Conventional partial pancreatoduodenectomy versus an extended pancreatoduodenectomy (triangle operation) for pancreatic head cancers – the randomized controlled TRIANGLE trial

Organizational Data

DRKS-ID:
DRKS00030576
Recruitment Status:
Recruiting planned
Date of registration in DRKS:
2022-12-19
Last update in DRKS:
2024-02-05
Registration type:
Prospective

Acronym/abbreviation of the study

TRIANGLE

URL of the study

No Entry

Brief summary in lay language

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in Germany with an increasing incidence. In more than 50% of patients, a disease stage with distant metastases is already present at the time of diagnosis, so that only palliative chemotherapy can be given. After surgical therapy, which is the only curative approach, one of the main reasons for disease recurrence is local recurrence, with most local recurrences found in the soft tissue area along the coeliac trunk and superior mesenteric artery. Therefore, it is believed that radical resection in this area could lead to a lower risk of local recurrence. Such a radical resection, in which all soft tissue in this "triangle" is removed, has not yet been investigated in a randomized-controlled trial in the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer. The TRIANGLE trial is therefore designed to investigate the effect of such therapy with respect to recurrence rate and survival of patients with pancreatic cancer. With equal severity of adverse effects, if disease-free time improves, more extended Whipple's surgery could become the new standard of care for affected patients.

Brief summary in scientific language

The multicentre randomised controlled TRIANGLE trial aims to evaluate whether a more radical dissection along the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and removal of all lymphatic and soft tissue between the celiac artery (CA), the mesenterico-portal axis (MPA) and the SMA (the so called “triangle”) during partial pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) in comparison to conventional PD increases disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with carcinomas of the pancreatic head.

Health condition or problem studied

ICD10:
C25.0 - Head of pancreas
Healthy volunteers:
No

Interventions, Observational Groups

Arm 1:
Triangle procedure: Partial pancreatoduodenectomy with - Radical soft tissue dissection along the superior mesenteric artery (level 3 as described by Inoue et al.) for at least 180 degree on the right (5 to 11 o’clock) AND - Complete dissection of the soft tissue between celiac artery/trunk, SMA and the mesenterico-portal axis
Arm 2:
Control intervention (standard Whipple): - Standard dissection of the SMA according to Inoue level 1 or 2 - Standard lymphadenectomy according to German S3-guidelines

Endpoints

Primary outcome:
Disease free survival (DFS) after index operation, defined as the time from randomisation until disease recurrence (local recurrence or metastases) or death from any cause
Secondary outcome:
1. Rate of a. microscopically complete circumferential resection margin (CRM) clearance (>0.1cm margin clearance, R0(CRM-)) b. microscopic margin clearance ≤0.1cm (R0(CRM+)) c. microscopic margin involvement (R1) resections according to the 8th edition of the UICC TNM classification 2. Rate of the following PD-associated postoperative complications within 90 days after the index operation: a. Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) as defined by the International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery (ISGPS) b. Postpancreatectomy haemorrhage (PPH) as defined by the ISGPS c. Delayed gastric emptying as defined by the ISGPS d. Bile leakage as defined by the International Study Group of Liver Surgery (ISGLS) e. Lymphatic fistula as defined by the ISGPS f. Diarrhoea as graded by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0 3. All other postoperative complications graded according to the Dindo-Clavien classification within 90 days 4. Overall survival within study period 5. Local recurrence within study period 6. Quality of life according to EORTC QLQ-C30 and PAN26 7. Quality of recovery according to QoR-15 questionnaire 8. Length of primary hospital stay 9. Serious adverse events in both groups

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:
Yes
Assignment:
Parallel
Sequence generation:
No Entry
Who is blinded:
  • Assessor
  • Patient/subject

Recruitment

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

Recruitment Locations

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

Recruitment period and number of participants

Planned study start date:
2024-03-31
Actual study start date:
No Entry
Planned study completion date:
No Entry
Actual Study Completion Date:
No Entry
Target Sample Size:
270
Final Sample Size:
No Entry

Inclusion Criteria

Sex:
All
Minimum Age:
18 Years
Maximum Age:
no maximum age
Additional Inclusion Criteria:
Preoperative inclusion criteria: − Patients with suspected or histologically verified resectable, borderline or locally advanced pancreatic cancer of the pancreatic head (i.e. pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, IPMN (Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms) carcinoma or periampullary cancer of the pancreatobiliary-type) − Patients scheduled for elective partial pancreatoduodenectomy (irrespective of neoadjuvant therapy) − Assumed resectability in accordance with the surgical protocol for experimental and control intervention as judged by the treating surgeon − Ability of subject to understand character and individual consequences of the clinical trial − Written informed consent − Age ≥18 years Intraoperative inclusion criteria (prior to randomisation): − No distant metastases − No paraaortic lymph node metastases − Intraoperative confirmation that the patient can be operated according to both surgical methods (experimental or control group)

Exclusion Criteria

- Participation in another interventional trial with interference of intervention and outcome of this trial − American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade > 3 − Distant metastatic disease

Addresses

Primary Sponsor

Address:
Klinik für Allgemeine, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Prof. Dr. med. André Mihaljevic
Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3
72074 Tübingen
Germany
Telephone:
+4970712986620
Fax:
+4970712986620
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry
Investigator Sponsored/Initiated Trial (IST/IIT):
Yes

Contact for Scientific Queries

Address:
Klinik für Allgemeine, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Prof. Dr. André Mihaljevic
Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3
72074 Tübingen
Germany
Telephone:
+4970712986620
Fax:
+4970712986620
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Contact for Public Queries

Address:
Klinik für Allgemeine, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Prof. Dr. André Mihaljevic
Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3
72074 Tübingen
Germany
Telephone:
+4970712986620
Fax:
+4970712986620
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Principal Investigator

Address:
Klinik für Allgemeine, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen
Prof. Dr. André Mihaljevic
Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3
72074 Tübingen
Germany
Telephone:
+4970712986620
Fax:
+4970712986620
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:
BMBF - DLR Projektträger
Heinrich-Konen-Straße 1
53227 Bonn
Germany
Telephone:
No Entry
Fax:
No Entry
Contact per E-Mail:
Contact per E-Mail
URL:
No Entry

Ethics Committee

Address Ethics Committee

Address:
Ethikkommission der Universität Ulm
Helmholtzstr. 20
89081 Ulm
Germany
Telephone:
+49-731-50022050
Fax:
No Entry
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:
2022-12-05
Ethics committee number:
404/22
Vote of the Ethics Committee:
Approved
Date of the vote:
2022-12-07

Further identification numbers

Other primary registry ID:
No Entry
EudraCT Number:
No Entry
UTN (Universal Trial Number):
U1111-1243-4412
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?:
Yes
IPD Sharing Plan:
Anonymous data will be publicly available for re- and meta-analyses after completion of the trial

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