A trial looking at chemotherapy with or without panitumumab for advanced cancer of the food pipe (oesophagus) or stomach (REAL3)

When the trial team looked at the first results, they found that adding panitumumab to chemotherapy wasn’t any better. So they decided to stop recruiting and closed the trial earlier than they initially planned.

This was a phase 3 trial. It recruited 553 people. It was a randomised trial. The people who took part were put into 1 of 2 treatment groups

• 275 people had EOX
• 278 people had EOX and panitumumab

The researchers looked at CT scans to assess how well people responded to treatment. They were able to look at

• 238 from the EOX group
• 254 from the EOX and panitumumab group

Of the people in the EOX group they found that

• 5 had no sign of their cancer – complete response
• 95 had cancer that had shrunk – partial response
• 51 had cancer that had stayed the same – stable disease
• 19 had cancer that had continued to grow

Of the people in the EOX and panitumumab group they found that

• 8 had no sign of their cancer
• 108 had cancer that had shrunk
• 46 had cancer that had stayed the same
• 30 had cancer that had continued to grow

68 people in the EOX group and 62 people in EOX and panitumumab group didn’t have a scan. This was for a variety of reasons, but was frequently due to the person becoming more unwell during treatment. In general, the trial team considered that these people had not benefited from treatment.

The average overall amount of time that people lived was

• Just over 11 months for those who had EOX
• Just under 9 months for those who had EOX and panitumumab

The researchers didn’t find a significant difference between the side effects of both groups. The most common side effects reported were

• Feeling or being sick
• Sore mouth
• Diarrhoea
• Tiredness
• Tingling, numbness in the hands and feet
• A drop in blood cells

The trial team concluded that the addition of panitumumab to EOX didn’t increase the overall time that people with advanced cancer of the oesophagus and stomach lived.   

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.