# TIGER: standard-dose TIP versus high-dose TI-CE with stem cell transplant as first salvage for relapsed germ cell tumours

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/tiger-trial/  
OnCo record `tiger-trial` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The trial meant to settle a thirty-year argument: whether men whose germ cell tumour comes back after cisplatin should get standard salvage chemotherapy or high-dose chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant.

## Summary

Relapsed germ cell tumours are still curable, but retrospective comparisons have long suggested that high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue beats conventional-dose salvage, without a randomised proof. TIGER, run by the Alliance with European cooperative groups, randomises patients at first relapse between four cycles of TIP and the TI-CE high-dose programme. It is active and no longer recruiting, with overall survival as the primary endpoint. Patients with primary mediastinal non-seminoma, the poorest-risk extragonadal group, are among those most in need of the answer.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: active
- Last checked: 2026-09-16
- Tags: owner-request
- Registry id: NCT02375204
- Phase: 3
- Setting: First relapse of metastatic germ cell tumour after cisplatin-based chemotherapy, including extragonadal primaries: conventional-dose paclitaxel, ifosfamide and cisplatin (TIP) versus high-dose carboplatin and etoposide with autologous stem cell support after paclitaxel and ifosfamide (TI-CE); international, 420 planned, started 2015
- Sponsor: Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
- Enrolled: 420

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02375204: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02375204

## Connected records

- cancers: [Extragonadal germ cell tumour](https://onco.cc/cancers/extragonadal-germ-cell-tumour/), [Testicular germ cell tumours](https://onco.cc/cancers/testicular/)
- technologies: [Autologous stem cell transplant (high-dose therapy)](https://onco.cc/technologies/autologous-stem-cell-transplant/)
- drugs: [Carboplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/carboplatin/), [Cisplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/cisplatin/), [Etoposide](https://onco.cc/drugs/etoposide/), [Ifosfamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/ifosfamide/), [Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel](https://onco.cc/drugs/paclitaxel/)

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