MRC SUPREMO- a Phase III randomised trial to assess the role of adjuvant chest wall irradiation in intermediate risk breast cancer after mastectomy.

The 500th patient was recruited to SUPREMO on 26th Aug 09 from University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands.  At the equivalent time last year, accrual was 250 patients, so recruitment has doubled over the last 12 months.  This represents an important milestone for the trial and the SUPREMO team would like to congratulate Dr John Henry Maduro, Petra Vos and colleagues in Groningen for randomising the 500th patient and contributing to this significant landmark. 

The SUPREMO team would also like to congratulate the research teams at the following sites for their valued contributions during August:

• Dr Liz Sherwin, Dr Ramachandran Venkitaraman, Mrs Christine MacKenzie and Ms Mandy Evans at Ipswich Hospital who randomised their 1st patient to the trial in August.

• Dr Adrian Harnett, Dr Jane Beety, Ms Suzanne Penny and Mrs Lucy Fagan who also randomised the 1st patient from James Paget University Hospital, Great Yarmouth.

• Dr Richard Welsh, Mrs Zoë Gall and Mr Hemant Patel at Royal Bolton Hospital for randomising 3 patients to the trial in August, making their total accrual a most impressive 10 patients since opening to recruitment 12 months ago.  Also- we would like to give Hemant a very warm welcome to SUPREMO and wish him well in his new role as Senior Clinical Trials Administrator at Bolton.

• Prof Ye-xiong Li & Assoc Prof Shulian Wang, Chinese Acad of Med Sciences, Beijing for randomising a further 3 patients to the trial during August.  The site have now randomised 5 patients since opening to recruitment in July 09. 

• Dr Vivek Misra, Ms Wendy Cook and Ms Joanne Johnson for completing all the necessary approvals to open SUPREMO to recruitment at Royal Oldham Hospital.

• Dr Xiang-hui Du and colleagues at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou and Prof Ping Li and colleagues at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu for rapidly progressing through the approvals processes to open these further 2 sites from the Chinese Network of 9 hospitals.   

• Dr Patrice Cellier, Dr Boisdron- Celle, Dr  Véronique Verriele and Mme Claire Le Hetet for completing all the necessary approvals required to open the Centre Paul Papin, Angers, France.  This represents the 28th EORTC site to open SUPREMO.

The SUPREMO team would like to thank the research teams at the following sites who have also randomised patients to SUPREMO during August [patients in Aug/ total patients recruited to date by site]:

Dr Nicola Russell, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2/19)
Dr Victoria Reyes Lopez, Hospital General Vall D'Hebron, Barcelona (2/4)
Dr Carla Warlam-Rodenhuis, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands (2/6)
Dr Peter Canney, Beatson Oncology Centre, Glasgow (1/16)
Dr Perric Crellin, Dorset County Hospital (1/7)
Dr Kay Kelly, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness (3/6)
Dr Katherine Piggott, Royal Free Hospital, London (1/2)
Dr Chris Cottrill, Barts & The London NHS Trust (1/4)
Dr Peter Bliss, Torbay Hospital (1/3)
Dr Helen Westenberg, Arnhems Radiotherapeutisch Instituut, Netherlands (1/28)
Dr JJ Jager, Maastro Clinic, Maastricht, Netherlands (3/4)
Dr SB Oei, Dr Bernard Verbeeten Instituut, Tilburg, The Netherlands (1/3)
Dr Fuh Yong Wong, National Cancer Centre Singapore (1/2)
Dr Katsumasa Kuroi, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Japan (1/2)

533 patients have now been recruited to SUPREMO and we would like to thank you for your continued support for the trial and for helping us reach the milestone of 500 patients.

With kind regards,
Professor Ian Kunkler
Chief Investigator, MRC/EORTC SUPREMO trial