LATEST NEWS: 17 September 2026

The first Australian site is now open for a new TROG trial exploring the role of radiation therapy in managing metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne this month opened as the first site recruiting participants for the TROG 21.10/TOGA 20-005 PRIME-Lung (Primary Radiotherapy in Metastatic Lung) trial.

The study will investigate whether adding radiation therapy to standard systemic treatment early after diagnosis of metastatic NSCLC improves overall survival and patient quality of life.

The trial, funded through a $1.5 million Medical Research Future Fund grant, aims to enrol a total of 420 patients with advanced lung cancer from across 15 Australian sites, as well as centres in Ireland and Canada.

TROG is the primary sponsor of the phase III registry-based trial, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Thoracic Oncology Group Australasia (TOGA), the Canadian Pulmonary Radiation Investigators (CAPRI), the Irish Cancer Trials Group (ICTG) and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre/AURORA registry database.

Trial participants will be randomised to receive either standard of care (systematic chemotherapy and immunotherapy) or standard of care plus radiation therapy to the primary tumour in the lung.

It is thought that giving early, highly targeted radiation therapy might reduce the risk of further metastatic spread of the cancer, thereby improving survival outcomes.

The trial is led Prof Shankar Siva, from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, who said there was an urgent need to improve lung cancer outcomes, which are particularly poor once the cancer has spread.

“Current treatment strategies in advanced lung cancer rely on drug treatments, however, patients inevitably develop resistance to treatment, so we need to explore alternatives,” he said. “We aim to show that when we eradicate the primary tumour with radiotherapy, we also enhance the impact of drug treatments and can prevent the further spread of cancer to other sites in the body.”