Symptom and quality of life results of an international randomised phase III study of adjuvant vaccination with Bec2/BCG in responding patients with limited disease small-cell lung cancer. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • AIMS: This study reports the symptom and HRQOL results in which standard treatment was compared to standard therapy plus Bec2, an anti-idiotypic antibody that mimics GD3, a ganglioside antigen. METHODS: Five hundred and fifteen LD SCLC patients were randomised to receive five vaccinations of Bec2 (2.5mg)/BCG vaccine arm (VA) or an observational arm (OA) administered over a 10-week period. Survival was the primary end-point; HRQOL was a secondary end-point, assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30/LC 13. RESULTS: There was no improvement in survival or progression-free survival in the vaccination arm. At baseline patients in both arms demonstrated significantly impaired scores on the global QOL scale, when compared to a normative population. However, HRQOL and symptom scores between the two treatment arms were not statistically different at any time point. CONCLUSION: We found no benefits to patient HRQOL by additional vaccination with Bec2/BCG to LD SCLC for patients who have been undergoing standard therapy.

publication date

  • October 1, 2008

Research

keywords

  • BCG Vaccine
  • Cancer Vaccines
  • Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels
  • Lung Neoplasms
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 53249153466

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.ejca.2008.06.036

PubMed ID

  • 18676140

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 44

issue

  • 15