CRUK RadNet Manchester

The CRUK RadNet Manchester Unit was one of only three major units awarded, and builds on the 10-year history of an external collaborating “One Manchester” approach to cancer team science in radiotherapy-related research (RRR). This has been achieved by our multi-disciplinary expertise in biology, clinical oncology, physics, software development, engineering, and imaging. Manchester is recognised nationally as a Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group (CTRad) Centre of Excellence in Radiotherapy Research and the only centre in the UK with strength across all disciplines (biology, clinical, physics, technology).

CRUK RadNet Manchester’s work has been organised into three work packages (WP). WP1 focuses on radiotherapy and immune cell interactions, WP2 considers treatment of complex comorbid cancer patients, and WP3 investigated the relationship between the tumour microenvironment and genomic instability. Several members of David’s group are involved in WP3, investigating links between hypoxia and genomic instability in prostate cancer, as well as exploring pancreatic cancer genomes.

The CRUK RadNet Manchester Unit Vision statement: “As an integrated world-leading translational radiation oncology programme, we address the challenges of diverse patient characteristics to achieve individualised physical and biological targeting based on real-time outcomes and a deep mechanistic understanding of immune response, comorbidity and genomics.” This Vision aligns with CRUK’s research strategy through Collaborative Hubs and new science.