Perth Children’s Hospital Opens New Clinical Trial for Children and Adolescents with Ewing Sarcoma
Friday 28 June 2024
On the eve of Sarcoma and Bone Cancer Awareness Month, Perth Children’s Hospital has become the first international site outside of the United Kingdom to open an innovative clinical trial for children and adolescents with newly diagnosed Ewing Sarcoma.
INTER-EWING-1 will be the only clinical trial open in Australia for newly diagnosed Ewing Sarcoma patients, providing access to a promising new treatments, and investigating the best treatment regimen for this disease.
Ewing Sarcoma is a rare tumour of the bone and soft tissue that is highly aggressive, often resulting in a poor prognosis. One in a million people in Australia are diagnosed with the disease, resulting in approximately 25 Australians, predominantly adolescents and young adults. being diagnosed each year. Patients presenting with localised disease at diagnosis have a five-year survival of 65 to 75%, however, 30% of patients present with advanced disease at diagnosis, with much poorer outcomes of only 50% five-year survival for those with lung-only metastatic disease and less than 30% five-year survival for those with multi-site disease.
Due to the rarity of Ewing Sarcoma, international collaboration is essential and Australia is part of an established international Ewing Sarcoma network, undertaking high-quality randomised trials within a meaningful timeframe. Preventing relapse is a major priority as patients who relapse have a dismal prognosis and limited treatment options.
Associate Professor Dr Marianne Phillips, Principal Investigator for the study in Australia explains that, “INTER-EWING-1 is a comprehensive, international clinical trial investigating the impact in three key treatment areas on disease outcomes. The first of these three areas will assess the impact of adding a novel therapeutic agent, Regorafenib, to standard chemotherapy treatment. Regorafenib is a multi-target tyrosine kinase (mTKI), that has shown promising activity in patients with relapsed Ewing Sarcoma. Also under investigation within the INTER-EWING-1 trial are studies to evaluate the appropriate dose of radiotherapy required (the first trial of radiotherapy dosage on this disease) and the impact of prolonged “maintenance” chemotherapy after completion of the required intensive systemic treatment”.
INTER-EWING-1 is being conducted in paediatric and adult cancer centres across Australia, through a collaboration between the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) and the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association (ANZSA). This collaboration will see INTER-EWING-1 open at an additional 11 Australian sites, providing opportunity for Australians of all ages with this rare, under-researched cancer to participate in a high-quality international clinical trial.
INTER-EWING-1 is supported by Canteen Australia, the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund, The Kids’ Cancer Project and the Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation. Our clinical collaborators Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association (ANZSA) are also supported by their philanthropic partner, the GPA Andrew Ursini Charitable Fund.