General Anesthetics in CAncer REsection Surgery (GA-CARES) Trial

Summary

This is a large pragmatic multicenter trial comparing maintenance of general anesthesia with total intravenous anesthesia using propofol versus volatile agent (sevoflurane, isoflurane, or desflurane) during cancer surgery. The primary endpoint is all-cause mortality.

Timeline

Start

2017-01-31

Primary completion

2024-09-30

Completion

2024-09-30

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper propofol-treated patients did not exhibit better survival PMID 41363871 ↗

paper hazard ratio, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.41; P = 0.115 by exact stratified log rank test PMID 41363871 ↗

Publications

• Bennett-Guerrero E, Romeiser JL, DeMaria S, Nadler JW, Quinn TD, Ponnappan SK, Wang R, Gloff MS, Lee KJ, Levin MA, Sroka RD, Stanley SL, Wang D, Sasson AR; GA-CARES Trial Group. Anesthesia Type during Cancer Surgery: Results of the GA-CARES Randomized, Multicenter Trial. Anesthesiology. 2026 Jan 1;144(1):51-62. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000005769. Epub 2025 Dec 9.
• Bennett-Guerrero E, Romeiser JL, DeMaria S, Nadler JW, Quinn TD, Ponnappan SK, Yang J, Sasson AR. General Anesthetics in CAncer REsection Surgery (GA-CARES) randomized multicenter trial of propofol vs volatile inhalational anesthesia: protocol description. Perioper Med (Lond). 2023 Jan 11;12(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s13741-022-00290-z.

Drugs

Evaluation	Drug	Modality	Dose	Route
Subject	Desflurane	Other / unclassified	—	Inhaled
Subject	Isoflurane	Other / unclassified	—	Inhaled
Subject	Propofol	Small molecule	—	Intravenous
Subject	Sevoflurane	Other / unclassified	—	Inhaled

Indications

No indication recorded.