New study assesses the effects of postmastectomy radiotherapy on quality of life in women with intermediate-risk breast cancer
Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre clinicians participate in clinical trial that provides important data on the consequences of postmastectomy radiotherapy in women with intermediate-risk breast cancer: October 2018
MRC SUPREMO is an open-label, international, randomised, controlled trial designed to compare the effects of chest wall radiotherapy with no radiotherapy in women with intermediate-risk breast cancer who had undergone mastectomy. The primary goal of the trial is to determine ten-year overall survival but it will also provide data on quality of life, health economics and molecular markers of radiosensitivity (TRANS SUPREMO).
There is significant involvement of Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre clinicians in this trial with Professor Ian Kunkler being the trial’s Chief Investigator and a few other Edinburgh based researchers in the trial’s Steering Committee and Management Group.
An interim report from the trial has been recently published in Lancet Oncology with Professor Kunkler as joint senior author. The publication presented 2-year follow-up results of the effects of radiotherapy versus no radiotherapy on quality of life of patients that enrolled in the study. These data will inform shared decision making and put patients in a better position to make an informed value judgment on what they consider relevant for their situation while survival results (trial primary endpoint) are awaited (not before 2023). Both physicians and patients could be helped by the results when weighing up the individual estimates of possible benefits of postmastectomy radiotherapy against its effects on toxicity and quality of life.