A trial looking at docetaxel chemotherapy for advanced cancer of the stomach, the oesophagus or the junction of the stomach and oesophagus (COUGAR-02)

The researchers found that on average people who had docetaxel lived longer than people who just had treatment to control symptoms.

The trial recruited 168 people who had stomach or oesophageal cancer that had come back after chemotherapy. It was a randomised trial. The people taking part were put into groups at random. Neither they, nor their doctor could decide which group they were in.

The researchers looked at the average length of time people lived. They found this was

• Over 5 months for people who had docetaxel and symptom control
• Just over 3 and a half months for people who had symptom control alone

They also looked at people’s quality of life and found there was no difference between the groups. But people who had docetaxel reported having less pain.

You have chemotherapy in cycles of treatment. The treatment plan in this trial was for people having docetaxel to have 6 cycles of treatment. About a third of the people having docetaxel had to stop the treatment due to side effects and only about 1 in 4 people (23%) were able to complete all 6 cycles of treatment.

The main side effects of docetaxel were a drop in the number of blood cells and infections.

As the people who had docetaxel lived longer on average than the people who had symptom control alone, the researchers suggest this can be recommended as a standard treatment for advanced stomach or oesophageal cancer.

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 ) but may not have been published in a medical journal.  The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.