High-Dose Chemotherapy Compared With Standard Chemotherapy and Lung Radiation in Ewing Sarcoma With Pulmonary Metastases: Results of the European Ewing Tumour Working Initiative of National Groups, 99 Trial and EWING 2008

Dirksen U, Brennan B, Le Deley MC, Cozic N, van den Berg H, Bhadri V, Brichard B, Claude L, Craft A, Amler S, Gaspar N, Gelderblom H, Goldsby R, Gorlick R, Grier HE, Guinbretiere JM, Hauser P, Hjorth L, Janeway K, Juergens H, Judson I, Krailo M, Kruseova J, Kuehne T, Ladenstein R, Lervat C, Lessnick SL, Lewis I, Linassier C, Marec-Berard P, Marina N, Morland B, Pacquement H, Paulussen M, Randall RL, Ranft A, Le Teuff G, Wheatley K, Whelan J, Womer R, Oberlin O, Hawkins DS. High-Dose Chemotherapy Compared With Standard Chemotherapy and Lung Radiation in Ewing Sarcoma With Pulmonary Metastases: Results of the European Ewing Tumour Working Initiative of National Groups, 99 Trial and EWING 2008. J Clin Oncol. 2019 Dec 1;37(34):3192-3202. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.00915. Epub 2019 Sep 25. PubMed PMID: 31553693; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6881099.

The R2Pulm trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of busulfan-melphalan high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell rescue (BuMel) without whole-lung irradiation (WLI) on event-free survival (main end point) and overall survival, compared with standard chemotherapy with WLI in Ewing sarcoma (ES) presenting with pulmonary and/or pleural metastases. From 2000 to 2015, we enrolled patients younger than 50 years of age with newly diagnosed ES and with only pulmonary or pleural metastases. Patients received chemotherapy with six courses of vincristine, ifosfamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide (VIDE) and one course of vincristine, dactinomycin, and ifosfamide (VAI) before either BuMel or seven courses of VAI and WLI (VAI plus WLI) by randomized assignment. The analysis was conducted as intention to treat. The estimates of the hazard ratio (HR), 95% CI, and P value were corrected for the three previous interim analyses by the inverse normal method.