A trial looking at different types of chemotherapy for anal cancer that has spread or come back after treatment (InterAACT)

The research team found that carboplatin and paclitaxel caused fewer side effects, and may help people live longer.

Trial design
The people taking part in this trial had anal cancer that had spread or continued to grow since their last treatment. They were due to have chemotherapy treatment.

A total of 91 people took part. They were put into 1 of 2 treatment groups at random. There were:

• 46 people in the cisplatin and 5FU group
• 45 people in the carboplatin and paclitaxel group

Results
The research team were able to look at how well the treatment worked in 74 of the people who took part. They found that the cancer either went away or got a bit smaller in nearly the same number of people in each group:

• 20 out of 35 people (57%) who had cisplatin and 5FU
• 23 out of 39 people (59%) who had carboplatin and paclitaxel 

They then looked at how long it was before the cancer started to grow again, and found it was:

• 5.7 months for those who had cisplatin and 5FU
• 8.1 months for those who had carboplatin and paclitaxel

And when they looked at how long people lived for, it was:

• 12.3 months for those who had cisplatin and 5FU
• 20.0 months for those who had carboplatin and paclitaxel

There was a relatively small number of people in each group, so it’s difficult to say for sure whether the difference between the groups is due to the different treatments. It could have been partly due to chance.

Side effects
The research team were able to assess the side effects of 42 people in each group.

They found that in the group who had cisplatin and 5FU:

• 32 people had at least 1 side effect
• 26 of those people had a more serious side effect

And in the group who had carboplatin and paclitaxel:

• 30 people had at least 1 side effect
• 15 of those people had a more serious side effect

More people who had cisplatin and 5FU had sickness, a sore mouth or diarrhoea. And more people who had carboplatin and paclitaxel had a drop in red blood cells and white blood cells.

Conclusion
The trial team concluded that carboplatin and paclitaxel causes fewer side effects than cisplatin and 5FU. And that it could help people with advanced anal cancer live longer. 

They recommend that doctors consider using carboplatin and paclitaxel as standard treatment for this group of patients.

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)  and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.