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RecruitingNCT04475705Updated Mar 16, 2022

Propofol vs Sevo for Paediatric Tumor Surgery

A Phase 4 interventional study of propofol and sevoflurane in Solid Tumor, Carcinoma and Malignancy, sponsored by Hong Kong Children's Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in Hong Kong. Open to participants aged 6 Months to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-03-16.

Sponsored by Hong Kong Children's Hospital · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
100
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
6 Months to 18 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Background:

Retrospective studies and meta-analyses have shown a reduction in 5-year survival following inhalational based compared to propofol based total intravenous (TIVA) anaesthesia for cancer surgery. To date there have been no prospective trials published which evaluate the effect of anaesthetic technique on circulating tumour cells (CTC), oxidative stress, and recurrence rate following cancer surgery. Children with cancer often require surgery for tumour excision as well as for other diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. To date there has been no prospective randomized controlled trial evaluating the optimal anaesthetic technique for surgery on children with cancer.

Aim:

This is a pilot study in paediatric patients who require surgery for tumour excision. The aim is to investigate the effect of sevoflurane inhalational versus propofol intravenous anaesthesia on expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), circulating tumour cells, DNA damage and biomarkers of immunity and inflammation in patients before and after tumour surgery. The patients will be followed up for up to 5 years for tumour recurrence after surgery.

Method:

This will be a single-blinded randomized controlled trial. One hundred children undergoing tumour excision surgery at the Hong Kong Children's Hospital will be recruited and randomized to receive TIVA or inhalational anaesthesia. Baseline, intraoperative and postoperative blood will be taken for tests of immunity and inflammatory markers, DNA damage and circulating tumour cells. Patients would be followed up to 3 years for tumour recurrence and survival.

Read the detailed description

Surgical resection is the main modality of treatment for many solid tumors. Despite successful tumor resection, some patients develop local recurrence or metastasis, causing morbidities and mortality. In recent years, there is growing interest in the pathophysiology of recurrence or metastasis. It is believed that the recurrence is caused by the liberation of circulating tumor cells during surgical manipulation of the tumors and the vascular invasive properties of the tumor cells. Perioperative events, such as surgical stress and anaesthesia may have immunomodulating effects, causing growth or inhibition of circulating tumor cells, which affect disease relapse. There is growing evidence that propofol is anti-inflammatory while sevoflurane is pro-inflammatory and their potential roles in cancer recurrence attract researchers' attention. In adults, there is increasing number of researches showing that propofol may improve patient outcomes in terms of disease survival, when compared to sevoflurane. However, such evidence in paediatric population is lacking. This study aims to compare the effects of propofol based intravenous anaesthesia with inhalation anaesthesia with sevoflurane on perioperative biomarkers of inflammation, circulating tumor cells and disease free survival in 3 years.

100 patients will be recruited for this single blinded randomised controlled trial. They will receive general anaesthesia in Hong Kong Children's Hospital for their primary tumor excision surgery. 50 patients will be randomised to sevoflurane group and 50 patients will be randomised to propofol group. They will receive standardised anaesthetic management in terms of death or anaesthesia, pain management, fluid or thermoregulation management. Sevoflurane group subjects will receive inhalational sevoflurane as main anaesthetic, while propofol group subjects will receive intravenous propofol. These patients will have 4 blood tests collected for analysis for biomarkers of inflammation, DNA damage, oxidative stress and circulating tumor cells.

  • baseline: once patients have intravenous access established
  • intraoperative: when the tumor is deemed resected by surgeons
  • immediately postop: after wound closure
  • 24 hours postop Early postoperative period follow up will look for wound recovery, sepsis, and time to start chemotherapy and need for second look operation for wound complication.

Patients will also followed up for 3 years for tumor recurrence and disease survival.

02

Conditions studied

  • Solid Tumor
  • Carcinoma
  • Malignancy
  • Cancer

Keywords

  • propofol
  • sevoflurane
  • cancer surgery
  • circulating tumor cells
  • paediatric
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Months to 18 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • patients coming for elective primary solid tumor resection for curative intent in Hong Kong Children's Hospital
  • AND patients > 5kg
  • AND patients within age limit

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Autoimmune / Chronic inflammatory diseases e.g. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) etc.
  • Current Steroid therapy
  • Surgery for tumour removal in the past year
  • Allergy to Propofol
  • intraoperative use of nitrous oxide
  • Patient susceptible to Malignant Hyperthermia
  • Patients / parents / legal guardians showing preference in anaesthetic techniques during recruitment process
04

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
100 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Sevoflurane group

    patients in this group will receive inhalation anaesthesia with sevoflurane at Minimal Alveolar Concentration 0.7-1.3 as the main anaesthetic to achieve Bispectral Index 40-60. Other anaesthetic management will be standardised.

    Drug: sevoflurane

  • Active comparator
    propofol group

    patients in this group will receive intravenous propofol using Target Controlled Infusion 'Paedfusor' model 2-5 as the main anaesthetic to achieve Bispectral Index 40-60. Other anaesthetic management will be standardised.

    Drug: propofol

Interventions

  • Drugpropofol

    intravenous propofol using Target Controlled Infusion 'Paedfusor' model 2-5 as the main anaesthetic to achieve Bispectral Index 40-60

    Also known as: Diprivan

  • Drugsevoflurane

    sevoflurane at Minimal Alveolar Concentration 0.7-1.3 as the main anaesthetic to achieve Bispectral Index 40-60.

    Also known as: ultane, sevorane

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. difference in Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 gene expression

    pg/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. difference in levels of Interleukin-6

    pg/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  2. difference in levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

    pg/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  3. difference in levels of high sensitivity C reaction protein

    mg/L

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  4. difference in levels of DNA damage (Comet Assay)

    %T (percent tail)

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  5. difference in levels of Glutathione Peroxidase

    μg/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  6. difference in levels of Superoxide dismutase

    units/ml

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  7. difference in levels of urinary 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG)

    ng/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  8. difference in levels of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine (8-oxoGuo)

    ng/mL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  9. difference in the quantity of circulating tumor cells (CTC)

    cells/100 µL

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

  10. cancer free survival at 1 and 3 years

    percent

    Time frame: intraoperative to postoperative 24 hours

06

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Hong Kong Children's Hospital
    Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    Recruiting
07

References and documents

Publications

  • Divatia JV, Ambulkar R. Anesthesia and cancer recurrence: What is the evidence? J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2014 Apr;30(2):147-50. doi: 10.4103/0970-9185.129990. No abstract available. PubMed 24803747 ↗
  • Heaney A, Buggy DJ. Can anaesthetic and analgesic techniques affect cancer recurrence or metastasis? Br J Anaesth. 2012 Dec;109 Suppl 1:i17-i28. doi: 10.1093/bja/aes421. PubMed 23242747 ↗
  • Vinay DS, Ryan EP, Pawelec G, Talib WH, Stagg J, Elkord E, Lichtor T, Decker WK, Whelan RL, Kumara HMCS, Signori E, Honoki K, Georgakilas AG, Amin A, Helferich WG, Boosani CS, Guha G, Ciriolo MR, Chen S, Mohammed SI, Azmi AS, Keith WN, Bilsland A, Bhakta D, Halicka D, Fujii H, Aquilano K, Ashraf SS, Nowsheen S, Yang X, Choi BK, Kwon BS. Immune evasion in cancer: Mechanistic basis and therapeutic strategies. Semin Cancer Biol. 2015 Dec;35 Suppl:S185-S198. doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2015.03.004. Epub 2015 Mar 25. PubMed 25818339 ↗
  • Demicheli R, Retsky MW, Hrushesky WJ, Baum M, Gukas ID. The effects of surgery on tumor growth: a century of investigations. Ann Oncol. 2008 Nov;19(11):1821-8. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdn386. Epub 2008 Jun 10. PubMed 18550576 ↗
  • Tavare AN, Perry NJ, Benzonana LL, Takata M, Ma D. Cancer recurrence after surgery: direct and indirect effects of anesthetic agents. Int J Cancer. 2012 Mar 15;130(6):1237-50. doi: 10.1002/ijc.26448. Epub 2011 Nov 9. PubMed 21935924 ↗
  • Benzonana LL, Perry NJ, Watts HR, Yang B, Perry IA, Coombes C, Takata M, Ma D. Isoflurane, a commonly used volatile anesthetic, enhances renal cancer growth and malignant potential via the hypoxia-inducible factor cellular signaling pathway in vitro. Anesthesiology. 2013 Sep;119(3):593-605. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0b013e31829e47fd. PubMed 23774231 ↗
  • Kushida A, Inada T, Shingu K. Enhancement of antitumor immunity after propofol treatment in mice. Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol. 2007;29(3-4):477-86. doi: 10.1080/08923970701675085. PubMed 18075859 ↗
  • Huitink JM, Heimerikxs M, Nieuwland M, Loer SA, Brugman W, Velds A, Sie D, Kerkhoven RM. Volatile anesthetics modulate gene expression in breast and brain tumor cells. Anesth Analg. 2010 Dec;111(6):1411-5. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0b013e3181fa3533. Epub 2010 Oct 1. PubMed 20889943 ↗
  • Wigmore TJ, Mohammed K, Jhanji S. Long-term Survival for Patients Undergoing Volatile versus IV Anesthesia for Cancer Surgery: A Retrospective Analysis. Anesthesiology. 2016 Jan;124(1):69-79. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000000936. PubMed 26556730 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04475705
Lead sponsor
Hong Kong Children's Hospital
Collaborators
The University of Hong Kong
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jul 17, 2020
Start date
Jan 11, 2021
Primary completion
Jul 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 16, 2022

Study contacts

Sau Man Lee, MBBS
Contact
lsm335@gmail.com
+85257413327
Vivian Yuen, MBBS
Contact
yuenmyv@ha.org.hk
+85235133752
Sau Man Lee, MBBS
principal investigator · Hong Kong Children's Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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