The HCQ trial, a trial run by the CR UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre, was a randomised phase 2 trial investigating the additional benefit of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to short course radiotherapy (SCRT) in patients aged 70 years and older with high grade gliomas (HGG). The final analysis for the HCQ trial has recently been published in Neuro-Oncology Advances.
The trial recruited between 2013 and 2016 with 54 patients randomised. The study aimed to investigate whether the administration of hydroxychloroquine with short-course radiotherapy to patients with high grade gliomas aged 70 years and older had an effect on one-year survival compared to short-course radiotherapy alone. The trial also looked to assess the toxicity associated with administering hydroxychloroquine with short-course radiotherapy. On the advice of the Independent Data Monitoring Committee, the study stopped recruitment slightly earlier than anticipated due to better than expected outcomes in the control arm.
The main findings from the analysis are:
• hydroxychloroquine with short-course radiotherapy did not improve survival compared to radiotherapy alone in elderly patients with glioblastoma
• standard doses of hydroxychloroquine may not enhance tumour regression with short-course radiotherapy
• there were more grade 3–5 events in the hydroxychloroquine group versus radiotherapy alone without any clear common causation.
Although the trial did not complete recruitment, the results do add useful information regarding the potential use of authophagy inhibition in glioma and other solid tumours.