A randomized controlled phase III study comparing hadrontherapy with carbon ions versus conventional radiotherapy - including photon and proton therapy - for the treatment of radioresistant tumors: the ETOILE trial.

Background: Some cancers such as sarcomas (bone and soft tissue sarcomas) and adenoid cystic carcinomas are considered as radioresistant to low linear energy transfer radiation (including photons and protons) and may therefore beneficiate from a carbon ion therapy. Despite encouraging results obtained in phase I/II trials compared to historical data with photons, the spread of carbon ions has been limited mainly because of the absence of randomized medical data. The French health authorities stressed the importance of having randomized data for carbon ion therapy.

Epidemiological study of the incidence of cancers eligible for proton or carbon ions therapy: methodology and results of recruitment estimation.

Context. Hadrontherapy is an innovative form of radiotherapy using beams of protons or carbon ions able to destroy some radio-resistant tumours. Because these tumours are highly specific amongst all cancerous tumours, it is impossible to determine the incidence of these diseases from surveillance registries.