Weston Park Hospital offers two cutting-edge treatments for rare cancer tumours, prostate cancer

May 6 2015

Medics make strides in cancer fight by using radioactive injections to treat advanced prostate cancer and rare cancer tumours

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 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 on their doorstep. 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.

Mrs Mary Jones, 82, of Crich, Derbyshire, is one of the first patients to have started receiving dotatate therapy at Weston Park Hospital.

Most people are scared when they get the diagnosis, but I am all for anything new that comes out. This treatment should give me an improved quality of life. I am hoping now I can potter around the garden and, as a Christian, I am hoping I will be able to go to Church more often than not. I am hoping with this treatment I will be able to do that.

People should not be frightened because the staff are fantastic. I had nurses with me all day and a consultant came to check on me. They were all so professional and approachable. They talk you through how it might affect you so you don’t feel isolated at all. Having cancer does not destroy everything in your life: you can still enjoy reading and music, and it opens your eyes to the kindness of strangers like the staff at the hospital and how much they want to help.

The new treatments are being supported by the opening of a recently refurbished nuclear medicine therapy suite at Weston Park Hospital, which will allow them to be delivered safely and efficiently.