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A follow-on clinical trial investigating antimalarial drug Atovaquone as a method to improve the impact of chemoradiotherapy

A phase I trial of the hypoxia modifier atovaquone in combination with radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

The ARCADIAN clinical trial is a follow on from the ATOM clinical trial. Run through the Oncology Clinical Trials Office (OCTO), this study is investigating the efficacy of using antimalarial drug Atovaquone in combination with chemoradiotherapy to improve patient survival.

Atovaquone is a safe and widely used antimalarial drug with anti-hypoxic properties. Outcomes of the ATOM trial have showed that, when given to lung cancer patients before tumour removal surgery, it increased the oxygen content of a tumour.

Tumours create a hypoxic environment for themselves to help them be more aggressive and more resistant to treatment. Reducing hypoxia is one way to improve the impact of chemoradiotherapy treatment.

ARCADIAN is looking at combining the effects of Atovaquone with chemoradiotherapy to see if it does indeed improve the effects of treatment in lung cancer patients and assessing the safety of using Atovaquone. This drug is not lung-cancer specific and has the potential to improve the impact of therapy for many types of cancers.

More information about this study can be found on the OCTO webpage. This project includes collaboration with researchers at Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre at the Western General Hospital.