A study taking samples of cancer of the food pipe and stomach cancer

Cancer type:

Oesophageal cancer

Stomach cancer

Status:

Open

Phase:

Other

This study is taking blood and tissue samples from people with oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer.

It is open to people with oesophageal cancer or stomach cancer that has spread:

into the nearby tissue (locally advanced) or
to another part of the body (metastatic)

More about this trial

Doctors can treat oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer with:

surgery
chemotherapy
radiotherapy
targeted drugs
immunotherapy

But these treatments don’t always work for everyone. This is especially so for the newer treatments such as the targeted drugs.

In this study researchers will take blood samples, tissue samples and other samples such as urine and poo. They do this at different times during your treatment.

They use these samples to find out why these treatments work for some people and not for others. They also think this study could help with the development of better treatments for people with these cancers.

The aim of this study is to:

look for substances in the samples (biomarkers ) that might tell how well treatment might work
find out why treatment works better for some people and not others so that we can improve therapies for people in the future
find out more about what happens to the healthy tissue surrounding the cancer

Please note you might not benefit from taking part in this study. The information gained could help other people with oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer in the future.

Who can enter

The following bullet points are a summary of the entry conditions for this study. Talk to your doctor or the study team if you are unsure about any of these. They will be able to advise you.

Who can take part

You may be able to join this study if all of the following apply. You:

have cancer of the food pipe (oesophageal) or stomach cancer (gastric) that has spread into the nearby tissue (stage 3) or to another part of the body (stage 4)
have an area of cancer that the doctor can take a sample of tissue from. You might be able to join if this is not the case. Your doctor will know.
have satisfactory blood test results. You might be able to join if some results aren’t satisfactory. Your doctor will know about this.
are at least 18 years old

Who can’t take part

You cannot join this study if any of these apply. You:

have a bleeding problem. You might be able to join if you are taking medication to thin the blood such as warfarin. Talk to your doctor about this.
have HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C or any other disease that can be passed on from you to another person
have any condition medical or otherwise that could increase the risk to you, your doctor or a member of the team when taking samples of tissue and blood

Trial design

The team need 300 people to take part.

You give blood samples when you:

join the study
start treatment

They also ask for various other samples such as tissue samples. Your doctor or a member of the study team will talk to you about when and how often they might take these samples.

You don’t have to agree to give some of these other samples. Your doctor will tell you which ones these are.