Systemic Therapy and Chemoradiation in Advanced Localised Pancreatic Cancer - 2
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2020-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This study will evaluate the role of increasing radiotherapy dose and addition of nelfinavir
to chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer that has not spread
beyond the pancreas.
Currently in the United Kingdom (UK), either chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy followed by
CRT can be used in the management of inoperable pancreatic cancer that has not spread. CRT
consists of 25-30 radiotherapy treatments in combination with chemotherapy. Although this
treatment is effective in controlling local symptoms and slowing down the pace of cancer, in
most cases it is unable to shrink it enough to make it operable. Some of the reasons for this
could be the lack of oxygen and lack of blood flow within the tumour making it resistant to
the effects of CRT. This study will investigate whether increasing the dose of radiotherapy,
or increasing the oxygen and blood supply to the tumour by giving nelfinavir, or a
combination of both, can improve outcomes. We also want to know what the additional
toxicities from such intensive approaches are.
All participants will initially receive 12 weeks of chemotherapy, and those with stable or
responding disease will receive further study treatment. The treatment allocation to 1 of the
5 options outlined below will be done at random by computer and neither the doctor nor the
patient can choose the treatment option. The process of randomisation ensures that all
treatment arms are equally balanced in terms of patient and tumour characteristics, and to
reduce the possibility of bias.
The study will consist of 2 stages. In the 1st stage we aim to find the right dose of
nelfinavir to combine with CRT, and this will require around 27 participants of whom up to 18
will receive nelfinavir together with CRT. In the 2nd stage, we want to find out the benefits
of this approach over and above standard treatments and therefore we will recruit the order
of 262 participants and allocate 170 to 1 of the 5 following treatment arms:
Arm A: Nelfinavir together with CRT Arm B: CRT (without nelfinavir) Arm C: Nelfinavir
together with CRT (but using a higher than conventional dose of radiotherapy) Arm D: CRT
without nelfinavir (but using a higher than conventional dose of radiotherapy) Arm E:
Chemotherapy alone (without radiotherapy) Participants who are ineligible or refuse
randomisation will be treated as per local standard but will remain in the study for follow
up at 26, 39 and 52 weeks. Their data will contribute to an Overall Survival (OS) analysis.