
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This trial compared trametinib with standard treatment for women with low grade serous ovarian or peritoneal cancer. It was for women whose cancer had come back or continued to grow despite treatment.
The trial was open for people to join between 2014 and 2018. The team published the results in 2022.
When this trial was done, doctors treated low grade serous ovarian cancer or peritoneal cancer that had come back with hormone therapy or chemotherapy.
At the time the 5 most common standard treatments were:
Doctors wanted to find out if trametinib would be useful for women in this situation. Trametinib is a type of targeted cancer treatment called a cancer growth blocker. It stops signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow.
In this trial, they compared trametinib to standard treatment.
The main aims of the trial were to find out:
This trial showed that trametinib was better than standard treatments for low grade serous ovarian or peritoneal cancer.
Trial design
This trial was for women with low grade serous ovarian cancer or peritoneal cancer. They had all had treatment before. But their cancer had either continued to grow or had come back.
The women taking part were put into one of two groups at random. Some had trametinib, and some had standard treatment. The doctor looking after them decided which of the 5 standard treatments it would be best to use.
Results
A total of 260 women joined this trial – 236 with ovarian cancer and 24 with peritoneal cancer. They were put into a treatment group at random. There were:
They found it was:
They looked at how many people were living in July 2019. They found it was:
The results were similar for those who had trametinib and those who had standard treatment.
Side effects
Most people taking part had at least one side effect. Many were mild or didn’t last long. But some people in each group had more severe side effects.
The most common side effects of trametinib were:
The most common side effects of standard treatment included:
The specific side effects of people in the standard treatment group depends on which treatment people had.
We have more information about the side effects of the treatments in our Cancer drugs section:
Conclusion
The trial team concluded that trametinib was a useful treatment for low grade serous ovarian or peritoneal cancer.
They suggest it should be the new standard treatment for people whose cancer has come back after initial treatment.
More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the link below.
Please note, this article is not in plain English. It has been written for health care professionals and researchers.
Trametinib versus standard of care in patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer (GOG 281/LOGS): an international, randomised, open-label, multicentre, phase 2/3 trial
D Gershenson and others
The Lancet, 2022. Volume 399, Pages 541-551
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link above is active and the article is free and available to view.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor Charlie Gourley
Cancer Research UK
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
Novartis
NRG Oncology (formerly Gynecologic Oncology Group) United States
University of Glasgow
This is Cancer Research UK trial number CRUKE/12/028
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.