Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for Oligometastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (SARON)

Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for Oligometastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. A Randomised Phase II Trial

The trial will assess the addition of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to standard anti-cancer therapy (SACT) in patients with oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Patients will be randomised to receive either standard treatment alone (SACT) or standard treatment with conventional radiotherapy (RT) and SABR.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Non-investigational SACT; Radiation: Radical Radiotherapy (Conventional RT and SABR)

Detailed Description

SARON is a phase II study examining the efficacy and safety of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) and conventional radiotherapy (RT) alongside standard chemotherapy in patients with oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

Current treatment for this group of patients is systemic anti-cancer therapy. The choice of SACT is determined by the treating clinician and will be supplied from hospital commercial stock, and prepared and administered according to institutional guidelines. There is sufficient evidence regarding the safety of SABR, its effect on local control and a possible impact on overall survival. This trial will further examine overall survival, progression free survival and local control, as well as toxicity, feasibility, patient reported outcomes and health resource use.

There will be a feasibility analysis performed after 50 patients have been randomised. This will assess the practicality of achieving recruitment targets, logistics of delivering the experimental treatment and the potential for contamination (as patients may seek SABR outside of the trial if randomised to the non SABR arm). There will also be a parallel thoracic SABR safety and feasibility study after randomisation of 50 patients with thoracic metastases.

This is a multicentre randomised phase II study based on patients with oligometastatic NSCLC.

Trial arms:

Control Arm: systemic anti-cancer therapy alone (SACT) Experimental Arm: SACT plus radical RT to primary and SABR and/or SRS to metastases

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 140
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Belfast, United Kingdom
    • Belfast City Hospital
  • Birmingham, United Kingdom
    • Queen Elizabeth Hospital
  • Bristol, United Kingdom
    • Bristol Royal Infirmary
  • Cambridge, United Kingdom
    • Addenbrooke's Hospital
  • Glasgow, United Kingdom
    • BEATSON
  • Guildford, United Kingdom
    • Royal Surrey County Hospital
  • Leeds, United Kingdom
    • St James'S University Hospital
  • Leicester, United Kingdom
    • Leicester Royal Infirmary
  • London, United Kingdom
    • Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital
  • London, United Kingdom
    • The Royal Marsden hospital
  • London, United Kingdom
    • St Bart's Hospital
  • Manchester, United Kingdom
    • Christie Hospital
  • Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, United Kingdom
    • Clatterbridge Cancer Centre
  • Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
    • The James Cook University Hospital
  • Newcastle, United Kingdom
    • Freeman Hospital
  • Nottingham, United Kingdom
    • City Hospital
  • Sheffield, United Kingdom
    • Weston Park Hospital
  • Southampton, United Kingdom
    • Southampton General Hospital
  • England
    • London, England, United Kingdom
      • UCLH

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Registration Inclusion criteria

1. Patient ≥ 18 years
2. Histologically or cytologically confirmed NSCLC.
3. Staging with FDG PET-CT whole body scan and MRI brain within 45 days prior to registration (but prior to commencement of first cycle of SACT). [Note: Brain CT with IV contrast can be performed instead (within 45 days prior to registration). However, if brain metastases are evident on the brain CT then a brain MRI must be performed prior to randomisation, i.e. the Brain CT is sufficient for registration into the trial but not for randomisation if it is positive for brain metastases, in which case a brain MRI must be performed]
4. ECOG performance status 0 to 1 (prior to commencement of first cycle of SACT).
5. Patient presenting with primary disease +/- lymph nodes and synchronous oligometastatic disease (1-5 lesions in up to a maximum of 3 organs).
6. Patient is deemed fit to receive 12 weeks of induction systemic anti-cancer therapy, according to local guidelines and assessment.
7. Patient is deemed fit to receive radical RT (either conventional RT or SABR) to primary disease +/- lymph node and SABR/SRS to 1-5 metastases according to local guidelines and assessment.
8. Primary tumour +/- lymph node suitable for radical RT (either conventional RT or SABR).

9. 1-5 metastatic lesions in up to a maximum of 3 organs, assessable according to RECIST v1.1 and all of which are suitable for SABR/SRS (only one site of metastasis or primary tumour needs to be measurable according to RECIST v1.1).

   i. If brain metastasis present, the NHS commissioning guidelines need to be met for intracranial SRS (≤20 cc) (or equivalent for Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland in line with standard of care).

   ii. Lymph nodes included in the N1-3 categories of the IASLC 2009 staging criteria are treated in the conventional radiotherapy volume and are not counted as metastases.

   iii. Lymph nodes not included in the N1-3 categories of the IASLC 2009 staging criteria, e.g. pelvic lymph nodes, are counted as metastases.

   iv. For bone metastases pre-SABR stabilisation should be considered as clinically appropriate. This does not exclude the patient from the study.

10. Acceptable lung function for radical lung radiotherapy as assessed according to local policy. Note: Potential thoracic sub-study patients will need to complete pulmonary function tests pre-randomisation
11. No relevant co-morbidities, including UIP pulmonary fibrosis and connective tissue disorders.

Additional inclusion Information Patients with lung cancer and an additional malignant nodule are difficult to categorise, and the current stage classification rules are unclear. Such patients should be evaluated by the local multidisciplinary team to determine whether the additional lesion represents a second primary lung cancer or an additional tumour nodule corresponding to the dominant cancer. The SARON TMG will accept local MDM decisions on this and will centrally review all baseline imaging retrospectively

Registration Exclusion Criteria

1. Patient has had palliative radiotherapy to any tumour site prior to registration or requires palliative radiotherapy prior to randomisation.
2. Presence of an actionable molecular aberration.
3. Patients currently receiving VEGF inhibitors.
4. One or more metastases previously treated with alternative ablative treatment.Note: Surgical ablation (partial or total excision biopsy) is permitted for palliative or diagnostic purposes (e.g. for molecular analysis). Treatment for any residual disease/tumour bed will be at the discretion of treating clinician/MDT. Resected/ablated metastases will count towards the total number of metastases.
5. Patient has received any previous treatment for this NSCLC malignancy.
6. Patients who present with brain metastasis only and no sites of extra cranial metastatic disease i.e. the presence of more than 4 brain metastases is an exclusion criterion.
7. Metastasis in sites where normal radiotherapy OAR constraints cannot be met.
8. Brain metastasis within the brainstem.
9. Patients who have more than five sites of metastases in up to 3 organs prior to trial registration.
10. Primary tumour or metastases causing direct invasion or high clinical suspicion of direct invasion of the wall of a major blood vessel, oesophagus, trachea, proximal bronchial tree, stomach, intestines or mesenteric lymph nodes or cutaneous metastases or diffuse serosal metastases.
11. Malignant pleural or pericardial effusion.
12. Bilateral adrenal metastases.
13. History of prior malignant tumour likely to interfere with the protocol treatment, (patients without evidence of disease for at least 1 year or a non-melanoma skin tumour or early cervical cancer are eligible).
14. Women who are pregnant or breast feeding.
15. Stage III disease with extensive nodal disease not treatable in radical radiotherapy field.
16. Leptomeningeal disease

Eligibility Criteria for Randomisation

Following 6-8 weeks of induction SACT, patients must meet the following eligibility criteria for randomisation:

• No confirmed disease progression on pre-randomisation CT scan (according to RECIST v1.1)

  • Patients with up to 5 metastases at the time of registration but less than 5 visible after induction SACT are still eligible for randomisation.
  • Patients with no visible metastases following 6-8 weeks of induction of SACT are eligible for randomisation. If randomised to the Investigational Arm, these patients will receive RT upon relapse of metastases (patients who experience progression with new metastases are not eligible for randomisation or for trial treatment).
  • Patients with complete response of the lung primary +/- lymph nodes following 6-8 weeks of induction SACT are eligible for randomisation. Patients randomised to the Investigational Arm, should receive conventional RT to the pre-SACT involved nodal stations and to any scar residuum at the primary site.
  • Patients who progress following 2 cycles of induction of SACT cannot be randomised. Only overall survival data will be collected for these patients.
• ECOG Performance Status 0-2.
• Continued suitability for trial treatment as deemed by the treating clinician.
• Continues to meet all registration eligibility criteria, as detailed in section 6.4.1 (with the exception of ECOG status).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) alone; The choice of SACT is determined by the treating clinician and will be supplied from hospital commercial stock, and prepared and administered according to institutional guidelines.	Other: Non-investigational SACT; There is no intervention in the control group, patients will receive SACT. The choice of SACT is determined by the treating clinician and will be supplied from hospital commercial stock, and prepared and administered according to institutional guidelines.
Experimental: SACT + Radical Radiotherapy (Conventional RT and SABR); SACT followed by radical RT (conventional or SABR) to the primary and SABR to the metastatic sites. The choice of SACT is determined by the treating clinician and will be supplied from hospital commercial stock, and prepared and administered according to institutional guidelines.	Radiation: Radical Radiotherapy (Conventional RT and SABR); Radical radiotherapy (conventional or SABR) to primary and SABR to the metastases

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Overall Survival	The trial will investigate the impact of the addition of radical conventional and stereotactic radiotherapy to standard systemic therapy on overall survival	From date of randomisation to the date of death, up to 36 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Progression Free Survival	The trial will investigate the impact of the addition of radical conventional and stereotactic radiotherapy to standard systemic therapy on progression free survival	Time from randomisation until progression or death, up to 36 months.
Toxicity (radiotherapy related toxicity Adverse events)	Safety analyses will be performed on all patients who received at least one dose of chemotherapy or fraction of SRT post-randomisation. Radiotherapy-related toxicity and early and late toxicity will be investigated. Adverse events will be compared between the two groups, as well as dose delays, reductions and compliance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.	From registration to up to 36 months after the first patient is randomised
Local Tumour Control by assessment of tumours at baseline and at progression according to RECIST v1.1	The trial will investigate the impact of the addition of radical conventional and stereotactic radiotherapy to standard systemic therapy on local tumour control	From time of randomisation to time of progression or death, up to 36 months
Health Related Quality of Life using the EORTC-QLQ-C30 and EORTC-LC13 questionnaires	The health related quality of life for each treatment arm will be assessed.	From time of registration to time of death or up to 36 months
New distant metastasis-free survival		Time from randomisation until presence of new distant metastasis or death, up to 36 months
Overall Survival (from start of induction SACT)		From date of start of induction SACT to date of death, up to 36 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University College, London
• Collaborators: Cancer Research UK
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Fiona McDonald, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Conibear J, Chia B, Ngai Y, Bates AT, Counsell N, Patel R, Eaton D, Faivre-Finn C, Fenwick J, Forster M, Hanna GG, Harden S, Mayles P, Moinuddin S, Landau D. Study protocol for the SARON trial: a multicentre, randomised controlled phase III trial comparing the addition of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy and radical radiotherapy with standard chemotherapy alone for oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer. BMJ Open. 2018 Apr 17;8(4):e020690. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020690.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 19, 2016
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 20, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 15, 2015
• First Posted (Estimated): April 16, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 6, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 29, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: NSCLC; Radiotherapy; Randomised; Controlled; Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy; Oligometastatic
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Respiratory Tract Neoplasms; Thoracic Neoplasms; Lung Neoplasms; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic; Bronchial Neoplasms; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung; Investigative Techniques; Therapeutics; Surgical Procedures, Operative; Radiotherapy; Stereotaxic Techniques; Neurosurgical Procedures; Radiosurgery
• Other Study ID Numbers: UCL/13/0594

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No