St Bartholomew's hospital completed a study using the regimen GAMEC (PEG-filgrastim, actinomycin-D, methotrexate, etoposide, cisplatin). The results of this study showed that 50% of patients with relapsed testicular cancer could be cured using this treatment. These results are very encouraging and compare very favourably to other treatment protocols. In reviewing this study, it became clear that of the 5 cycles of treatment which were proposed, the first 3 seemed to matter and the last 2 did not appear important. In addition there was a group of patients who appeared to do particularly well namely patients under the age of 35 and those who had a normal LDH (lactate dehydrogenase). LDH is a blood test which monitors cancer activity. Selecting patients which fill both these criteria, this trial aims to see whether the investigators can maintain the good results the investigators have seen but using only 3 cycles of treatment. This will therefore shorten the treatment from 10 weeks to 6 weeks, thus reducing the side effects.
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Response rate to GAMEC-S or GAMEC-A
Timeframe: 6 weekly