Two cutting-edge cancer treatments using targeted radioactive therapy injections to destroy cancer cells are now being offered to patients with rare neuroendocrine tumours and patients with prostate cancer at Weston Park Hospital.
The first treatment, known as dotatate therapy, will be given to patients with neuroendocrine tumours. These relatively rare tumours arise from cells of the endocrine (hormonal) and nervous systems, most commonly affecting the bowel, the pancreas and the lung. Typically they do not respond well to standard anticancer treatments such as chemotherapy, and so alternative therapies are required.
Patients are injected with high doses of radioactive dotatate which attaches to cells within the tumours. The short-lived radioactivity then destroys the malignant cells. Previously patients in Sheffield and South Yorkshire had to travel to Liverpool or London to receive this therapy.
The second is Xofigo, a pioneering new treatment used to treat advanced forms of prostate cancer which has spread to the bones. Xofigo has been shown in clinical trials to provide meaningful pain relief to the bones, improving the quality of sufferers’ lives and extending lives. The treatment works by injecting a mildly radioactive form of the metal radium into the blood. This then finds its way to the bones, where it is more likely to be absorbed by active cancer cells. Once absorbed, the short-lived radioactivity of the radium destroys cancerous cells without damaging healthy tissue.
Dr Jonathan Wadsley, consultant oncologist at Weston Park Hospital, said: “We are delighted to be offering patients in Sheffield and beyond these cutting-edge treatments. Radioactive isotopes have been used in the treatment of thyroid cancer for many years, but it is only
recently that this type of treatment has been found to benefit patients with other cancers. Both dotatate therapy and Xofigo form part of a new wave of cutting-edge cancer treatments that minimise damage to other healthy cells using targeted radioisotope cancer therapies, and have been brought to Weston Park Hospital thanks to close collaboration between cancer specialists and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Nuclear Medicine team, who have a long history of safely administering radioactive treatments to improve the quality of patients’ lives.”
The new treatments are being supported by the opening of a recently refurbished nuclear medicine therapy suite at Weston Park Hospital. Weston Park Hospital is one of only four dedicated cancer hospitals in the country and treats patients from all over South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire – a population of almost 1.8 million people. Cancer patients from as far afield as Liverpool and Middlesbrough also use the unit.
