Cancer Research UK / The BILCAP Trial

In September 2011, AMMF met with Cancer Research UK’s Catherine Palmer and Dr Anthea Martin to discuss their request for funding to support the BILCAP trial.  Following this, AMMF’s trustees agreed to make a grant of £7,900 for this purpose.

A quick resumé of the BILCAP trial – This large trial is comparing surgery followed by capecitabine treatment, with surgery alone for cholangiocarcinoma or gallbladder carcinoma.  The trial is building on experience from other studies in an attempt to give robust, practice-changing evidence for the effectiveness of using chemotherapy after surgery. If it can be shown that the drug treatment has a positive effect, it could lead to a change in the way cc patients are treated here in the UK and internationally.

The trial has been running for several years, with 234 people enrolled to date.  All patients will be followed up for up to 5 years, so it may be some years until the final results are known.

The BILCAP research team recently made a presentation at the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference where it was reported that recruitment for the trial is going very well*. A brief interim analysis of survival and toxicity data was also presented.  However, it is considered very important that the final results are known before the true effects of the drug treatment can be fully interpreted, and so its impact can be understood.

AMMF meeting with Cancer Research UK / The BILCAP Trial