Radiation Reveal is a creative and collaborative public engagement project. This multi-partnership project brought together 10 young adults (19-25) who had radiotherapy treatment for cancer with researchers who are part of the Cancer Research UK RadNet City of London. We worked with Centre of the Cell, a science education centre based at Queen Mary, University of London, to develop and deliver a series of 3 workshops.

These workshops allowed the young adults to share their stories while also connecting them with biology, physics and oncology radiation researchers. The researchers gained an understanding of patient experiences of cancer and treatment. The project also aimed to produce a resource to help future patients.

Young adults shared experiences of being young and diagnosed with cancer, of their radiotherapy treatment, the side effects they’d experienced and their worries about other late effects. They spoke about measures they’d taken to protect their future fertility. What was clear from this project was the importance of support, especially peer support. A few participants said this was the first time they’d been able to speak to people of a similar age who had been through cancer and treatment. All of the young adults were keen to give something back and turn a negative experience into something positive.

The group came up with a list of top tips for healthcare professionals involved in radiotherapy:

• Fully explain side effects
• Check up on how a patient’s skin is doing, ask if it’s sore
• Think about things to help with claustrophobia
• Sometimes people might need a break, for example if they’ve just had chemo
• If possible, arrange treatment at the same time each day
• Explain what’s going to happen and why so young people fully understand, don’t just talk to parents
• For radioactive iodine treatment – let patients see the room before their treatment starts so they know what to expect
• Everyone should have access to good information and treatment no matter where in the country they live
• Ask about peer support

Remember that we’re young people first and patients second.

About the researchers

Rebecca Drake, a 2nd year PhD student at the Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary’s University of London. Becca’s research is looking at how we can make radiotherapy work better by targeting the blood vessels supplying the tumour.

Catarina Veiga is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at University College London. Catarina’s research focusses on reducing the incidence of harmful conditions in later life associated with having radiotherapy during childhood.

Jamie Dean is a Junior Group Leader at University College London. Jamie’s research group uses computer modelling to understand the responses of tumours and normal tissues to radiotherapy. They then use this knowledge to develop new treatment strategies to increase survival and reduce side effects.

Dr Samantha Terry is a Senior Lecturer in Radiation Biology at King’s College London. Sam’s group works in the lab determining how different types of radioactivity can be best used in the clinic.

Sophie Langdon is a PhD student at King’s College London. Sophie’s research is looking at how different treatment types can be combined to help patients suffering from head and neck cancers. Sophie’s main focus is examining how radiotherapy can be best combined with immunotherapy treatments to help improve patient outcomes.

I just wanted to thank you for organising the Radiation Reveal workshops which have been so insightful for me and motivating for my work. I have been speaking to other colleagues at work and many are really interested in gaining better patient/clinical perspective, as we so easily lose sight of the bigger picture(Researcher QMUL).

Dr Lisa Whittaker, Project Coordinator: Lisa.whittaker@kcl.ac.uk

CRUK RadNet City of London Seminar Series #17

‘Same cells, different outcomes; escape from DNA damage induced arrest is marked by diverging p53 dynamics’

Wednesday, 23rd March 2022 at 3:00 – 4:00pm GMT

Hosted by Dr Rita Pedrosa, group leader from Barts Cancer Institute, we warmly welcome Dr. Michael Tsabar from the Lahav Lab in Harvard Medical School, to join us and deliver a seminar talk on ‘Same cells, different outcomes; escape from DNA damage induced arrest is marked by diverging p53 dynamics’

About our speaker:

Being a scuba dive instructor, I had great interest in sea life from early on. I pursued a BSc in Marine Biology from Ruppin Academic Center in Israel (where I was born).

During my BSc I developed a strong interest in genetics and molecular biology. I was accepted to the graduate program at the Weizmann institute of Science, but after one year family circumstances led me to move to Cambridge MA, where I pursued my PhD at Brandeis university, studying homologous recombination and DNA damage pathways in budding yeast at Prof. James (Jim) Haber’s lab.

At the Haber lab, I focused mainly on choices cells make in response to DNA damage and repair, realizing that these choices differ between different cells even in highly isogenic systems that experience uniform stimulus.

I therefore joined Prof. Galit Lahav’s lab for my postdoc. The Lahav lab uses live-cell imaging to study dynamics of signaling networks in response to various stimuli, with a focus on the dynamics of the tumor suppressor p53. My interest lies at understanding non-genetic heterogeneities in response to stimuli.

The work I’m going to discuss described heterogeneity in p53 dynamics in response to ionizing irradiation, a response that was previously thought of as being very uniform.

To view the recorded seminar, please click here.

CRUK RadNet City of London Seminar Series #16

‘Genomic instability-induced inflammation: a friend or a foe?’

Wednesday, 16th March 2022 at 4:00 – 5:00pm GMT

Hosted by Dr Sarah McClelland, group leader from Barts Cancer Institute, we warmly welcome Dr. Samuel Bakhoum, group leader in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and physician in Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to join us and deliver a seminar talk on ‘Genomic instability-induced inflammation: a friend or a foe?’

About our speaker:

Samuel F. Bakhoum is a physician-scientist and group leader in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and an attending physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His laboratory focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of chromosomal instability in cancer.

Dr. Bakhoum’s group established a critical link between chromosomal instability and cancer metastasis through the generation of chronic inflammation, leading to the identification of novel therapeutic approaches and drug targets that are selective to tumors with chromosomal instability.

Dr. Bakhoum is also a scientific cofounder and a member of the board of directors of Volastra Therapeutics, a biotech startup company aiming to target chromosomal instability in advanced and metastatic cancers.

To view the recorded seminar, please click here.

CRUK RadNet City of London Seminar Series #15

‘Proton Therapy in Gastrointestinal Cancers: Better Outcomes or Just More Costly?’

Friday, 11th February 2022 at 2:00 – 3:00pm GMT

Hosted by Maria Hawkins, Clinical Director of CRUK RadNet City of London and Professor in Radiation Oncology from University College London, we warmly welcome Dr. Jennifer Wo, M.D, Radiation Oncologist of Boston Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, to join us and deliver a seminar talk on ‘Proton Therapy in Gastrointestinal Cancers: Better Outcomes or Just More Costly?’

About our speaker:

I grew up in Holmdel, NJ and I received a Bachelor of Arts in both Biology and Business Economics in 2001 at Brown University. Subsequently, I graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in 2005. I completed my preliminary medicine internship at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA, and my radiation oncology residency in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program. In my last year, I was elected as Co-Chief Resident of the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.

Since graduating residency in 2010, I have remained on staff at Massachusetts General Hospital where I specialize in Radiation Therapy for Gastrointestinal Malignancies. I currently hold the rank of Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. I have served as an Associate Senior Editor of the Gastrointestinal Section for the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, and I have more than 80 publications to date.

My research has primarily focused on the predictors of outcomes and toxicity for RT for GI cancers, and I served as PI as a prospective feasibility study for definitive chemoradiotherapy for proton beam in the treatment of anal cancer.

To watch the recorded seminar, please click here.

Drs Rachel Evans (pictured), Qiang Zhang and Marco Tigano are hosting the research topic “Tageting DNA Damage Response to enhance Anti-tumor innate immunity in radiotherapy” published in collaboration with Frontiers in Oncology.

The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a comprehensive overview of the effects of targeting DDR with or without radiation on the activation of the innate immunity system in cancer cells as well as its therapeutical potential.

We would like to welcome submissions in the form of Original Research Articles, Reviews, and/or Mini-Reviews. Abstracts due 29th Jan 2022 and articles due June 2022.

Click here for more information.

Or you can get in touch with Rachel here.