Dr Tom Crosby

Cancer and research avatar

Velindre Cancer Centre
Velindre NHS Trust
Cardiff

Testing a new way to treat oesophageal cancer

Dr Tom Crosby is a consultant clinical oncologist at the Velindre Hospital in Cardiff. He is running a clinical trial called SCOPE 1, testing a new way of treating oesophageal cancer (cancer of the foodpipe).

Around 150 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer each week in the UK. Surgery is the most common type of treatment, but it's not suitable for some people. Instead, they may be treated with chemoradiotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which works well for some types of oesophageal cancer.

Dr Crosby and his team are testing whether adding a drug called cetuximab to chemoradiotherapy treatment can make this approach even more effective.

Cetuximab works by latching on to cancer cells and preventing them from receiving signals telling them to grow. It has already shown promising results in trials for people with bowel cancer as well as head and neck cancer, and this trial will help to find out how well it works in people with oesophageal cancer.

Trials like this are vital in helping doctors to find the best ways to treat people with oesophageal cancer, ensuring more people survive in the future.

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