E-Newsletter - January 2022
Spotlight on Alliance Trials

New ALLIANCE trials focus on lung cancer, urothelial cancer, smoking cessation

These three Alliance trials opened in December 2021, and are now recruiting participants.  

Steven Schild, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, leads Alliance A082002 (A randomized phase II/III trial of modern immunotherapy based systemic therapy with or without SBRT for PD-L1-negative advanced non-small cell lung cancer).

Alliance A082002 is a phase II/III trial, which opened December 21, 2021. The trial compares the addition of radiation therapy to the usual treatment (immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy) vs. usual treatment alone in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes (advanced) or has spread to other places in the body (metastatic) whose tumor is also negative for a molecular marker called PD-L1. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a type of radiation therapy that uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors. This method uses special equipment to position a patient and precisely deliver radiation to tumors with fewer doses over a shorter period and may cause less damage to normal tissue than conventional radiation therapy. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, ipilimumab, and pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Chemotherapy drugs, such as carboplatin, pemetrexed, paclitaxel, and nab-paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. The addition of radiation therapy to usual treatment may stop the cancer from growing and increase the life of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who are PD-L1 negative. To learn more about this trial, visit CT.gov. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04929041) | Alliance Member Site


 

Himanshu Nagar, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, leads Alliance A032002 (Phase II randomized trial of atezolizumab versus atezolizumab and radiation therapy for platinum ineligible/refractory metastatic urothelial cancer (ART)).

Alliance A032002 is a phase II trial that compares the effect of adding radiation therapy to an immunotherapy drug called atezolizumab vs. atezolizumab alone in treating patients with urothelial cancer that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic). The addition of radiation to immunotherapy may shrink the cancer, but it could also cause side effects. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies such as atezolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a type of radiation therapy that uses high energy x-rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors. This method uses special equipment to position a patient and precisely deliver radiation to tumors with high precision. This method may kill tumor cells with fewer doses over a shorter period and may cause less damage to normal tissue than conventional radiation therapy. The combination of atezolizumab and radiation therapy may be more efficient in killing tumor cells. The trial opened on December 1, 2021. To learn more about this trial, visit CT.gov. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04936230) | Alliance Member Site



Devon Noonan, PhD, MPH, FNP-B, of Duke School of Nursing, leads Alliance A211901 (Reaching rural cancer survivors who smoke using text-based cessation interventions).

Alliance A211901 is a phase III trial, which opened December 1, 2021. The trial compares the effect of text-based cessation intervention to a manual in helping rural cancer patients who smoke, quit. Text-based scheduled gradual reduction may reduce the frequency of cigarette use to zero and may be effective in quitting smoking. To learn more about this trial, visit CT.gov. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05008848) | Alliance Member Site
 

 


 

For other articles in this issue of the Alliance E-News newsletter, see below.