缺氧的，这将帮助他们改进治疗，为患者提供最好的治愈机会。这项研究试图达到什么目的？之前的研究发现了一组99个与头颈部肿瘤缺氧有关的基因。最近，这一组基因被细化到只包含30个基因的子集。本研究旨在证实减少的30个基因组是否可用于临床作为低氧试验。为了做到这一点，我们将使用从选择参加临床试验的患者那里收集的肿瘤样本。我们知道，在这30个基因中有一种特殊的活动模式，它反映了肿瘤中的氧气水平。我们正在研究识别这种模式的不同方法，以找到最可靠和最可重复性的，因此在临床上最有用的一种模式。我们还想调查我们的30个基因模式是否可以识别和预测其他癌症，如膀胱癌中的缺氧。我们将调查每种癌症是否需要不同的30个基因组。为什么这很重要？如果我们能够开发出可靠的缺氧测试，我们可以在临床试验中进行试验。如果成功，可以将其引入临床实践。这将意味着患者将接受对他们最有利的治疗，这将改善结果。鉴于每年有大量癌症患者接受放射治疗，这将大大提高英国癌症患者的存活率。这项研究将如何进行，在哪里进行？这项研究建立在英国和欧盟科学家和医生之间长期合作的基础上。这项研究将由曼彻斯特大学的凯瑟琳·韦斯特博士领导，她在测量患者肿瘤缺氧方面拥有多年经验。这项研究将使用从患者那里收集的肿瘤样本，这些患者完全并知情地同意他们的组织用于未来经伦理批准的研究。

What is the background of this research?Approximately 300,000 patients develop cancer in the UK each year, and around 50% will undergo radiotherapy at some point during treatment. Hypoxia (meaning ?low oxygen?) in a tumour is associated with resistance to radiotherapy. If doctors could identify whether a tumour was hypoxic, it would help them improve treatment to give the best chance of cure for a patient.What is the research trying to achieve?Previous research identified a group of 99 genes that are linked with hypoxia in head and neck tumours. More recently this group has been refined to a subset that comprises just 30 genes. This research aims to confirm whether the reduced 30-gene group can be used in the clinic as a test for hypoxia. To do this, we will be using tumour samples collected from patients who chose to take part in a clinical trial. We know there is a special pattern of activity in these 30 genes that reflects oxygen levels in a tumour. We are investigating different ways of identifying this pattern to find the one which is most reliable and reproducible, and therefore most useful in the clinic.We also want to investigate whether our pattern of 30 genes can identify and predict hypoxia in other cancers e.g. bladder. We will investigate whether a different 30-gene group is needed for each cancer type.Why is this important?If we are able to develop a reliable test for hypoxia, we could try it out in a clinical trial. If successful it could be introduced into clinical practice. This would mean patients would receive the treatment that is best for them, which would improve outcome. Given the large number of cancer patients who undergo radiotherapy each year, this would have a significant benefit on cancer survival in the UK.How and where is the research to be conducted?This study builds on long-standing collaborations between scientists and doctors from across the UK and EU. It will be led by Dr. Catharine West at the University of Manchester, who has many years experience of measuring tumour hypoxia in patients. This study will use tumour samples collected from patients who gave full and informed consent for their tissue to be used in future ethically approved research.