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13 Jul 2024
Rapid access SABR spine pathway
The launch of the new GenesisCare Rapid Access Spine SABR Pathway provides a new treatment pathway to ensure patients with symptomatic vertebral metastases can access the optimal palliative radiotherapy treatment technique in as little as 7 days from referral.
Vertebral metastases are common amongst many different tumour types. They are often symptomatic, and poorly controlled pain can be significantly detrimental to a patient’s quality of life. Local tumour control and optimal pain relief are particularly important in an era where patients with metastatic disease have improved prognosis due to the availability of an increasing number of effective systemic therapy options.
Palliative radiotherapy for painful vertebral metastases has, for many years, been delivered with simple radiotherapy techniques and a low overall dose. SABR delivers higher doses to the tumour using a more precise radiotherapy technique, and treatment-related toxicity is low and predictable.
There is now an increasing body of robust randomised clinical trial evidence showing that stereotactic radiotherapy (SABR) leads to improved pain control compared to conventional palliative radiotherapy. For example, in the phase 2/3 SC.24 trial, patients were randomised to receive SABR (24Gy in 2 fractions) or conventional palliative radiotherapy (20Gy in 5 fractions). There was a significantly improved complete pain response at three months (35 vs 14%, p=0.0002) and six months (32 vs 16%, p=0.004) in the patients who received SABR.
Unfortunately, symptomatic patients have traditionally had to wait significantly longer to start a course of spine SABR compared to a more simple conventional palliative radiotherapy treatment. This has been a barrier to the more widespread use of SABR for the relief of painful bone metastases.
We have therefore developed a Rapid Access Spine SABR Pathway which aims to commence treatment within 7 working days of receipt of the radiotherapy booking form. The eligibility criteria are as follows:
01 Apr 2024