Assessment of Surgical sTaging vs Endoscopic Ultrasound in Lung Cancer: a Randomized Clinical Trial (ASTER Study)

NCT00432640 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 240

Last updated 2010-12-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers and has a very high mortality. Both treatment and prognosis depend on the staging. Surgical staging of the mediastinum mainly by means of a cervical mediastinoscopy is the gold standard. Mediastinal staging is however a field that undergoes a fast technological development. Transesophageal ultrasound guided fine-needled aspiration (EUS-FNA) and an endobronchial ultrasound guided transbronchial fine-needled aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) are two complementary endoscopic ultrasound techniques which together allow cytological analysis of all mediastinal lymph nodes. This means that the combination of both techniques enables a complete (bilateral) mediastinal investigation (N2 and N3, except para-aortal station 6).

Hypothesis: complete endoscopic ultrasound staging identifies more patients with locally advanced disease compared to surgical staging (current standard of care).

Study design: A randomized controlled multi-center double arm diagnostic phase III trial, in which patients are randomly assigned to either surgical staging (arm B) or endoscopic ultrasound staging with both EUS-FNA and EBUS-TBNA (arm A).

Arm A: Examination by EUS-FNA and EBUS-TBNA. These techniques are performed in an outpatient one session setting under conscious sedation and take together about 30 to 60 minutes. If no metastasis are shown, the patient undergoes a surgical staging procedure (for confirmation). For reasons of convenience and patient-comfort, the EUS-FNA investigation is performed before the EBUS-TBNA.

Arm B: Surgical staging with either cervical mediastinoscopy, parasternal mediastinoscopy, thorascopic mediastinal exploration or exploratory thoracotomy, performed according to institutional practice.

Patients in whom no lymph node metastasis are found proceed to thoracotomy with systematic lymph node sampling to obtain an accurate intraoperative mediastinal staging.

Primary outcome: The assessment of N2-N3 lymph node metastases.

Conditions

  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Endoscopic ultrasound staging

Endoscopic ultrasound staging with both EUS-FNA and EBUS-TBNA

PROCEDURE

Surgical staging

Surgical staging

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Leiden University Medical Center

    collaborator OTHER
  • University Hospital, Ghent

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Kurt Tournoy, MD, PhD · University Hospital, Ghent

  • Jouke Annema, MD · Leidens Universitair Medisch Centrum

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2007-01-31
Primary Completion
2009-04-30
Completion
2009-04-30

Countries

  • Belgium
  • Netherlands
  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00432640 on ClinicalTrials.gov