Surgery With or Without Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Cancer of the Esophagus

Esophageal Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: A Prospective Randomized Phase III Trial Comparing Trimodality Therapy (Cisplatin, 5-FU, Radiotherapy, and Surgery) to Surgery Alone for Esophageal Cancer

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. It is not yet known whether surgery is more effective with or without chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer of the esophagus.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of surgery with or without combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy in treating patients who have cancer of the esophagus that can be surgically removed.

Clinical Trial Description

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare overall five-year survival rates and treatment failures in patients receiving neoadjuvant cisplatin (CDDP) plus fluorouracil (5-FU) with concomitant radiotherapy followed by surgical resection versus patients receiving surgery alone. II. Assess and compare the toxicities of each approach. III. Compare the incidence and pattern of local (gastric or esophageal bed or regional lymph nodes) and distant (supraclavicular lymph node, liver, peritoneal carcinomatosis, or lung, brain, etc.) recurrence. IV. Evaluate the prognostic ability of noninvasive and minimally invasive pretreatment staging with regard to survival and recurrence. V. Evaluate the ability of preresection adjuvant chemotherapy with concomitant radiation therapy to render tumors to lower stages. VI. Evaluate the impact of lymph nodes on survival and recurrence.

OUTLINE: This a two arm, randomized study. Patients are stratified by: cell type of cancer (squamous cell vs adenocarcinoma); lymph nodes (positive vs negative); and stage (invasive vs noninvasive). Patients in arm I undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy within 24 hours of each other. Chemotherapy consists of cisplatin (CDDP) by bolus IV infusion over 30 minutes on day 1 and again on day 29. Fluorouracil (5-FU) is administered by continuous IV infusion for 4 days (on days 1-4 and 29-32) after completion of cisplatin. Radiotherapy is administered on days 1-5, 8-12, 15-19, 22-26, and 29-33, with a boost on days 36-38. If there is no disease progression or unresectable disease, surgery is performed within 3-8 weeks following completion of therapy. Patients in arm II undergo surgery alone no later than 6 weeks postrandomization. Patients are followed at least every 3 months for two years, then every 6 months for the next two years, and annually thereafter. ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Esophageal Cancer
• Esophageal Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00003118
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Start date: October 1997
• Completion date: March 2000