Effect and Safety Study of GP/FP Regimens in Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms Clinical Trial

Official title: A Randomized, Multicenter Phase III Clinical Trial Comparing Gemcitabine and Cisplatin With 5-Fluorouracil and Cisplatin in the Treatment of Recurrent or Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC)

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The present study will be a randomized, control, multicenter phase III study of recurrent or metastatic (R/M) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with Gemcitabine (Gemzar, Lilly) and cisplatin regimen (GP) or 5-Fluorouracil plus cisplatin regimen (FP). The population consists of recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) that failed the radical radiotherapy or chemotherapy-naïve advanced NPC (stage IV). The effectiveness and side effects will be evaluated according to Standard WHO response criteria and NCI-CTC AE V3.0.

Clinical Trial Description

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is most commonly seen in Southeast Asia, especially in southern and southeastern China ,where the incidence rate has been documented between 10 and 150 cases per 100,000 population per year. NPC is a radiosensitive tumor, and radiotherapy is considered to be the treatment of choice for most cases. The 5-year survival rate (all stages) is around 50% .In other words, more than half of the NPC cases will eventually fail radiotherapy and reasons of the failure are both local relapse and remote metastasis.

For these advanced or metastatic NPC, chemotherapy is the most important therapeutics,and they are relatively responsive to chemotherapy compared to other head and neck cancers. The backbone of the treatment for recurrent/metastatic (R/M) NPC is cisplatin containing regimen, which is also regarded as the standard regimen for other squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck (SCCHN). The FP regimen is widely used in R/M NPC patients now and its response rate is around 40%-65%,but the response period is usually short and the adverse reaction is frequent and badly tolerant, which influent the treatment compliance seriously. What's more, the catheters and pumps are necessary for continuous infusion of 5-Fluorouracil, which add to the cost, immobility and inconvenience of the treatment.

Preclinical and clinical data show synergistic activity between gemcitabine and cisplatin without overlapping toxicity. Several clinical trials enrolling a minority of advanced NPC patients suggest GP regimen has promising effectiveness and well tolerated side effects, and they indicated a potential possibility that the GP regimen comes to the standard first line choice instead of the FP regimen ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Carcinoma
• Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
• Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT01528618
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Sun Yat-sen University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Start date: February 21, 2012
• Completion date: December 20, 2020