Gemcitabine With or Without Exatecan Mesylate in Treating Patients With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: A Randomized, Open-Label, Multicenter Phase III Study Comparing the Efficacy and Safety of a Combination of Intravenous DX-8951f (Exatecan Mesylate) Plus Gemcitabine to Gemcitabine Alone in Patients With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Cancer of the Exocrine Pancreas Who Have Not Received Prior Chemotherapy

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known if gemcitabine is more effective with or without exatecan mesylate in treating pancreatic cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of gemcitabine alone to that of gemcitabine and exatecan mesylate in treating patients who have locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Clinical Trial Description

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the overall survival of patients with chemotherapy-naive locally advanced or metastatic cancer of the exocrine pancreas treated with exatecan mesylate and gemcitabine versus gemcitabine alone.

• Compare the measures of clinical benefit in patients treated with these regimens.

• Compare the anti-tumor efficacy of these regimens in this patient population.

• Determine the safety profile of exatecan mesylate and gemcitabine in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to performance status (60% vs 70-80% vs 90-100%), extent of disease (locally advanced vs metastatic), and prior radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer (yes or no). Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms.

• Arm I: Patients receive exatecan mesylate (DX-8951f) IV over 30 minutes immediately followed by gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1 and 8. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

• Arm II: Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes once weekly for up to 7 weeks followed by one week of rest (course 1). For all subsequent courses, patients receive gemcitabine once weekly for 3 weeks followed by one week of rest. Treatment repeats every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed monthly.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 340 patients (170 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 18 months. ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Pancreatic Cancer
• Pancreatic Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00023972
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Daiichi Sankyo Inc.
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 3
• Start date: July 2001
• Completion date: April 2005