Radiotherapy - Funding the Future

Incidence Rates
This year, in Northern Ireland, 8000 people will be diagnosed with cancer and over 4000 people will die from the disease. Cancer incidence rates have almost doubled since 1975. Radiotherapy is one of the cornerstones of cancer treatment and is used to treat many common cancers. 50% of all patients will receive radiotherapy during their treatment. Of the people cured of cancer 40% received radiotherapy.

Case Study: John Baxter, 17

My name is John Baxter. In 2011 I was diagnosed with and treated for a Grade lll rhabdoid meningioma. I had 30 sessions of radiotherapy in the Cancer Centre, Belfast. Some days we needed to wait a few hours to get the treatment if a machine had broken down. After about a week of treatment my skin became badly burned and my hair started to fall out where the radiation had been aimed. Although it wasn't pleasant getting the treatment it was necessary to destroy the cancer. It is really important that more research is done in radiotherapy to maximise the efficiency of the treatment and minimise the side-effects. But more research will require extra funding. The success of radiotherapy meant I was able to continue with my studies and I now hope to go on to study Medicine. It is imperative that funding in research is increased. It is funding the future!

Radiotherapy is the use of high energy radiation to treat cancer.

Research currently being done in Belfast
The Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology along with Queen's University are collaborating to make radiotherapy safer and more effective by; Using cancer cell DNA to improve the efficiency of radiotherapy so more cancer
The 20 Most Commonly Diagnosed Cancers, UK, 2010

A 70% increase in radiotherapy activity is required in order to ensure adequate access to treatment in Northern Ireland. To achieve this sufficient funding is vital. In the last 10-15 years radiotherapy treatments have been made much safer and more tolerable. More research allows further improvements to be made in treatment methods which can lessen the effect on normal tissues, reduce side-effects and decrease the likelihood of long term side-effects.

cells, and less surrounding tissues, are destroyed. Developing special drugs that will increase the efficacy of the radiotherapy treatment. Using radioactive DNA fragments to prevent cancer spreading to bones. They aim maximise translational opportunities which will create more jobs locally and help bring work done in the lab to patient's bedsides.

Introduction to Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy is; -Cutting edge -Safe -Cost-effective -Successful in curing cancer Radiotherapy cures more people than cancer drugs
[Type text]

do.