{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr2-rt-drug-platform","kind":"idea","name":"A standing platform for testing new drugs with radiotherapy","aka":[],"tldr":"Radiotherapy is given to half of all cancer patients but few new drugs are tested alongside it. A permanent trial platform would test drug-plus-radiation pairs systematically.","summary":"Radiosensitisers and immune-radiation combinations have strong biological rationale but almost no industry sponsorship because radiotherapy is unpatentable. The CONCORDE platform in the UK tests DNA-damage-response inhibitors with thoracic radiotherapy. Extending the model to a standing multi-tumour radiotherapy-drug platform with dose-finding modules and a shared radiotherapy quality-assurance backbone would fill a systematic gap.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"CONCORDE platform (page moved; nearest live section)","url":"https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/research/"}],"tags":[],"related":["nrg-oncology","cruk"],"cancers":["nsclc","head-and-neck","glioblastoma"],"sections":["radiation"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-combination-space","b-surgery-radiation-innovation"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"A radiotherapy-drug platform will complete dose-finding for at least four novel agent-radiotherapy pairs per year, compared with fewer than one per year in the preceding decade across the same tumour types.","rationale":"Radiotherapy quality assurance and dose-finding are the expensive fixed costs; a platform amortises them across agents.","test":"Fund a three-tumour platform (lung, head and neck, glioma) with four initial drug modules; measure agents through dose-finding per year.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"research","cost":"large","horizonYears":5},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-rt-drug-platform/","neighbours":{"company":[{"id":"nrg-oncology","kind":"company","name":"NRG Oncology","route":"/companies/nrg-oncology/"}],"institution":[{"id":"cruk","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK","route":"/institutions/cruk/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"glioblastoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Glioma & glioblastoma","route":"/cancers/glioblastoma/"},{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"}],"section":[{"id":"radiation","kind":"section","name":"Radiation Therapy","route":"/fronts/radiation/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-surgery-radiation-innovation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least","route":"/bottlenecks/b-surgery-radiation-innovation/"},{"id":"b-combination-space","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Too many combinations to test","route":"/bottlenecks/b-combination-space/"}]}}