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T. Sawa



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    G02 - Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC) Session: Deserve Better - Expect Better: Advocating for Better Outcomes for Lung Cancer Patients (ID 15)

    • Event: WCLC 2013
    • Type: Other Sessions
    • Track: Nurses
    • Presentations: 1
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      G02.3 - Clinicians as Advocates: Raising Public Awareness of Lung Cancer - The West Japan Oncology Group Experience (ID 441)

      16:52 - 17:08  |  Author(s): T. Sawa

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Abstract
      Background: In Japan and Asian countries, patient advocacy has not been popular to citizens and government, especially in patients with lung cancer compared to USA and EU countries. Therefore, a few clinicians had played a role as advocate instead of cancer survivors group or governments. Clinicians as advocates have a certain advantage to give professional information by themselves, with trained communication skill about bad news, and to use medical resources which is involved to medical society for lung cancer or hospital. West Japan Oncology Group (WJOG), non-profit organization which was established in 2000 by volunteer oncologists, has the mission to conduct and support multi-center clinical co-operative study for cancer and to provide the information about lung cancer, the importance and necessity of clinical study for standard treatment widely, therefore to contribute improving social welfare. Methods: To achieve the mission of WJOG, we carried out open lecture in city hall in major city every year and published lecture recordings in newspaper as well DVD video distribution. In another way, we planed to publish the guideline book for the patients with lung cancer and revised in five years interval. The board of directors determined the plan and the guideline editors committee was organized by WJOG member in March, 2006. The committee edited constitution, drafting, plan, writing as an enterprise in 2006, and 2011. Questions and answers style was adopted in accordance to previous US guidebook . Results: In these 12 years, 27 times of open lecture were held and medical specialists for oncology, novelists with cancer, representative or president of organization for patients advocacy, and etc gave lecture and discussed with patients. Nearly two to eight hundred people had participated in each meeting, occupied by most women and senior citizens. The questionnaire survey to participant revealed satisfaction for lecture and expectation for next meeting. The contents of lecture appeared full page in the Asahi which has a large circulation of almost 8 million (the second position in the world) as well as DVD-video was distributed widely to institute participating to our study and patients for the purpose of providing larger citizens with useful information. Furthermore WJOG official web site show the detail of each lecture in Japanese because Japanese patients with lung cancer are old and difficult to read English web site. Last year, second edition guideline book for patients was edited which consists of 118 questions and answers with full color 200 pages, as well posted to the WJOG website. GLCC international quantitative survey in 2010 showed that Japan is one of the countries with the greatest proportion of adults who think lung cancer is the biggest killer Conclusions: It seems that patient advocacy is developed to be more popular through open lecture, newspaper, web site and guideline book even in Japan. This method may be one of the ways to raise public awareness of lung cancer in Asian countries.

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    MO25 - NSCLC - Combined Modality Therapy II (ID 112)

    • Event: WCLC 2013
    • Type: Mini Oral Abstract Session
    • Track: Mesothelioma
    • Presentations: 1
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      MO25.02 - Thoracic Radiotherapy With or Without Concurrent Daily Low-Dose Carboplatin in Elderly Patients With Locally Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Updated Results of the JCOG0301 and Pooled Analysis With the JCOG9812 Trial. (ID 734)

      10:35 - 10:40  |  Author(s): T. Sawa

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background
      The Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG) undertook 2 randomized phase III trials (JCOG9812 and JCOG0301) to assess whether daily low-dose carboplatin plus radiotherapy could improve survival in elderly patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) when compared to radiotherapy alone. Although JCOG9812 was prematurely terminated because of a high incidence of treatment-related deaths (TRDs) and instances of protocol violation, especially with regard to radiotherapy planning, the trial regimen was assumed promising. Therefore, JCOG0301 was conducted for the same subjects using the same protocol regimen with modified inclusion criteria regarding pulmonary function and radiotherapy quality control (RTQC) measures. We then carried out a preplanned pooled analysis of these 2 studies.

      Methods
      The eligibility criteria for both trials were age of ≥71 years and unresectable stage III NSCLC. Patients were randomized to receive radiotherapy alone (60 Gy, RT arm) or chemoradiotherapy (radiotherapy, 60 Gy plus concurrent carboplatin, 30 mg/m[2] per fraction up to the first 20 fractions, CRT arm). The primary endpoint for both studies was overall survival (OS). The pooled analysis included OS, progression-free survival (PFS), response rate, and toxicities.

      Results
      In JCOG9812, 46 patients (RT arm, n=23; CRT arm, n=23) were enrolled from November 1999 to August 2001. In JCOG0301, 200 patients (RT arm, n=100; CRT arm, n=100) were enrolled from September 2003 to May 2010, and in total, 246 patients were included in the pooled analysis. Patient characteristics for the RT (n=123) and CRT (n=123) arms were as follows: median age, 77 years (range, 71–93) and 77 years (range, 71–89); stage IIIA/IIIB, 65/58 patients and 63/60 patients; performance status (PS) 0/1/2, 44/74/5 patients and 50/69/4 patients; men/women, 103/20 patients and 96/27 patients, respectively. The median OS for the RT (n=121) and CRT (n=122) arms were 16.3 months (95% CI, 13.4–18.6) and 20.7 months (95% CI, 16.3–26.9), respectively (HR, 0.672; 95%CI, 0.502–0.898, stratified log-rank test one-sided p=0.0034). The pooled HR for PFS was 0.671 (95%CI, 0.514–0.875, stratified log-rank test one-sided p=0.0015). Response rates for the RT and CRT arms were 46.3% and 53.3%, respectively. The number of patients with grade 3/4 hematological toxicities was higher in the CRT arm than in the RT arm: leucopenia (62.2% vs 1.7%), neutropenia (54.6% vs none), and thrombocytopenia (30.3% vs 3.3%). The incidence of grade 3/4 pneumonitis decreased from 4.4% (JCOG9812; RT, 4.5% and CRT, 4.3%) to 2.1% (JCOG0301; RT, 3.1% and CRT, 1.0%), and that of late lung toxicity, from 14.0% (JCOG9812; RT, 10.0% and CRT, 17.4%) to 5.9% (JCOG0301; RT, 5.3% and CRT, 6.5%). The incidence of TRD also decreased from 8.9% (JCOG9812; RT, 1 patient and CRT, 3 patients) to 3.6% (JCOG0301; RT, 4 patients and CRT, 3 patients). As per subgroup analyses, ≤75 years, stage IIIA, male, PS 0, and smoking history were associated with statistically significant improvement in OS in the CRT arm.

      Conclusion
      This combination chemoradiotherapy for elderly patients with locally advanced NSCLC provides clinically significant benefits and RTQC measures are imperative to improve treatment outcome.

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