King's College Hospital
A London hospital has become the first centre in the UK to trial the use of liquid radiotherapy to treat skin cancer patients, potentially allowing them to avoid painful invasive surgery.
The EPIC-Skin study at King’s College Hospital will examine the efficacy of rhenium radionuclide therapy when applied to non-melanoma skin cancer, which affects 147,000 people in the UK every year. The standard treatment is surgical removal under a local anaesthetic, though this can cause scarring, and major surgery to remove larger lesions can take weeks to heal.
During the single-session treatment a barrier material, similar to cling film, is placed on the cancerous lesion. Liquid radiotherapy is then applied, penetrating both the material and the cancerous skin beneath.
The treatment takes around an hour and future therapy is generally not required afterwards.
Non-melanoma skin cancer is commonly triggered by over-exposure to ultra-violet light from tanning beds or the sun. Around 920 people die from it each year, according to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK. In most cases it shows as a firm, red lump on skin regularly exposed to the sun.
The new study will involve 210 adults who have experienced a recurrence of non-melanoma skin cancer or those for whom conventional treatment is not suitable. Their progress will be tracked across a 24-month period.
Finola Cronin, 77, among the first patients to receive the treatment at KCH, said: “I liked the idea of it being non-invasive so decided to give it go. I had the treatment two weeks ago — it wasn’t painful and I avoided surgery.”
Patients on the trial will be able to record their experiences via an app.
