The results so far show that chemotherapy before surgery for bowel cancer could be a useful treatment option.
The trial team are due to publish more results in 2023. We will update this page as soon as we can when these results are available.
About this trial
More than 1,000 people with
bowel cancer took part in this trial. They were all due to have surgery and chemotherapy.
To begin with they were put into 1 of 2 treatment groups at
random. One group would have chemotherapy before and after surgery. The other would have chemotherapy after surgery, but not before.
People in the group having chemotherapy before surgery who had a normal RAS gene were then divided into 2 sub groups at random. One group would have panitumumab as well as chemotherapy before surgery, the other would not.
In total 1,052 people were put in 3 treatment groups:
- Group A – 555 people had chemotherapy, then surgery and then more chemotherapy
- Group B – 143 people had chemotherapy and panitumumab, then surgery and then more chemotherapy
- Group C - 354 people had surgery and then chemotherapy
Results
In 2019, the research team presented the first analysis of the results. The information below is a summary of these early results.
The team looked at how many people’s cancer had continued to grow or had come back after surgery. They found it was:
- more than 1 out of 10 people (14%) who’d had treatment before and after surgery
- just less than 2 out of 10 people (18%) who’d had treatment after surgery but not before
They also looked at the number of people whose cancer could not be completely removed during the operation. They found it was:
- 33 people (5%) who’d had treatment before surgery
- 34 people (10%) who hadn’t had treatment before surgery
Side effects
The research team looked at how many people had complications after their operation.
They found that people who had some chemotherapy before surgery were less likely to have problems such as an infection, or to need another operation. They were also more likely to have a shorter stay in hospital.
Conclusion
The research team concluded that chemotherapy before surgery to remove bowel cancer is a useful treatment option. They suggest it could be used for this group of patients. But more work needs to be done to find out about the long term benefits.
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
peer reviewed 
) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.