GICI part funds patients onto clinical trial INTEGRATE ll for recruitment for radiology and laboratory requirements.
INTEGRATE ll is a Randomised III Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of regorafenib in Advanced Gastro-Oesophageal Cancer (AGOC) which will be conducted in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the USA.
There currently exist few effective treatment options for patients with Advanced Gastro-Oesophageal Cancer (AGOC) that has returned after surgery or where it is incurable (metastatic) at diagnosis. Chemotherapy can be effective at first, but once the cancer has become resistant to it, the options for treatment are limited. A second course of a different chemotherapy can prolong survival, but not all patients are fit to receive this treatment. For those who do receive a second course, their cancer will eventually become resistant to these drugs. In both of these situations, there are currently no accepted treatment options that have been shown to be both effective against the cancer and tolerable for patients. Better treatment options are urgently needed.
Regorafenib is a ‘multi-targeted therapy’ targeting a number of different signals in the cancer cell that cause it to grow and produce blood vessels. In other cancers such as colon cancer, Regorafenib has been proven to be of benefit when other drugs have ceased to work. INTEGRATE demonstrated efficacy with the use of Regorafenib in advanced Gastro-Oesophageal Cancer, and could potentially become a new standard of care after other therapeutic agents have stopped working. INTEGRATE II is being undertaken to confirm the findings of the Phase II trial in a larger population.
If the study is positive it will provide evidence for Regorafenib as a new standard of care after other treatments no longer benefit patients with gastric cancer.
Worldwide 350 – Auckland Hospital – GICI has agreed to fund 3 patients over 2 years funded at a cost of $8852 for all three.