Trial of five-day breast cancer radiotherapy passes 1,000 participants
FAST-Forward Boost is testing whether a course that now takes three weeks can be delivered in five days. Results are not expected until 2033.
More than 1,000 people have joined a UK trial looking at whether breast cancer patients who need an extra targeted dose of radiotherapy could finish treatment in five days rather than three weeks, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Friday.
The study, FAST-Forward Boost, is led by the Institute of Cancer Research in London, funded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and running at 39 hospitals. The department says patients could be spared 10 hospital visits.
How the trial works
The boost is an additional targeted dose given to help prevent the cancer coming back. According to the Health Research Authority's summary, until recently most patients needed at least 15 daily doses, and around 10,000 women a year in the UK needed up to eight extra treatments on top, making 23 days in all.
The trial instead gives the boost at the same time as the main course. Participants are randomly placed in one of three groups: one has it over 15 days, and two have it over five days at different boost doses. That means two-thirds of those taking part receive the shorter schedule.
The aim is to recruit 4,830 people by 2028. They will be followed for five years, with results expected in 2033.
Screening and AI
The same announcement gave the latest uptake for first breast screening invitations in England at 63.6%, the highest in a decade, while around four in 10 women invited for the first time do not attend. About 30% of female breast cancers in England are diagnosed through screening, according to Breast Cancer Now.
The government said it is also running trials of AI to help analyse mammograms with the National Institute for Health and Care Research and NHS England, and that it will work with Breast Cancer Now over the next three years on helping women recognise signs of cancer.
