A trial comparing BEP and Taxol-BEP chemotherapy for male germ cell tumours (MRC TE21, EORTC 30983)

This trial looked at BEP chemotherapy with or without paclitaxel (Taxol) for male germ cell tumours.

Germ cells are cells that produce eggs in females and sperm in males. Male germ cell cancers usually develop in the testicles, but can be found in other parts of the body.

Doctors often treat germ cell cancers with surgery if it is in the testicle or chemotherapy if it is somewhere else in the body. They usually give a combination of chemotherapy called BEP. This is bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin.

BEP often works very well. But doctors are always keen to improve treatments. They thought that adding a drug called paclitaxel (Taxol) may have been better for germ cell tumours classed as ‘intermediate prognosis’. There are 2 main types of germ cell tumour. Intermediate prognosis for seminoma germ cell tumour means that the tumour has spread beyond the lung and lymph nodes. Intermediate prognosis for non seminoma germ cell tumours means that the tumour started in your testicle or abdomen. It may have spread to the lungs or lymph nodes, but no further. Paclitaxel is a drug that doctors sometimes use after other treatments such as BEP, or for more advanced germ cell tumours. They do not currently use it at the same time as BEP, or for this group of patients.

The aim of this trial was to compare BEP with Taxol-BEP (T-BEP) to see which was better for intermediate prognosis germ cell tumours and to find out more about the side effects of this combination of treatment.