Positive results from a UK based trial that ULHT took part in, resulted in a change of treatment schedules for breast cancer internationally.
For many years the majority of breast cancer patients requiring radiotherapy at Lincoln County Hospital have been prescribed 15 treatments, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This was a considered superior to the 25 treatments prescribed for many years prior to this.
A UK based trial called FAST-forward ran a clinical trial to identify whether administering 5 treatments to breast cancer patients would be more superior than giving 15 treatments. The trial focused on giving 5 treatments to breast cancer patients requiring radiotherapy to the breast alone and subsequently went on to recruit patients requiring treatment to their lymph nodes.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust began recruiting patients into the trial in 2013 and successfully recruited 84 patients in total.
In 2020 the Royal college of Radiologists (RCR) issued a COVID response statement allowing the use of 5 treatments for breast cancer in order to minimise patient risk and ease pressure on radiotherapy departments. This guidance was based upon the positive 3-year follow up results of the FAST-forward trial.
Later in 2020 the 5 year results of the trial were published and these showed that 5 treatments (instead of 15) did not cause extra side effects and were just as effective at disease control 5 years after treatment. This enabled departments to continue to offer 5 treatments to those patients requiring radiotherapy to the breast alone.
The ten year results from the trial are due to be published within the next few years along with the 5 year results from the second part of the trial that looked at those patients requiring lymph node treatment. It is hoped that these results will be just as positive.