“People often talk about our work in a curative setting – about how we use radiation to cure cancer. Radiation also has very good benefits for patients who have incurable cancer and have symptoms and pain.” Tom says there is very little strong clinical trial data on how to do palliative radiation well, but the department has nearly completed one study and is halfway through another. Patient feedback He says a lot of their recent work and clinical trials also includes patient-reported outcomes. “We’ve really moved towards having studies which use a lot of patient reports about how they think things went, rather than historically where the clinician would grade outcomes and say whether it’s good or bad,” he says, adding that they have also begun asking carers whether they think treatments are beneficial or difficult for patients in their care. Tom has seen huge changes in radiation oncology in the last 20 years, often connected to technological shifts. He says RNSH’s focus on data-driven studies, combined with robust research in the basic sciences, aims to push the boundaries of radiation oncology in a structured, evidence-based manner.
Professor Tom Eade 7
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