Nicholas Van As
Team Leader
Stereotactic and Precision Radiotherapy
The Institute Of Cancer Research
United Kingdom
Biography
Dr Nicholas van As is clinical lead for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) at The Royal Marsden. He is the Co-Chair of the UK SBRT consortium and the national clinical lead for NHS England’s Commissioning Through Evaluation programme for SBRT. He is the chief investigator for the PACE trial – an international, randomised controlled trial comparing SBRT to image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and surgery for treating prostate cancer. Dr van As studied medicine in South Africa, qualifying in 1995. He completed specialist training in clinical oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research. He specialises in urological cancers, with research interests in SBRT, IGRT and functional MRI in prostate cancer.
Research Interest
The Stereotactic and Precision Radiotherapy Team is developing techniques to improve treatment with radiotherapy by setting up and running multiple trials across different tumour types. The team’s most significant achievement to date has been the development and launch of the PACE trial – a phase III, international, randomised controlled trial comparing stereotactic body radiotherapy with both surgery and conventional image-guided radiotherapy for the treatment of men with prostate cancer. The study is endorsed by Cancer Research UK and has been adopted by the National Institute for Health Research: Clinical Research Network. As of September 2015, 220 patients have been recruited into the trial. The study will open in 20 UK centres – including The Royal Marsden and The Mount Vernon Cancer Centre – six Canadian centres, two French centres, with the potential to open in many other European centres.
Publications
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Henderson, D.R., de Souza, N.M., Parker, C.C. & van As, N.J. (2016). Reply from Authors re: Tillmann Loch, Pat Fox Fulgham Active Surveillance Challenges in Men with Prostate Cancer: Role of Imaging Today and Tomorrow Eur Urol 2016;69:1034–6. European urology, Vol.69(6), pp. 1037-1037.
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McPartlin, A.J., Li, X.A., Kershaw, L.E., Heide, U., Kerkmeijer, L., Lawton, C., Mahmood, U., Pos, F., van As, N., van Herk, M., et al. (2016). MRI-guided prostate adaptive radiotherapy – A systematic review. Radiotherapy and oncology, Vol.119(3), pp. 371-380.
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Henderson, D.R., Murray, J.R., Tree, A.C., Riley, U., Rosenfelder, N.A., Murray, D., Khoo, V.S. & van As, N.J. (2016). Targeted Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Transrectal Fiducial Marker Insertion for Prostate Radiotherapy. Clinical oncology, Vol.28(3), pp. 226-227.
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Ost, P., Jereczek-Fossa, B.A., As, N.V., Zilli, T., Muacevic, A., Olivier, K., Henderson, D., Casamassima, F., Orecchia, R., Surgo, A., et al. (2016). Progression-free Survival Following Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer Treatment-naive Recurrence: A Multi-institutional Analysis. European urology, Vol.69(1), pp. 9-12.
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Patrikidou, A., Uccello, M., Tree, A., Parker, C., Attard, G., Eeles, R., Khoo, V., van As, N., Huddart, R., Dearnaley, D., et al. (2017). Upfront Docetaxel in the Post-STAMPEDE World: Lessons from an Early Evaluation of Non-trial Usage in Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer. Clinical oncology, .
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de Morrée, E.S., Vogelzang, N.J., Petrylak, D.P., Budnik, N., Wiechno, P.J., Sternberg, C.N., Doner, K., Bellmunt, J., Burke, J.M., Ochoa de Olza, M., et al. (2017). Association of Survival Benefit With Docetaxel in Prostate Cancer and Total Number of Cycles Administered. Jama oncology, Vol.3(1), pp. 68-68.
