University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust

The SHiP-Rt Study aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of reducing the number of RT fractions and RT duration, compared to the current standard of care (36Gy in 12 fractions over 16 days), by using shortened hypofractionated accelerated palliative radiotherapy (30Gy in 6 alternate-day fractions), aided by contemporary RT planning, verification, and delivery techniques.

Surgical removal is the treatment for many different cancers. Patient outcomes depend on complete cancer removal with no tumour present at the edge of the section removed (specimen). If cancer is left behind, then patients might need additional cancer treatment. Regardless of whether extra treatment is required, knowing that removal was incomplete causes anxiety. The need for a wide removal of the tumour must be balanced against the harm caused by more extensive surgery particularly when important organs and structures are close by. The fact that the cancer is not visible to the surgeon during the operation means that there is an element of guesswork when deciding how much tissue to remove. This study is examining a technique that the investigators hope will provide surgeons with more precise information about how much tissue to remove during cancer operations using a new type of Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) scanner. Patients with different types of cancer (e.g. prostate, head and neck cancer) will be injected with a small amount of radioactive tracer at the beginning of their cancer operation. This tracer will attach itself to the cancer cells. Once the surgical specimen is removed it will be placed into the specimen PET-CT scanner so that the surgeon can see the cancer within the specimen. The investigators will then compare the results of the scan of the specimen taken during the operation with the results when the whole specimen has been examined under the microscope. Examination under the microscope is considered to be the gold standard for deciding whether the cancer removal operation has been successful. This study aims to tell us how accurate the new specimen PET-CT scanner results are, and so whether or not surgeons can rely on the results to guide them during operations in the future.