
Last year in the UKĀ over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed atĀ improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This trial compared a new combination of chemotherapy called ICE-V (or VICE) with standard chemotherapy for people with small cell lung cancer.
Doctors often treat small cell lung cancer with chemotherapy. When this trial was done, other trials had shown that ICE-V could be a useful treatment for small cell lung cancer. ICE-V is vincristine, ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide. In this trial doctors compared ICE-V with to see which worked best.
The aims of the trial were to find out
The researchers found that ICE-V was a useful treatment for people with small cell lung cancer.
The trial recruited 402 people
The researchers analysed the results in 2005. They found that more people lived for longer than 2 years after treatment with ICE-V (20%) than with standard treatment (11%).
The side effects were quite similar in both treatment groups. More people who had standard chemotherapy had a sore mouth. People who had ICE-V were more likely to have numbness () or a blood infection.
The researchers also looked at quality of life. People in each treatment group reported a similar quality of life.
When this trial started, about three quarters of the people having standard chemotherapy had a combination of doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and etoposide. Chemotherapy for small cell lung cancer now usually includes a such as carboplatin or cisplatin.
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 () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor Nick Thatcher
Medical Research Council (MRC)
National Institute for Health Research Cancer Research Network (NCRN)
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UKĀ over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed atĀ improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.