Research Highlights

Congratulations to Stelios Theophanous and his team on the publication of the atomCAT2 paper published online in Nature Portfolio Nature Communications. This work shows how high-quality international research in rare cancers can be achieved without having to share patient-level data between research sites. In In atomCAT2, sixteen centres in nine countries developed and externally validated federated learning-based prognostic models in anal cancer, while keeping patient-level data within each centre. This means that when patient numbers are low, nationally and internationally dispersed, and conventional real-world evidence generation is difficult, high quality research can still be carried out. We were delighted to see atomCAT highlighted in the House of Lords debate on the Rare Cancers Bill, used as an example of how privacy-preserving international collaboration can accelerate improvement in rare cancer care.

The first STAR-TREC data was reported and showed that short course radiotherapy vs chemoradiotherapy for organ preservation in early-stage rectal cancer was beneficial: more organ preservation with long-course chemoradiotherapy (61% vs 80% surgery-free organ survival 12 months).

The three-year results from PLATO ACT 4 were presented by Professor David Sebag-Montefiore at ESTRO 2025 and published by The Lancet Oncology simultaneously. Results show that reduced dose Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is as effective as the standard dose for early-stage anal cancer, but with fewer side effects and improved quality of life for patients.