Clatterbridge leads the way in prostrate cancer clinical research trial

A nationwide clinical research trial hoping to improve treatment for prostate cancer has closed with The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre recruiting the largest number of patients in the country.

Clatterbridge signed up 448 men on to the PIVOTALboost clinical trial, which has been researching different ways of giving radiotherapy over six years of study. Researchers want to find out if modern radiotherapy techniques that give radiotherapy to lymph glands in the pelvis or giving a higher dose (a boost) of radiotherapy to the prostate help to reduce the risk of cancer coming back after treatment.

The trial recruited 2,232 patients across 49 sites in the UK between January 2018 and August 2024, headed up by Clatterbridge consultant oncologist Professor Isabel Syndikus, who is Chief Investigator.

Prof Syndikus said:

“PIVOTALboost has been a tremendously important study for the future of treatment for prostate cancer and I am delighted we have been able to recruit almost 450 patients at Clatterbridge.

“Not only does this mean that our centre has contributed hugely to this research, but it also means that we have been able to offer an alternative to the standard prostate cancer treatment to hundreds of our patients.

“I’d like to thank all the staff and patients at Clatterbridge involved in this study – and our other colleagues from across the country. We now move to the evaluation stage, which hopefully will give us some clear insights into how effective these new radiotherapy treatments are.”

Dr Gillian Heap, Director of Research and Innovation Operations, said:

“I would like to thank Prof Syndikus and her colleagues for their hard work in leading this research nationally. To sign up 448 patients to a single study is a remarkable achievement and reflects great teamwork.

“We hope the findings of PIVOTALboost can now be taken forward to improve the treatment of prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer for men in the UK.”