
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.
Please note - this trial is no longer recruiting patients. We hope to add results when they are available.
This is a trial looking at giving darbepoetin alfa to people with non small cell lung cancer who are having chemotherapy.
Doctors often treat non small cell lung cancer with chemotherapy. One of the side effects of chemotherapy is a drop in red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body. If your red blood cells are low you can feel tired and breathless. Doctors call this anaemia.
Doctors can treat this by giving you a blood transfusion through a drip into a vein. They can also treat it by giving you a red blood cell growth factor (erythropoietin). These red blood cell growth factors help your body make more of its own red blood cells. Darbepoetin alfa is red blood cell growth factor.
The aims of this trial are to find out
You can enter this trial if
You cannot enter this trial if you
This is an international phase 3 trial. It will recruit about 3,000 people from different countries around the world. It is a randomised trial. The people taking part are put into one of 2 treatment groups by a computer. Neither you nor your doctor will be able to decide which group you are in or be told which group you are in. This is common in clinical trials and is called a double blind trial.
Group 1 in this trial will have darbepoetin alfa. Group 2 will have a dummy treatment (placebo). Of those entering the trial, 2 out of every 3 will be in group 1, and so have darbepoetin alfa.
You have darbepoetin alfa, or placebo, after each 3 week cycle of chemotherapy. You have darbepoetin alfa, or placebo, as an injection under the skin (subcutaneous injection).
If you take part in this trial, the researchers will ask your permission to take samples of tissue from when you had a . These samples will be stored safely and may be used in the future, but for research purposes only.
You will see the doctor and have a number of tests before taking part in this trial. These tests include
You will see the doctor every 3 weeks to have a physical examination and blood test. And you will have a scan every 9 weeks, until your cancer begins to grow again.
You will then see the doctor every 3 months.
The most common side effects of darbepoetin alfa are
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Steven Bellamy
Amgen
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
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.