A NATIONWIDE clinical trial aimed at improving prostate cancer treatment has concluded, with The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre recruiting the highest number of participants.

The Clatterbridge centre signed up 448 men for the PIVOTALboost study, which has been exploring innovative radiotherapy techniques over six years.

The research aimed to determine if modern methods, involving radiotherapy directed at lymph glands in the pelvis or higher doses to the prostate, could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence post-treatment.

The trial, conducted from January 2018 to August 2024, recruited 2,232 patients across 49 UK sites.

Professor Isabel Syndikus (Image: Supplied) It was led by Professor Isabel Syndikus, a consultant oncologist at Clatterbridge.

Professor Syndikus said: "PIVOTALboost has been a tremendously important study for the future of treatment for prostate cancer and I am delighted we have been able to recruit almost 450 patients at Clatterbridge.

"Not only does this mean that our centre has contributed hugely to this research, but it also means that we have been able to offer an alternative to the standard prostate cancer treatment to hundreds of our patients.

"I'd like to thank all the staff and patients at Clatterbridge involved in this study – and our other colleagues from across the country.

"We now move to the evaluation stage, which hopefully will give us some clear insights into how effective these new radiotherapy treatments are."

Research at Clatterbridge (Image: Supplied) Dr Gillian Heap, director of research and innovation operations, also commended the effort, saying: "I would like to thank Prof Syndikus and her colleagues for their hard work in leading this research nationally.

"To sign up 448 patients to a single study is a remarkable achievement and reflects great teamwork.

"We hope the findings of PIVOTALboost can now be taken forward to improve the treatment of prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer for men in the UK."