MEGA Trial - Minimally invasivE versus open Gastrectomy. A multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Organizational Data

DRKS-ID:
DRKS00025765
Recruitment Status:
Recruiting ongoing
Date of registration in DRKS:
2021-12-22
Last update in DRKS:
2024-01-16
Registration type:
Prospective

Acronym/abbreviation of the study

MEGA

URL of the study

https://www.mega-trial.com/

Brief summary in lay language

Patients diagnosed with a gastric cancer tumor require removal of the stomach by surgery. The current standard is to perform this surgery openly through the abdominal cavity. This treatment leads to potentially higher complication rates, especially in elderly and obese patients. These complications, in turn, lead to higher mortality, lower quality of life, longer hospital stay, and thus a higher burden on the healthcare system. In recent years, minimally invasive surgery ("small incision surgery" or "keyhole surgery") has developed rapidly and it is already the standard in some areas and tumors of the stomach to remove. Several studies have shown fewer complications after minimally invasive surgery compared with the open approach, due to smaller wounds, less surgical trauma, less blood loss, shorter hospital stay, and faster recovery. The goal of this study is to prove that minimally invasive surgery reduces severe complications and pain, allows for better range of motion, restores physical and mental abilities more quickly, and allows for a shorter hospital stay compared to open surgery. Through this study, surgeons will be better able to educate patients about the benefits and risks of surgery using high-quality data. Potentially fewer complications will be associated with a shorter hospital stay, which in turn would reduce the burden on the healthcare system.

Brief summary in scientific language

People diagnosed with gastric tumor require surgery to remove the stomach. The previous standard is open gastrectomy. In recent years, minimally invasive surgery ("small incision surgery" or "keyhole surgery") has developed rapidly and is already replacing open surgery as the standard therapy for many general surgical operations. In gastric cancer, too, some studies show that the minimally invasive approach potentially reduces complication rates with equivalent chances of cure. The goal of this study is to show a reduction in severe complications and postoperative pain, better mobilization, faster rehabilitation, and shorter hospital stay after minimally invasive gastrectomy compared with open gastrectomy. For this reason, the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI), based on the Clavien-Dindo classification, was chosen as the primary endpoint because this well-established index encompasses all possible complications and thus also reflects the patient's assessment better than other indices. Through this study, surgeons will be better able to educate patients about the benefits and risks of surgery using high-quality data, as well as improve the surgical management of gastric cancer through low complication and faster rehabilitation of patients. This would be associated with a shorter hospital stay, which in turn would reduce the burden on the healthcare system.

Health condition or problem studied

ICD10:
C16 - Malignant neoplasm of stomach
Healthy volunteers:
No Entry

Interventions, Observational Groups

Arm 1:
Minimally invasive gastrectomy
Arm 2:
Open gastrectomy

Endpoints

Primary outcome:
Postoperative morbidity measured with the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI) until postoperative day (POD) 30
Secondary outcome:
Short-term clinical endpoints: - Postoperative morbidity measured with the CCI until POD 90 - Major complications (Clavien-Dindo ≥ 3) until POD 90 - Conversion rate - Operation time calculated from incision to skin closure - Blood loss as estimated by the surgeons - Length of stay in the ICU - Length of hospital stay - Pain and postoperative analgesic required (visual analog scale of pain and given medication) - Laboratory parameters (CRP, leucocytes) - Mobilization of the patient as time to achieved first mobilization to the edge of the bed as well as to the first postoperative walk - Quality of the patient's recovery score (QoR-15) - Quality of life (QoL) as "patient reported outcome" (PRO) using established questionnaires (EUROQOL EQ-5D-5L, EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-STO22, ADLs) - Adherence to a fast-track gastrectomy SOP - Objective evaluation of anastomoses - First bowl function and mobilization - Wound healing deficits - Vegetative function - Necessity of interventions due to complications Oncologic short-term endpoints: - Number of lymph nodes removed - Number of tumor-positive lymph nodes - Number of R0 resections - Development of tumor markers (Carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125, CA 19-9, CA 72-4, Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)) - Tumor histopathology Long-term clinical endpoints (5-year FU): - Changes of body weight - QoL as “patient reported outcome” (PRO) using established questionnaires (EUROQOL EQ-5D-5L, EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-STO22, ADLs, BIS) - Incidence of incisional hernias - Incidence of reoperations - Incidence of stenosis of anastomoses requiring interventional treatment - Cosmetic results and scar satisfaction Oncologic long-term endpoints (5-year FU): - Oncological treatment (adjuvant and consecutive therapy) - Disease-free survival; recurrence free survival - Local recurrence - Relapse-free survival - Progression-free survival - Time to progression - Overall survival

Study Design

Purpose:
Treatment
Allocation:
Randomized controlled study
Control:
  • Active control (effective treatment of control group)
Phase:
N/A
Study type:
Interventional
Mechanism of allocation concealment:
No Entry
Blinding:
No
Assignment:
Parallel
Sequence generation:
No Entry
Who is blinded:
No Entry

Recruitment

Recruitment Status:
Recruiting ongoing
Reason if recruiting stopped or withdrawn:
No Entry

Recruitment Locations

Recruitment countries:
  • Germany
  • Switzerland
Number of study centers:
Multicenter study
Recruitment location(s):
  • University medical center Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie Heidelberg

Recruitment period and number of participants

Planned study start date:
2023-12-01
Actual study start date:
2023-12-04
Planned study completion date:
No Entry
Actual Study Completion Date:
No Entry
Target Sample Size:
160
Final Sample Size:
No Entry

Inclusion Criteria

Sex:
All
Minimum Age:
18 Years
Maximum Age:
84 Years
Additional Inclusion Criteria:
- Planned total gastrectomy after first diagnosis of gastric cancer - Ability of patient to understand character and individual consequences of the clinical trial - Written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

- ECOG performance status > 2 - Planned extended gastrectomy or less than total gastrectomy (e.g. adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction (AEG) I and AEG II, distal gastric tumors of intestinal subtype) - Previous gastric surgery or extensive adhesions seriously complicating MIG - Other active oncologic disease or history of cancer limiting prognosis in comparison to the gastric cancer - Emergency setting - Language problems rendering patient unable to fill out patient reported outcome questionnaires - Participation in another intervention-trial with interference of intervention and/or outcome of this trial - Pregnancy Exclusion criteria previously or during staging laparoscopy: - T4 - M1

Addresses

Primary Sponsor

Address:
Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 420
69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Telephone:
No Entry
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry
Investigator Sponsored/Initiated Trial (IST/IIT):
Yes

Contact for Scientific Queries

Address:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
PD Dr. med. Felix Nickel
Martinstraße 52
20246 Hamburg
Germany
Telephone:
+49 (0) 40 7410-52401
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Contact for Public Queries

Address:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
PD Dr. med. Felix Nickel
Martinstraße 52
20246 Hamburg
Germany
Telephone:
+49 (0) 40 7410-52401
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Principal Investigator

Address:
Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
PD Dr. med. Felix Nickel
Martinstraße 52
20246 Hamburg
Germany
Telephone:
+49 (0) 40 7410-52401
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Sources of Monetary or Material Support

Public funding institutions financed by tax money/Government funding body (German Research Foundation (DFG), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), etc.)

Address:
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - DLR Projektträger
Heinrich-Konen-Straße 1
53170 Bonn
Germany
Telephone:
No Entry
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
http://www.bmbf.de

Ethics Committee

Address Ethics Committee

Address:
Ethikkommission der Medizinischen Fakultät Heidelberg
Alte Glockengießerei 11/1
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
Telephone:
+49-6221-338220
Fax:
+49-6221-3382222
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Vote of leading Ethics Committee

Vote of leading Ethics Committee
Date of ethics committee application:
2021-10-15
Ethics committee number:
S-816/2021
Vote of the Ethics Committee:
Approved
Date of the vote:
2021-12-09

Further identification numbers

Other primary registry ID:
No Entry
EudraCT Number:
No Entry
UTN (Universal Trial Number):
No Entry
EUDAMED Number:
No Entry

IPD - Individual Participant Data

Do you plan to make participant-related data (IPD) available to other researchers in an anonymized form?:
No
IPD Sharing Plan:
No individual participant data will be shared. Results will be published by the investigators in academic journals. Sharing of generated study data will be carried out in several different ways. We plan to make our results available to researchers and potential collaborators.

Study protocol and other study documents

Study protocols:
No Entry
Study abstract:
No Entry
Other study documents:
No Entry
Background literature:
No Entry
Related DRKS studies:
No Entry

Publication of study results

Planned publication:
No Entry
Publikationen/Studienergebnisse:
No Entry
Date of first publication of study results:
No Entry
DRKS entry published for the first time with results:
No Entry

Basic reporting

Basic Reporting / Results tables:
No Entry
Brief summary of results:
No Entry