Download Breast trials Head & Neck trials

Head & Neck trials
Breast trials
Dr Helen Earl & Prof Janet Dunn
ARTemis: Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody which targets
vascular endothelial growth factor. It has shown promising antitumour effects when given concurrently with taxane-based
chemotherapy. ARTemis is a large phase III randomised study (800
patients) comparing neoadjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy +/Bevacizumab in patients with early stage breast cancer.
Mr Hisham Mehenna & Prof Janet Dunn
PET-NECK: Current treatment for patients with locally advanced
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is neck dissection before or
after chemo-radiotherapy. This often results in high morbidity and
mortality. PET-NECK is a phase III randomised trial (560 patients)
which is comparing PET-CT guided watch and wait policy versus
planned neck dissection for the management of locally advanced
head and neck cancer.
Persephone: Herceptin® is a monoclonal antibody and is an
adjunct treatment to chemotherapy for women with early stage
breast cancer who are HER2 receptor positive. The standard
duration of Herceptin® is 12 months; however this is not evidence
based, and given the cardiac toxicity attributed to this drug, the
duration needs to be tested. Persephone is a large phase III
study (4000 patients) which will compare 12 months
of Herceptin® with 6 months.
De-ESCALaTE-HPV: Radiotherapy and cetuximab (Epidermal
Growth Factor Receptor-inhibitor) have demonstrated similar
efficacy to chemo-radiotherapy in the treatment of oropharangeal
squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), but is potentially less toxic.
De-ESCALaTE is a phase III study comparing cetuximab vs
standard chemotherapy for early and late toxicity events
in Human papilloma virus positive OPSCC.
Cancer Research
Myeloma
Other trials
Prof Mark Drayson & Prof Janet Dunn
TEAMM: Approximately 4000 patients a year in the UK are
diagnosed with myeloma. Of these, 10% will acquire a serious
infection between diagnosis and start of treatment. Of this 10%,
45% will die as a result of infection. This study is investigating the
benefit of administering prophylactic antibiotics (Levofloxacin)
in a large phase III randomised double-blind study with a sample
size of 800 patients.
Dr Hugo Ford & Prof Janet Dunn
COUGAR-2: This is a phase III randomised study (164 patients)
investigating the use of docetaxel in patients with advanced
stomach/oesphageal cancer versus symptom control.
Dr Pippa Corrie, Prof Janet Dunn
Personalised Cancer Medicine
Many of our trials involve the collection of various tissue samples
for translational research which aims to identify areas that will
predict which groups of patients will respond to which treatments.
AVAST-M: This is a phase III study (1320 patients) examining
the administration of the target drug, Bevacizumab, in
addition to surgery in early stage malignant
melanoma.