The Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology (CCO) is one of the largest cancer centers in the UK. Nearly 7,000 patients are admitted each year. Of these patients, 6,500 receive some form of radiation treatment.
Due to its large number of patients, the CCO can perform clinical research to investigate how to best deliver radiation therapy. Ongoing clinical studies include: “gating,” to correct for organ movement – which can result from breathing, radiation treatment of breast cancer, and hypofractionated radiation treatment of prostate cancer.
In addition to the clinical studies, the CCO performs studies related to the development of new treatment techniques and new treatment equipment. A research team consisting of physicists works with radiobiology models and how they can be used in the optimization process to improve and individualize treatment plans. The CCO also conducts lab-based research, in which molecular biology studies are performed on tumor samples to better understand how cancer develops and to determine the optimal treatment for each individual patient.
RaySearch has a research agreement with the CCO that covers research in radiation biology models and advanced IMRT techniques.