Clinical trial NCT00003118: Surgery With or Without Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Cancer of the Esophagus
Official title: A Prospective Randomized Phase III Trial Comparing Trimodality Therapy (Cisplatin, 5-FU, Radiotherapy, and Surgery) to Surgery Alone for Esophageal Cancer
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE3
Conditions: Esophageal Cancer
Keywords: stage I esophageal cancer
stage II esophageal cancer
stage III esophageal cancer
squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus
adenocarcinoma of the esophagus
Lead sponsor: Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
First posted: 2004-05-19
Enrollment: 56
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief 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.

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 1. Patients with histologically documented untreated squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the thoracic esophagus (below 20 cm) or gastro-esophageal junction and with less than 2 cm distal spread into the gastric cardia were eligible.
2. No evidence of distant metastatic disease by history and physical examination
3. Upper endoscopy with biopsy, computed tomography (CT) of the chest and upper abdomen, and pulmonary function studies are required.
4. Bone scan is required for alkaline phosphatase more than 3X the institutional normal value.
5. Bronchoscopy is required if the primary tumor was adjacent to the trachea or left main stem bronchus.
6. Patients are required to have:

   * granulocyte counts ≥1,800/mL
   * platelet count ≥ 100,000/mL
   * creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min
7. Esophageal ultrasound (EUS) and preresection staging by thoracoscopy (ts) and laparoscopy/minilaparotomy (ls), including biopsy of celiac axis and lesser curvature are recommended
8. Tumors must be considered surgically resectable (T1-3, NX), including regional thoracic lymph node (N1) metastases.
9. Patients with supraclavicular lymph nodes measuring ≤ 1.5 cm by CT (not palpable) are eligible.
10. Patients with lymph node metastases to levels 15 to 20 (predominantly celiac axis and paracardial nodes) ≤1.5 cm by CT.
11. Patients may not have previously received chemotherapy or radiation therapy for this tumor or any radiation therapy that would overlap the radiation fields required for this malignancy.
12. Patients with previous malignancies are eligible if more than 5 years had elapsed from diagnosis without evidence of tumor recurrence.
13. There can be no other serious illness that would limit survival to less than 2 years, or psychiatric condition that would prevent compliance with treatment or informed consent. Patients with uncontrolled or severe cardio- vascular disease,pulmonary disease, oractive infections are excluded.
14. Pregnant patients are excluded.
15. Informed consent is required for all patients.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Overall survival
timeFrame: up to 5 years
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: La Jolla
country: United States
facility: University of California San Diego Cancer Center
state: California
city: San Francisco
country: United States
facility: UCSF Cancer Center and Cancer Research Institute
state: California
city: Wilmington
country: United States
facility: CCOP - Christiana Care Health Services
state: Delaware
city: Washington
country: United States
facility: Walter Reed Army Medical Center
state: District of Columbia
city: Miami Beach
country: United States
facility: CCOP - Mount Sinai Medical Center
state: Florida
city: Chicago
country: United States
facility: University of Illinois at Chicago Health Sciences Center
state: Illinois
city: Chicago
country: United States
facility: University of Chicago Cancer Research Center
state: Illinois
city: Iowa City
country: United States
facility: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
state: Iowa
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland
state: Maryland
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
state: Massachusetts
city: Worcester
country: United States
facility: University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center
state: Massachusetts
city: Minneapolis
country: United States
facility: University of Minnesota Cancer Center
state: Minnesota
city: Columbia
country: United States
facility: Ellis Fischel Cancer Center - Columbia
state: Missouri
city: Saint Louis
country: United States
facility: Barnes-Jewish Hospital
state: Missouri
city: Omaha
country: United States
facility: University of Nebraska Medical Center
state: Nebraska
city: Las Vegas
country: United States
facility: CCOP - Southern Nevada Cancer Research Foundation
state: Nevada
city: Lebanon
country: United States
facility: Norris Cotton Cancer Center
state: New Hampshire
city: Mount Holly
country: United States
facility: Fox Chase Cancer Center at Virtua-Memorial Hospital Burlington County
state: New Jersey
city: Paterson
country: United States
facility: St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
state: New Jersey
city: Buffalo
country: United States
facility: Roswell Park Cancer Institute
state: New York
city: Manhasset
country: United States
facility: CCOP - North Shore University Hospital
state: New York
city: Manhasset
country: United States
facility: North Shore University Hospital
state: New York
city: New York
country: United States
facility: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
state: New York
city: New York
country: United States
facility: New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell Campus
state: New York
city: New York
country: United States
facility: Mount Sinai Medical Center, NY
state: New York
city: Rochester
country: United States
facility: University of Rochester Cancer Center
state: New York
city: Syracuse
country: United States
facility: CCOP - Syracuse Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York, P.C.
state: New York
city: Syracuse
country: United States
facility: State University of New York - Upstate Medical University
state: New York
city: Chapel Hill
country: United States
facility: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC
state: North Carolina
city: Durham
country: United States
facility: Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center
state: North Carolina
city: Winston-Salem
country: United States
facility: CCOP - Southeast Cancer Control Consortium
state: North Carolina
city: Winston-Salem
country: United States
facility: Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
state: North Carolina
city: Philadelphia
country: United States
facility: Hahnemann University Hospital
state: Pennsylvania
city: Providence
country: United States
facility: Rhode Island Hospital
state: Rhode Island
city: Charleston
country: United States
facility: Medical University of South Carolina
state: South Carolina
city: Memphis
country: United States
facility: University of Tennessee, Memphis Cancer Center
state: Tennessee
city: Burlington
country: United States
facility: Vermont Cancer Center
state: Vermont
city: Richmond
country: United States
facility: MBCCOP - Massey Cancer Center
state: Virginia
Study officials:
affiliation: Jersey Shore University Medical Center
name: Mark Krasna, MD
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References:
citation: Tepper J, Krasna MJ, Niedzwiecki D, Hollis D, Reed CE, Goldberg R, Kiel K, Willett C, Sugarbaker D, Mayer R. Phase III trial of trimodality therapy with cisplatin, fluorouracil, radiotherapy, and surgery compared with surgery alone for esophageal cancer: CALGB 9781. J Clin Oncol. 2008 Mar 1;26(7):1086-92. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.12.9593.
citation: Krasna M, Tepper JE, Niedzwiecki D, et al.: Trimodality therapy is superior to surgery alone in esophageal cancer: results of CALGB 9781. [Abstract] American Society of Clinical Oncology 2006 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, 26-28 January 2006, San Francisco, California. A-4, 2006.
citation: Tepper JE, Krasna M, Niedzwiecki D, et al.: Superiority of trimodality therapy to surgery alone in esophageal cancer: results of CALGB 9781. [Abstract] J Clin Oncol 24 (Suppl 18): A-4012, 2006.