THERATEST
Research type
Research Study
Full title
THERApy de-escalation for TESTicular cancer (THERATEST)
IRAS ID
305109
Contact name
Prabhakar Rajan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN61007118
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Testicular cancer is the commonest young adult male cancer. Although cancer may spread (metastasise) to the abdominal lymph glands and beyond in some cases, many patients can still be cured with radiotherapy, multi-drug chemotherapy, and/or surgery. However, these treatments can cause serious, long lasting side effects. For the seminoma type of metastatic testicular cancer most patients receive multi-drug chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
For several years, we have been using a single less toxic drug called carboplatin, instead of radiotherapy or multiple drug combinations. Our novel treatment appears to cause fewer side effects, without compromising cure rates. We have also been using keyhole (robotic) surgery to remove
visible cancer in abdominal lymph glands to see whether some patients can have less chemotherapy or avoid it completely. Our preliminary results are very promising in terms of cure rates and low side effects. We wish to set up a clinical study to formally test and compare these (and potentially, in future other ways).THERATEST is a feasibility, observational, cohort study of 30 patients receiving standard of care treatments (combination chemotherapy or radiotherapy) or de-escalated treatments (primary robotic surgery with or without post-operative low dose chemotherapy or Carboplatin AUC10) for stage II seminoma. Patients will be followed up for 2 years after treatment completion. Beyond this patients will be followed up as per standard of care as part of prospective institutional audits.
THERATEST is designed to determine whether treatment could be safely given. It also prepares the ground for a larger study and improves the chances of the subsequent study producing valuable evidence, helping avoid wasting precious resources on larger trials that are unlikely to be informative.
Ultimately, we hope that this study will help us test chemotherapy-reducing strategies to improve patients’ quality of life without affecting cancer outcomes.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0972
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jan 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion