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Webinar on Personalized Medicine | Radiation Response Biomarkers for Individualised Cancer Treatments
15 Jun 2022, 14:30 (CEST)
Radiation, Radiotherapy, Sensitivity, Radiation Oncology, Biomarkers, Cancer, XRays
Welcome from the Chair
1st Webinar on Personalized Medicine
Radiation Response Biomarkers for Individualised Cancer Treatments
Half of all patients diagnosed with cancer will undergo radiotherapy as part of their treatment. It is an important and effective tool in the arsenal to treat numerous solid tumours. However, even with precise planning, radiotherapy treatment outcome depends on multiple factors and can, in the process, damage healthy tissue with a degree of severity that is, until now, very difficult to predict. Moreover, radiotherapy induces cancer cell death by damaging their DNA and can also trigger the release of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators.
Improving the precision of radiotherapy has long been the quest of cancer scientists and clinicians. Recent improvements in its precision have helped to deliver most of the dose to the tumour, sparing the surrounding healthy tissues, hence limiting radiation toxicity and long-term effects, such as therapy-related cancer caused by, amongst others, a combination of radiation-induced somatic mutations, modifications of the microenvironment, and inflammation. Biomarkers are essential for predicting and/or monitoring radiation exposure-associated effects. The aim of this Special Issue is to present an insight into the ongoing state-of-the-art research in the oncology radiation response biomarker field and its applications in the ever-evolving field of personalised medicine.
Biomarkers for cancer fall into two primary categories: diagnostic and predictive. In the case of radiotherapy for cancers, there is a need for both: (1) diagnosis of radiation response and subsequent effect on the cancer and (2) prediction of possible secondary cancers arising in the long term because of radiotherapy, e.g., acute myeloid leukaemia and sarcomas. Radiation biomarkers are thus necessary, not only for understanding the actual effects of treatment on a tumour, but also for monitoring the most effective total dose to the tumour and identifying mechanisms that may allow a tumour to resist radiation therapy, as well as identifying the risks to the patient stemming from the therapy. Ever-evolving technologies allow the detection and validation of new and emerging radiation biomarkers, whether genetic, epigenetic, cell-based, cell-free, or present in extracellular vesicles.
To discover and validate biomarkers of radiation exposure and toxicity to provide support to radiation oncologists. Research carried out should allow individual differences in sensitivity to be considered to better protect those at higher risk by taking in account individual specificities to offer tailored treatments.
Date: 15 June 2022
Time: 2:30 pm CEST | 1:30 pm BST | 8:30 am EDT | 8:30 pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 871 1746 2760
Webinar Secretariat: jpm.webinar@mdpi.com
Chair
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Cancer Mechanisms and Biomarkers Group, UK Health Security Agency,
Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, UK
I am biologist who carried out a PhD in Radiobiology-Radiopathology. I worked on inter-individual radiation sensitivity and DSB repair. I identified the first radiotherapy patient whose radiation toxicity was due to a defect in DNA DSB repair which was thought to be almost incompatible with survival at the time; it was found later that the patient had a mutation in ligase IV. we are trying to better understand the mechanisms by which acute or protracted ionising radiation exposure either of natural or medical origin interacts and affects cells and individuals. I also work on identifying and validating new biomarkers of radiation exposure, susceptibility and toxicity and in cancer genomics to identify mutational signatures of ionizing radiation in second malignancies. Since 2005, I am leading the Cancer Mechanisms and Biomarkers group at UKHSA.
Invited Speakers
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UOC Radioterapia Oncologica, Dipartimento di Diagnostica per Immagini, Radioterapia Oncologica ed Ematologia, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCCS, Roma, Italy
Elisa Placidi is Medical Physicist at the "Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli" in Rome. After her degree in Physics at the “La Sapienza” University of Rome, she got her PhD at the University of Nottingham (UK) with a thesis about Fluorine-MRI. She then obtained her Medical Physics degree at the “Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore” of Rome with a thesis about in vivo dosimetry for EBRT lung treatments. Her current main area of interest is treatment planning for External Beams and Interventional Radiotherapy, for a variety of brachytherapy treatments: gynecological, head and neck, skin, sarcomas, esophagus, prostate (HDR), interstitial anus. Part of her job also includes research in radiotherapy, quality controls and physics and radioprotection teaching at the “Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore” of Rome.
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Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences, Cancer Biology & Comparative Oncology University Program of Research and Scholarly Excellence, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Dr. Bailey is a Professor and Radiation Cancer Biologist in the Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University. Part of her current research program includes being one of 10 investigations selected by NASA for the TWINS Study, an integrated effort to launch human space life science research into a new era of molecular and "omics" based studies. As part of the One Year Mission aboard the International Space Station, identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, were the subjects of this unique research opportunity. The overall goal of the TWINS Study was to identify space-flight specific factors that influence human health, important considerations as we spend longer and longer periods of time, deeper and deeper into space, making our way back to the Moon and on to Mars. Bailey and her team assessed changes in telomere length, a biomarker of aging, and chromosome aberrations, biomarkers of space radiation exposure, in the space- and earth-bound twins, as well as in a cohort of unrelated astronauts, which included CSU alum Dr. Kjell Lindgren.
Registration
Certificates of attendance will be delivered to those who attend the live webinar.
Webinar Content
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Program
Speaker/Presentation |
Time in BST |
Time in CEST |
Dr. Christophe Badie Chair Introduction |
1:30 - 1:40 pm |
2:30 - 2:40 pm |
Dr. Elisa Placidi Personalized Medicine in Brachytherapy |
1:40 - 2:00 pm |
2:40 - 3:00 pm |
Prof. Dr. Susan M. Bailey TWINS & TELOMERES - In SPACE! |
2:00 - 2:20 pm |
3:00 - 3:20 pm |
Q&A Session |
2:20 - 2:40 pm |
3:20 - 3:40 pm |
Closing of Webinar |
2:40 - 2:45 pm |
3:40 - 3:45 pm |