Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care cancer clinics across Illinois and Wisconsin have joined a clinical trial evaluating the need for surgery to treat rectal cancer.
Approximately 45,000 people are diagnosed with rectal cancer each year in the U.S. Depending on how the cancer has advanced, surgery is often required to remove the tumor, which can involve removing part or all of the rectum, also defined as approximately the last 6 inches of the large intestine. This procedure can have life-changing ramifications for patients.
“The typical treatment approach for people with locally advanced rectal cancer is a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery,” said Antony Ruggeri, MD, Advocate Aurora Research Institute’s principal investigator for the study. “We’re trying to determine if adding another chemotherapy drug to a patient’s treatment regimen allows us to avoid surgery to remove the cancer.”
The study will assess whether adding the drug irinotecan to the typical course of chemotherapy and radiation is better or worse at eliminating rectal cancer than the standard of care.
For people who receive the current standard of chemotherapy and radiation plus surgery, about 75% are cancer-free after three years.
“Surgery to remove rectal cancer presents challenges for patients that can permanently reduce their quality of life,” said Nina Garlie, PhD, Vice President of Clinical Trials Research for the Research Institute. “Many of our patients share with us their preference for treatment that preserves the rectum but only if doing so is safe in the long term. This clinical trial could help us answer that question.”
The Research Institute is participating in the study through its inclusion in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), which brings cancer clinical trials to people in their own communities instead of only at major research institutions. This clinical trial is being conducted at all 29 Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care NCORP sites across Illinois and Wisconsin.
Researchers across the country plan to enroll approximately 300 participants in this study, which is known as The Janus Rectal Cancer Trial. The nationwide study is led by Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a cooperative research group that designs and conducts clinical trials under the sponsorship of NCI.
To learn more about our research, visit aah.org/research.