Insight

Sep 9, 2025, 14:49

Ajay Aggarwal: Honored to Lead ARCHERY Study

Ajay Aggarwal, Clinical Director of National Cancer Audits, shared a post by MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL on LinkedIn, adding:

“I’m pleased to be leading the ARCHERY study which is the largest prospective global study evaluating the role of AI in radiotherapy treatment. We’ve now recruited over 850 patients with head and neck, cervix and prostate cancers across our collaborating centres in India, Jordan, Malaysia and South Africa. Results to be reported in 2026. Thanks to all the hard work of the ARCHERY consortium to date.”

Quoting MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL‘s post:

“Yesterday was World Radiotherapy Awareness Day.

Radiotherapy is a key part of cancer treatment. It helps cure around 4 in 10 cancers and is needed by about half of all cancer patients. But in many low- and middle-income countries, access to radiotherapy is limited, and only 10–40% of patients can get it.

One reason is that planning and delivering radiotherapy takes a lot of time and skilled staff, who are often in short supply. This can lead to long delays, more stress for patients, and worse outcomes.

That’s where the ARCHERY study comes in. It’s testing a new AI tool called the Radiotherapy Planning Assistant (RPA) to help speed up and improve the planning process.

The RPA tool can:

1. Automatically mark areas to treat and protect healthy parts of the body.
2. Help design the radiation beams used in treatment.

If successful, this could:

Cut planning time from hours to minutes
Make treatment more consistent and safer
Free up staff to focus on patient care
Help make radiotherapy more affordable

ARCHERY is a large international study led by Ajay Aggarwal involving teams in India, Jordan, Malaysia, and South Africa. It focuses on prostate, cervical, and head and neck cancers, where radiotherapy is often the main treatment.

Let’s celebrate the power of radiotherapy and the global efforts to make it more accessible.

Read the full story.”

More posts from Ajay Aggarwal on OncoDaily.