Stereotactic radiotherapy and oligometastases – Authors' reply

Regarding the so-called missed opportunity and the potential effect of our study on recruitment for randomised controlled trials, we note that the Commissioning through Evaluation programme prepared 17 stereotactic ablative radiotherapy centres across the UK to recruit patients into the CORE trial (NCT02759783) via its Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance process. There are other relevant ongoing randomised controlled trials, such as four phase 3 randomised controlled trials for oligometastatic prostate cancer alone.2 In the meantime, careful patient selection by experienced multi-disciplinary teams remains essential to ensure that only patients who are likely to benefit from stereotactic ablative radiotherapy receive this treatment. HP reports working for the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence during the conduct of the study, which was commissioned by the UK National Health Service England to manage the Commissioning through Evaluation project.