Breakthrough in high-grade glioma cancer treatment | Dr. Arjun Sahgal on Spilling the RT

In this episode, Dr. Arjun Sahgal, an international clinical and research leader in the field of high-precision stereotactic radiation to the brain and spine for both metastases and primary tumors, as well as oligometastases and the chief of radiation oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Odette Cancer Centre, shares his excitement around the initial results of the UNITED (Unity-Based MR-Linac Guided Adaptive Radiotherapy for High Grade Glioma) trial. UNITED is the world’s first adaptive MR-guided radiotherapy study for patients with high-grade gliomas, the most common and aggressive primary brain tumors found in adults, and the highlight of his illustrious career so far.

Dr. Sahgal has made challenging the dogma and changing the standard of care for patients whose cancer is considered “incurable” his trademark. But what inspires him? Tune in to episode 2 of Spilling the RT to find out.

Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:20 – Why are you doing MR guided radiation therapy (MRgRT) on the brain? It doesn’t move!
03:42 – Why are GBMs (glioblastoma multiforme) brain tumours so challenging to treat?
05:52 – The UNITED trial: UNIty-Based MR-Linac Guided Adaptive RadioThErapy for High GraDe Glioma-3 (UNITED-3)
09:53 – UNITED trial explainer animation
13:24 – UNITED trial is exceeding expectations
15:26 – Towards functionally adaptive MR guided real time online adaptive radiotherapy!
18:15 – Personalisation, treat what you see and it’s just the beginning of new possibilities with MRgRT
20:48 – Changing standards of care with stereotactic radiosurgery for spine metastases and brain metastases patients, decreasing whole brain radiotherapy, LGK and SPARE – spatially fractionated radiation therapy
26:15 – “Treating up to 50 brain mets is NOT like whole brain radiotherapy”
31:45 – Evolution of adaptive radiotherapy in the next decade
34:49 – A passion to improve quality of life for ‘non-curable’ cancer patients
36:50 – Career highlight