RAMON – Bristol Trials Centre

Multi-modality local consolidative treatment versus conventional care of advanced lung cancer after first line systemic anti-cancer treatment: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial with an internal pilot: The RAMON Study

Status: In close down

Sponsor: Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide, and the majority of patients in the UK present with advanced disease. One-year survival is improving but remains low at 37% despite new treatments which now form the current standard of care for advanced lung cancer. Although these new therapies are very good, residual cancer persists in most patients after treatment and little is known on how best to deal with it. As such, management of residual advanced lung cancer is variable across the UK with some patients receiving only symptom management while others go on to have treatment in the form of surgery, radiotherapy and/or ablation to remove all remaining cancer within the lung and throughout the body. Collectively, these treatments are known as ‘local consolidative treatment’ (LCT). LCT is intensive, impacts quality of life and is expensive but most importantly, we do not know if it results in a better outcome for patients.

The aim of the RAMON study is to find out whether LCT alongside symptom management is worthwhile (or not) for patients with residual advanced lung cancer. The primary outcome for the study is overall survival, but the study will compare the clinical, cost-effectiveness and resource use of LCT alongside symptom management, after initial systemic anti-cancer treatment, versus symptom management alone. RAMON is a pragmatic, multi-centre, parallel group, randomised controlled trial (RCT) that will aim to recruit 244 participants from 40 secondary and tertiary care NHS hospitals.