This trial showed that ADI PEG 20 did not help stop small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells growing.
The research team recruited a total of 22 people into this trial. They were:
- 9 people who’d already had treatment for their SCLC that had worked
- 13 people who’d already had treatment for their SCLC that had not worked
Everyone taking part had an injection of ADI PEG 20 into a muscle, once a week for 4 weeks, and then a week with no treatment. The people taking part had between 1 and 16 injections, depending on how well they were.
When the trial team looked to see how well the treatment had worked, they found that the cancer had not got smaller in any of the people taking part. It had stayed the same size in 4 people (2 in each group). Doctors call this stable disease. Unfortunately it had continued to grow in the other people taking part.
The trial team also looked at side effects. The most common side effects were:
- tiredness
- feeling sick
- drop in white blood cells
- loss of appetite
- soreness at the injection site
Because the trial team had recruited fewer people than they had hoped, and because the treatment wasn’t stopping the cancer from growing in most people taking part, they decided to stop the trial early.
The trial team concluded that although the treatment didn’t cause many serious side effects and was safe to use, it did not work as a treatment for small cell lung cancer.