NCT00004917

Radiation Therapy With or Without Epoetin Alfa in Treating Anemic Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

A Randomized Phase III Trial to Assess the Effect of Erythropoietin on Local-Regional Control in Anemic Patients Treated With Radiotherapy for Carcinoma of the Head and Neck

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: —
• Sponsor: Radiation Therapy Oncology Group · Network
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Epoetin alfa may stimulate red blood cell production and treat anemia in patients with head and neck cancer. It is not yet known whether receiving radiation therapy with epoetin alfa is more effective than radiation therapy alone in treating anemic patients with head and neck cancer. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of radiation therapy with or without epoetin alfa in treating anemic patients who have head and neck cancer.

Detailed description

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Determine whether epoetin alfa given during definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy improves the local-regional control rate in anemic patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Secondary * Determine whether this drug improves survival in this patient population. * Identify patterns in first failure in these patients. * Determine whether there is a significant increase in hemoglobin level between the baseline value and the value at 28 days after starting epoetin alfa in these patients. * Assess the toxicity of this regimen in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are stratified according to stage (I/II vs III/IV without chemotherapy vs III/IV with chemotherapy), pretreatment hemoglobin level (9.0 to less than 11.5 g/dL vs 11.5 to 13.5 g/dL), and gender. Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms. * Arm I: Patients with stage I or II disease undergo radiotherapy once daily for 6-7 weeks. Patients with stage III or IV disease undergo radiotherapy once daily for 3.5 weeks and then twice daily (6 hours apart) for 2.5 weeks for a total of 6 weeks. * Arm II: Patients undergo radiotherapy as in arm I. Beginning 7-10 days before radiotherapy, patients receive epoetin alfa subcutaneously once weekly until the end of radiotherapy. Patients with stage III/IV disease may receive concurrent cisplatin IV over 1-2 hours on days 1 and 22 of radiotherapy. Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 372 patients (186 per arm) will be accrued for this study within 3.5 years.

Conditions

• Anemia
• Head and Neck Cancer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BIOLOGICAL	epoetin alfa
DRUG	cisplatin
RADIATION	radiation therapy

Timeline

• Start date: 2000-06-01
• Primary completion: 2007-11-01
• Completion: 2016-12-01
• First posted: 2003-01-27
• Last updated: 2020-10-22

Locations

261 sites across 3 countries: United States, Canada, South Korea