Optimising chemotherapy for frail and elderly patients with advanced gastroesophageal cancer: the GO2 Phase III Trial
Dr Peter Hall from the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre presents results of the GO2 phase III clinical trial at the ASCO conference: May 2019
Chemotherapy is used to control symptoms and improve survival in patients with advanced or incurable gastric and oesophageal cancer. Cancers of stomach and oesophagus are more common in older people who are sometimes not strong enough to undergo this type of treatment. For frail people, chemotherapy with the standard 3 drug combination treatment may be too strong. Until now it has been unknown if milder form of chemotherapy may still be helpful or whether it may be best for frail patients not to have chemotherapy at all.
The aim of the GO2 trial is to work out if lower intensity chemotherapy may still benefit frail or elderly people with advanced cancer of the stomach or gullet. With over 500 recruited patients it is the largest randomised controlled trial of this type to date. Dr Peter Hall from CRUK Edinburgh Centre and Prof Matt Seymour (University of Leeds) serve as Chief Investigators on the trial.
Some of the results from the trial have been recently revealed by Dr Hall at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The results have been selected for oral presentation and included in the conference’s press program. The presented results are expected to guide future treatment of frail and/or elderly patients with gastroesophageal cancer and provide strong foundation for future studies.