Collaboration Across UTDRO: 2018 Seed Grant Recipients
THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE 2017-2018 ANNUAL REPORT.
The recipients of this year’s Collaborative Research Seed Grant from UTDRO are both seeking to decrease the harmful side effects of radiation treatments, while still maintaining the same quality of care.
A project led by Drs. Beibei Zhang and Charles Cho to reduce acute rectal toxicity for hypofractionated prostate radiotherapy received a seed grant for their research. The second seed grant project seeks to improve patient engagement and quality of care through the development and implementation of a brachytherapy discharge education program led by Drs. Jennifer Croke, Meredith Giuliani and Janet Papadakos.
The Collaborative Research Seed Grant was established in 2013 by Dr. Fei-Fei Liu to foster collaborations and research across the UTDRO cancer centres. To date, the department has awarded ten grants to teams comprised of two or more cancer centres across Southern Ontario.
Prostate cancer radiation therapy over the course of four to eight weeks has become the standard of care. However, studies have shown that this shorter treatment has the potential to increase short-term side effects. Charles and Beibei’s project seeks to change that by reducing the amount of healthy tissue that receives radiation during treatment for prostate cancer patients. Ultimately, this will decrease the side effects of these treatments whilst maintaining care.
To do so, the researchers plan on using proper image guidance strategy to propose that reducing the planning target volume margin can maintain the effectiveness of the treatment. Drs. Peter Chung, Timothy Craig, Melanie Davidson, Louis Fenkell, Douglas Moseley, Vejitha Raveendran, Danny Vesprini, Jason Wong and Melanie Davidson are co-applicants of the project.
Their next step is to obtain Research Ethics Board approval, which is needed for every participating centre, as well as to establish research data sharing agreements among the sites. The pilot study will be conducted in three UTDRO cancer centres, but ultimately the team hopes the study will be able to bring in more collaborators.
“The three participating UTDRO cancer centres represent one of the world’s largest institutions for radiation treatments, with over 1,400 prostate cancer patients, including more than 600 intermediate risk patients undergoing radiation treatment annually,” said co-lead investigator Beibei. “We hope that the planning target volume margin schema validated in this study will be readily applicable to the wider patient population, thereby benefiting other centres.”
The second seed grant recipient project aims to decrease the long-term side effects often associated with brachytherapy — one of the major components of cervical cancer treatment. To do so, researchers are creating a brachytherapy discharge education program through e-learning to educate doctors on the side effects, particularly the sexual he
alth implications that are often attached to the treatment.
Drs. Sarah Rauth and Julia Skliarenko, as well as Tina Papadakos and Anet Julius are co-applicants of the project. The study is being conducted through a partnership with the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Simcoe Muskoka
Regional Cancer Centre and Trillium Health Partners. Through the partnerships, researchers hope patients who at times receive treatment from multiple centres, will receive the same treatment regardless of where they are.
To do this, researchers believe there needs to be a better dialogue surrounding sexual health side effects.
“We know that sexual health and addressing issues regarding sexual health are under-reported and the negative side effects are under-represented,” said co-lead investigator Jennifer. “We currently focus on bowel, bladder dysfunction,
and other types of side effects, but sexual health is one area that has been difficult for patients and physicians to discuss.
Through the creation of online patient education materials via e-learning, which is standard in the GYN program, researchers hope patients and healthcare providers will better understand how to manage symptoms and side
effects. They hope the resources will reduce the reluctance to discuss sexual health issues.
“If patients can self-manage some of their symptoms, that should ultimately impact on the patient experience, translate into improved interventions when necessary, along with a better quality of life,” said Jennifer.
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