Hepatic Arterial Chemoembolization With Cisplatin or Internal Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Advanced Liver Cancer That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery

Liver Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: A Prospectively Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Comparing TheraSphere With Cisplatin-Based TACE (Trans Arterial Chemo Embolization) in the Management of Advanced Stage, Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. In this case, chemotherapy is given through the artery (hepatic artery) that brings blood to the tumor. Chemoembolization kills tumor cells by blocking the blood flow to the tumor and keeping chemotherapy drugs near the tumor. Internal radiation uses radioactive material placed directly into or near a tumor to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether hepatic arterial chemoembolization with cisplatin is more effective than internal radiation therapy in treating liver cancer.

PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying hepatic arterial chemoembolization with cisplatin to see how well it works compared to internal radiation therapy in treating patients with advanced liver cancer that cannot be removed by surgery.

Clinical Trial Description

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Compare time to disease progression in patients with unresectable advanced hepatocellular carcinoma treated with cisplatin-based trans-arterial chemoembolization vs hepatic intra-arterial yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres (TheraSphere®).

• Compare the health-related quality of life of patients treated with these regimens.

• Compare the safety of these regimens in these patients.

Secondary

• Compare survival of patients treated with these regimens.

• Compare tumor response by CT scan in patients treated with these regimens.

• Compare treatment-related costs, in terms of cost of therapy and number of hospitalization days, in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are stratified according to extent of tumor in the liver (< 50% vs ≥ 50%) and presence of portal hypertension (yes vs no). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

• Arm I: Patients undergo trans-arterial chemoembolization comprising intra-arterial (IA) infusion of cisplatin over 30-60 minutes followed by embolization of the hepatic artery (that brings blood to the tumor) on day 1. Treatment repeats every 8-10 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

• Arm II: Patients receive yttrium Y 90 glass microspheres (TheraSphere®) IA on day 1. Beginning 60 days after the first TheraSphere® treatment, patients may receive additional treatment with TheraSphere® only if follow-up CT scans show progressive disease.

Quality of life is assessed at baseline and then every 3 months thereafter.

After the completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 30 days and then every 2 months for 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 120 patients (60 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study. ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
• Liver Cancer
• Liver Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00109954
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Pittsburgh
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Start date: February 2005
• Completion date: December 2005