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.
A trial looking at trametinib for women with ovarian or peritoneal cancer (LOGS)
Cancer type:
Ovarian cancer
Status:
Results
Phase:
Phase 2/3
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.
More about this trial
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:
- chemotherapy drugs liposomal doxorubicin, topotecan and paclitaxel
- hormone treatments letrozole and tamoxifen
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:
- if trametinib works better than standard treatment
- more about the side effects
- the effect on people’s quality of life
Summary of results
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:
- 130 people in the trametinib group
- 130 people in the standard treatment group
The research team looked at how long it was before half the people in each group had signs that their cancer started to grow. They call this the median progression free survival.
They found it was:
- 13 months for the trametinib group
- 7 months for the standard treatment group
They looked at how many people were living in July 2019. They found it was:
- 79 out of 130 women (61%) who’d had trametinib
- 70 out of 130 women (54%) who’d had standard treatment
Quality of life
The people taking part filled out quality of life questionnaires. They did this before, during and after treatment.
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:
- rash
- low red blood cells
- increased blood pressure
- diarrhoea
- feeling sick
- extreme tiredness (fatigue)
The most common side effects of standard treatment included:
- tummy (abdominal) pain
- feeling or being sick
- low red blood cells
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.
Recruitment start:
Recruitment end:
How to join a clinical trial
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Chief Investigator
Professor Charlie Gourley
Supported by
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
Other information
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 review date
CRUK internal database number:
10084
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials in the UK last year.
