A trial looking at radiotherapy and a new treatment for bladder cancer (Bladder Arcon - BCON)

This trial was looking at radiotherapy with or without carbogen and nicotinamide tablets for bladder cancer that had spread into the muscle (locally advanced).

Surgery and radiotherapy are both used to treat locally advanced bladder cancer. The radiotherapy allows you to keep your bladder. But the cancer can sometimes come back after this treatment.

Cancer cells are more likely to be killed by radiotherapy if they have plenty of oxygen. The treatment used in this trial was trying to increase the amount of oxygen available to cancer cells. The researchers hoped that this would help to stop the cancer from coming back.

This treatment involved taking nicotinamide tablets and using a breathing apparatus called the carbogen breathing system, for a few minutes before and during each radiotherapy treatment.

The aims of this trial were to find out

How well having carbogen and nicotinamide with radiotherapy worked
What the side effects were

Recruitment

Start 01/11/2000

End 30/04/2006

Phase

Phase 3

Summary of results

The trial team found that there was a significant benefit in adding carbogen and nicotinamide to radiotherapy treatment for people with locally advanced bladder cancer.

Of the 333 people this trial recruited, 327 went on to have treatment

163 had radiotherapy only
164 had radiotherapy with carbogen and nicotinamide

When the researchers compared the average time people lived it was

30 months for those who had radiotherapy only
54 months for those who had radiotherapy with carbogen and nicotinamide

While having radiotherapy with carbogen and nicotinamide the most common side effects were

Feeling or being, sick
Feeling that you need to pass urine more often than normal

When the researchers compared the long term side effects of both treatments they found them to be about the same.

The research team concluded that adding carbogen and nicotinamide to radiotherapy was beneficial for people with locally advanced bladder cancer. And the side effects were very similar to having radiotherapy only.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.