AITRON
Our vision is to establish an All-Island Translational Radiation Oncology Network (AITRON) as an emerging hub of excellence, bringing together multidisciplinary expertise in radiation oncology, cancer biology, computational modelling and radiotherapy physics towards a common aim – to develop leading-edge precision radiotherapy treatments allowing patients to live longer after their diagnosis and with an improved quality of life.
Unlocking the Full Potential of Radiotherapy
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Ireland (North and South) accounting for more than 10,000 deaths/year. Together with surgery and systemic treatments, radiotherapy is a critical component of cancer care that is used to cure localised disease and palliate symptoms in more than half of all patients. Despite improvements in patient outcomes, the full potential of radiotherapy remains to be unlocked by synergising the latest technologies with biologically-informed optimisation ensuring that each patient receives the right treatment, at the right time, and with the right combinations of targeted therapies.
We will establish a world-class network to accelerate translational radiation oncology discovery and translational research with the following key objectives
Develop quantitative imaging and radiomics analyses to support the delivery of adaptive radiotherapy and to deliver new prognostic and predictive clinical tools.
Understand the complex interplay between normal tissue complications, the microbiome and the immune system allowing the development of personalised toxicity management strategies.
Understand the immunological and metabolic mechanisms of radioresistance to identify novel drug-radiotherapy combination strategies to improve treatment efficacy.
Build a cross-border doctoral training program to enhance the research, teaching and learning continuum enriching the skills and research quality of the radiation oncology workforce.
Partner with other leading consortia across Ireland including the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI) and the Irish Research Radiation Oncology Group (IRROG) building critical mass in translational radiotherapy research and clinical trials.
Bringing Together Multidisciplinary Expertise
We wish to establish AITRON as an emerging hub of excellence aligning with the key principles of the North-South Research Programme to deliver wide ranging impacts on lives of patients with cancer and the community more widely, the environment and economy. AITRON will bring together multidisciplinary expertise across to bridge the gap between basic science discoveries and their application into clinical practice. AITRON will promote a network of excellence by establishing a collaborative and dynamic research network bringing together critical mass. This will improve the quality of our research, driving innovation to increase our national and international visibility across the scientific community, with funding agencies and with patients and their carers.