Edward O'Neill

Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) involves the targeted delivery of ionising radiation to tumours harbouring an overabundance of a target receptor. By targeting the somatostatin receptor in neuroendocrine tumors, or prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) receptor in prostate cancer – these tumors can be selectively irradiated. This selective irradiation is important as these cancers can be highly malignant and disseminated throughout the body preventing the use of external beam irradiation (EBRT). However, unlike EBRT which can be given with curative intent, the dose of RPT has not yet been optimised to ensure tumor regression.

My research seeks to make RPT a curative form of treatment. I am doing this by imaging the DNA damage response to measure the dose-response within each tumor, and another approach of mine is to identify new drug combinations through high-throughput screens. These approaches have uncovered new radiobiologies to exploit that have the potential to improve response rates in patients receiving RPT.