“I think it’s really important that people keep signing up to these type of trials to push research forward.”
A trial of doxorubicin and ifosfamide after surgery for soft tissue sarcoma (EORTC 62931)
Cancer type:
Sarcoma
Soft tissue sarcoma
Status:
Results
Phase:
Phase 3
This trial was looking at doxorubicin and ifosfamide with lenograstim for high grade soft tissue sarcoma that had been completely removed with surgery.
soft tissue sarcoma is usually treated with surgery and radiotherapy. You may also have chemotherapy after surgery. This is called adjuvant chemotherapy.
Doctors are not sure how useful adjuvant chemotherapy is for sarcoma that has not spread anywhere else in the body. All treatments have side effects, and it is important that people don’t have treatments they don’t need.
In this trial, some people had doxorubicin and ifosfamide chemotherapy after surgery, and some did not. The aim of the trial was to see if giving chemotherapy after surgery for high grade soft tissue sarcoma helped to stop the cancer coming back and reduced the risk of dying.
Summary of results
The researchers found that chemotherapy did not help to stop sarcoma coming back.
The trial recruited 351 people. Half had chemotherapy and half did not. Those having chemotherapy were due to have 5 cycles of treatment. During each treatment cycle, they had injections of lenograstim for 10 days. This is a growth factor that boosts the number of blood cells you make after chemotherapy.
- 163 people started chemotherapy
- 127 of those people completed all 5 cycles
Over a third of the people having chemotherapy had to have their dose reduced because they had a drop in the number of blood cells or had infections, despite having the growth factor.
The trial team presented some early results at a large cancer conference in 2007. They explained that they had found no benefit in people having chemotherapy after surgery for high grade soft tissue sarcoma. They will continue to follow the people in the trial and will publish the final results in the future.
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 () 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.
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 Penella Woll
Supported by
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)
National Institute for Health Research Cancer Research Network (NCRN)
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last review date
CRUK internal database number:
Oracle 255
Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.
Charlie took part in a trial to try new treatments
