Dexamethasone and Supportive Care With or Without Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer That Has Spread to the Brain and Cannot Be Removed By Surgery - Full Text View

Sponsored by:	Medical Research Council
Information provided by:	National Cancer Institute (NCI)
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00403065

Purpose

RATIONALE: Steroid therapy, such as dexamethasone, may reduce swelling, pain, and other symptoms of inflammation and may be effective in treating some of the problems caused by cancer and cancer treatment. Supportive care improves the quality of life of patients with a serious or life-threatening disease, and prevents or treats symptoms of cancer, side effects of treatment, and other problems related to cancer or its treatment. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether dexamethasone given together with supportive care is more effective with or without whole-brain radiation therapy in treating patients with brain metastases.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying dexamethasone and supportive care to see how well it works with or without whole-brain radiation therapy in improving the quality of life of patients with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread to the brain and cannot be removed by surgery.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Brain and Central Nervous System Tumors Lung Cancer	Drug: dexamethasone Procedure: quality-of-life assessment Procedure: radiation therapy	Phase III

MedlinePlus related topics: Cancer Lung Cancer

Drug Information available for: Dexamethasone Dexamethasone acetate Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate Doxiproct plus

U.S. FDA Resources

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Treatment, Randomized, Active Control
Official Title:	Quality of Life After Radiotherapy & Steroids. A Phase III Multi-Centre Randomised Controlled Trial to Assess Whether Optimal Supportive Care Alone (Including Dexamathasone) is As Effective as Optimal Supportive Care (Including Dexamethasone ) Plus Whole Brain Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Patients With Inoperable Brain Metastases From Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Further study details as provided by National Cancer Institute (NCI):

Primary Outcome Measures:

Patient-assessed quality adjusted life years [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Overall survival [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
Karnofsky performance status [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
Patient symptoms [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
Assessment and measurement of caregiver concerns [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Estimated Enrollment:	1000
Study Start Date:	October 2006

Detailed Description:

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

Compare the efficacy of dexamethasone with vs without whole-brain radiotherapy in combination with optimal supportive care, in terms of patient assessed quality adjusted life years, in patients with inoperable brain metastases secondary to non-small cell lung cancer.

Secondary

Compare the overall survival of patients treated with these regimens.
Assess the Karnofsky performance status of patients treated with these regimens.
Assess the symptoms of patients treated with these regimens.
Determine the feasibility of assessing and measuring caregiver concerns.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, controlled, multicenter study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

Arm I (experimental): Patients receive dexamethasone*. Patients receive optimal supportive care (OSC) including a prescription of a proton pump inhibitor while on dexamethasone, parallel nursing support, access to additional specialists (e.g., pain-relief service, palliative care team, medical social worker, or physiotherapist), and open access to follow-up in a specialist clinic. OSC may also include analgesics, bronchodilators, and other supportive treatment as needed.
Arm II (control): Patients receive dexamethasone* and OSC as in arm I. Patients also undergo whole-brain radiotherapy once daily for 5 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

NOTE: *Patients who are receiving prednisolone at randomization need to convert to dexamethasone immediately.

All patients undergo telephone assessment, including quality of life assessment, once a week for 12 weeks and then once every 4 weeks thereafter. Consenting caregivers complete questionnaire over the telephone once a week to assess the impact of the patient's disease and treatment on the caregiver's quality of life.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: At least 1,000 patients will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:	18 Years and older
Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Histologically or cytologically confirmed primary non-small cell lung cancer
Must have brain metastases confirmed by CT scan or MRI
- Unresectable disease OR surgery is deemed inappropriate
The benefit or lack of benefit of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) cannot be clearly defined
- Any known certainty of the benefit or lack of benefit of WBRT is not allowed

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

No prior or concurrent uncontrolled illness that could preclude study treatment or comparisons
Must be able to respond to weekly telephone assessment questions

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

More than 1 week since prior epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors
More than 1 month since prior chemotherapy
More than 1 month since prior surgery for brain metastases
No prior radiotherapy to the brain

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00403065

Show 70 Study Locations

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Research Council

Investigators

Study Chair:

Paula Mulvenna

Northern Centre for Cancer Treatment at Newcastle General Hospital

More Information

Clinical trial summary from the National Cancer Institute's PDQ® database This link exits the ClinicalTrials.gov site

Study ID Numbers:	CDR0000517194, MRC-LU24-QUARTZ, EU-20653, ISRCTN3826061, TROG 07.02
Study First Received:	November 21, 2006
Last Updated:	July 23, 2008
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00403065
Health Authority:	Unspecified

Keywords provided by National Cancer Institute (NCI):

recurrent non-small cell lung cancer
stage IV non-small cell lung cancer
adult tumors metastatic to brain

Study placed in the following topic categories:

Dexamethasone
Thoracic Neoplasms
Non-small cell lung cancer
Quality of Life
Central Nervous System Neoplasms
Recurrence
Carcinoma
Respiratory Tract Diseases

Lung Neoplasms
Lung Diseases
Neoplasm Metastasis
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
Dexamethasone acetate
Nervous System Neoplasms
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Anti-Inflammatory Agents
Respiratory Tract Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
Antineoplastic Agents
Nervous System Diseases
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists
Gastrointestinal Agents
Antiemetics

Hormones
Glucocorticoids
Pharmacologic Actions
Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Autonomic Agents
Therapeutic Uses
Peripheral Nervous System Agents
Central Nervous System Agents

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on January 14, 2009