The PEAR Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Phase 1 dose Escalation of pAlliative Radiotherapy with anti-PD1 antibody pembrolizumab in thoracic tumours.
IRAS ID
170857
Contact name
Merina Ahmed
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Eudract number
2014-005673-36
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK with around 43,500 new patients diagnosed each year. About 69% of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease and at present these patients would be expected to survive for less than 12 months. These statistics therefore show the need for the development of new effective drugs in the treatment of advanced Lung cancer.
Recent trial results have shown the efficacy of immunotherapy in treating several types of tumours including lung cancer. These tumours are known to express a high level of a glycoprotein called PD-L1 which is a component of the PD-1 pathway. In cancer the PD-1 pathway can be hijacked by tumours leading to the immune system being suppressed. The aim of the new drug Pembrolizumab is to re-start the PD-1 pathway and use the immune system to help fight the cancer cells. Radiotherapy has also been shown to cause cancer to increase production of the proteins that can reduce the immune system therefore it has been proposed to combine of immunotherapy and radiotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer.
The purpose of this study is to see if pembrolizumab can safety be combined with standard palliative radiotherapy in patients with lung cancer. In addition once the patients have completed their course of radiotherapy they will remain on pembrolizumab alone and the study will look at how well this treatment regimen can control the growth of the cancer.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1478
Date of REC Opinion
6 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion