RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as fluorouracil and leucovorin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving radiation therapy and chemotherapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. Giving chemotherapy after surgery may kill any tumor cells that remain after surgery. It is not yet known whether radiation therapy is more effective with or without chemotherapy when given before surgery for rectal cancer.
PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying radiation therapy given together with fluorouracil and leucovorin to see how well they work compared to giving radiation therapy alone before surgery in treating patients with stage II or stage III rectal cancer.
OBJECTIVES:
- Compare the recurrence-free and overall survival of patients with resectable stage II or III adenocarcinoma of the rectum treated with neoadjuvant radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy comprising fluorouracil and leucovorin calcium followed by surgery and adjuvant fluorouracil and leucovorin calcium.
OUTLINE: This is a randomized, controlled, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to participating center, gender, location of the tumor relative to the anal margin (0-5 cm vs > 5 cm), and tumor stage (T3 vs T4). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.
- Neoadjuvant therapy: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 neoadjuvant therapy arms.
- Arm I: Patients receive leucovorin calcium IV and fluorouracil IV over 15 minutes on days 1-5. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 2 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo concurrent radiotherapy 5 days a week for 5 weeks.
- Arm II: Patients undergo radiotherapy as in arm I.
- Surgery: In both arms, patients undergo surgical resection within 3-10 weeks after completing neoadjuvant therapy.
- Adjuvant therapy: Within 3-10 weeks after surgery, all patients receive adjuvant chemotherapy comprising leucovorin calcium IV and fluorouracil IV over 15 minutes on days 1-5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for 4 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 6 months for at least 5 years.
PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 762 patients will be accrued for this study.
Allocation: Randomized, Control: Active Control, Primary Purpose: Treatment
Colorectal Cancer
fluorouracil, leucovorin calcium, adjuvant therapy, conventional surgery, neoadjuvant therapy, radiation therapy
Active, not recruiting
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Published on BioPortfolio: 2014-08-27T03:45:57-0400
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin, use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Celecoxib may st...
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known which chemotherapy regimen is more effective for...
This phase II trial studies how long it takes colorectal cancer resistant to standard treatment to grow while receiving treatment with ziv-aflibercept, and how well adding fluorouracil and...
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug and giving drugs in different ways may ...
This phase II trial studies how well bevacizumab, fluorouracil, leucovorin calcium, and oxaliplatin before surgery works in treating patients with stage II-III rectal cancer. Monoclonal an...
The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of postoperative treatments based on pathological response for cervical cancer patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by radica...
and Purpose: Post-operative radiation therapy (PORT) is usually indicated for patients with breast cancer (BC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and surgery. However, the optimal timing to initiati...
Laparoscopic surgery after neoadjuvant therapy in elderly patients with rectal cancer.
The standard treatment for mid or low locally advanced rectal cancer is neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgical resection. Laparoscopic surgery has recently been applied for the treatment of rectal c...
Neoadjuvant therapy in the breast cancer setting not only provides an indication of response to systemic therapy, but also results in tumour downsizing/downstaging, which facilitates breast conservati...
Dual BRAF and MEK inhibition produces a response in a large number of patients with stage IV BRAF-mutant melanoma. The existing standard of care for patients with clinical stage III melanoma is upfron...
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
Drug therapy given to augment or stimulate some other form of treatment such as surgery or radiation therapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy is commonly used in the therapy of cancer and can be administered before or after the primary treatment.
Radiotherapy, Adjuvant
Radiotherapy given to augment some other form of treatment such as surgery or chemotherapy. Adjuvant radiotherapy is commonly used in the therapy of cancer and can be administered before or after the primary treatment.
Neoadjuvant Therapy
Preliminary cancer therapy (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone/endocrine therapy, immunotherapy, hyperthermia, etc.) that precedes a necessary second modality of treatment.
Leucovorin
The active metabolite of FOLIC ACID. Leucovorin is used principally as its calcium salt as an antidote to folic acid antagonists which block the conversion of folic acid to folinic acid.
Chemoradiotherapy, Adjuvant
Combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy given to augment some other form of treatment such as surgery. It is commonly used in the therapy of cancer.