PG2 Treatment for Improving Fatigue Among Advanced Cancer Patients Under Standard Palliative Care

Summary

The objective of this study is to conduct a trial in the spirit of providing as much as possible the benefit of PG2 treatment to eligible patients and to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PG2 for relieving fatigue among advanced cancer patients who are under standard palliative care (SPC) at hospice setting and have no further curative options available. Patient's fatigue status, to be measured by the Brief Fatigue Inventory-Taiwanese Form (BFI-T), will be the primary endpoint. The fatigue improvement response rate among patients between two study arms will then be compared as the basis for efficacy evaluation at the end of the first treatment cycle, and will be the primary endpoint. Other endpoints, the fatigue improvement response rate and the mean fatigue scores change from baseline among patients within and between cycles will be included in the secondary efficacy endpoints, and will be compared between two study arms. Patients' quality of sleep, appetite, pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and global quality of life (QoL) will be also measured by 11 questions (SS11) from EORTC QLQ-C30 for secondary endpoint evaluation. The other secondary endpoints include Karnofsky performance scores, and weight change and its related c-reactive protein level of the patients. \* BFI-T (Brief Fatigue Inventory - Taiwan) : The BFI is a 9-item self-administered questionnaire which was developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center offers assessing levels of fatigue. Subjects rate each item based on how they felt for the preceding week using a 1-10 numeric rating scale (10 being the most unfavorable response). The single construct of the BFI allows for the mean of the nine items to be the overall score. The score is categorized as mild (1-3), moderate (4-6), and severe (7-10). The scale is a reliable instrument that correlates highly with similar fatigue and performance status measures.

Timeline

Start

2007-08

Primary completion

2008-01

Completion

2008-04

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.