Combining Active and Passive DNA Hypomethylation

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Clinical Trial

— EVI-3  

Official title:

Combining Active and Passive DNA Hypomethylation: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase II Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Oral Vitamin C in Combination With Azacitidine in Patients With Higher-Risk MDS, CMML-2 or Low-Blast Count AML

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03999723
• Other study ID #: H-18040929
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: September 11, 2019
• Est. completion date: December 2027

Study information

• Verified date: April 2024
• Source: Rigshospitalet, Denmark
• Contact: Kirsten Grønbæk, Prof., MD
• Phone: +45 35 45 60 86
• Email: kirsten.groenbaek[@]regionh.dk
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is a multicentre, randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, double-blind phase 2 study of the efficacy and safety of oral vitamin C supplement in combination with azacitidine in patients with higher-risk MDS, CMML-2 or low-blast count AML. The primary purpose is to investigate if oral vitamin C supplementation to azacitidine, compared with azacitidine + placebo, can increase the effectiveness of epigenetic therapy in patients with higher-risk myeloid malignancies, who are not candidates for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Description:

EVI-3 is a phase 2 international, multicentre, randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, double-blind study of the efficacy and safety of oral vitamin C supplement in combination with azacitidine (AZA) in patients with higher-risk myeloid malignancies with or without mutations in genes recurrently affected in myeloid malignancies. Treatment allocation is in 1:1 ratio (vitamin C vs. placebo) by block randomization stratified by clinical site. Study entry is staggered. Patients are randomized to either oral vitamin C 1000 mg daily or placebo from start of AZA treatment until end of study (EOS) or until AZA treatment is discontinued at the discretion of the treating physician, whichever occurs earlier. The accrual time is estimated to 48 months and 6 months follow-up, thus, maximum treatment duration will be approximately 54 months. A total of 196 patients is planned for enrollment.

Study visits are scheduled at baseline, after 1st AZA treatment cycle, after 6 AZA treatment cycles, and, if AZA treatment is continued, at EOS or end of AZA treatment. Evaluations at study visits include bone marrow investigation, peripheral blood tests, patient-reported outcome measures, adverse events and compliance. Bone marrow aspirate and peripheral blood will be collected for biobank at each study visit.

All patients will undergo follow-up once yearly from EOS. Follow-up will include information on duration of AZA therapy, survival and disease progression from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), if diagnosed following a clinical indication for a bone marrow test.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 196
• Est. completion date: December 2027
• Est. primary completion date: December 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients eligible for treatment with azacitidine with one of the following diagnoses according to World Health Organization 2016:

• MDS Higher-risk MDS according to the IPSS-R, i.e., intermediate- to very high-risk (IPSS-R score > 3)

• CMML CMML with 10-29 percent marrow blasts without myeloproliferative disorder

• AML AML with 20-30 percent blasts (low-blast count AML)

Note: Patients with therapy-related MDS are eligible if they have not received radiation or chemotherapy for six months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient eligible for allogeneic stem cell transplantation

• Prior therapy with hypomethylating agents

• Any matter constituting an exclusion criterion for treatment with azacitidine

• Patient receiving other active cancer treatment, including investigational agents, with the exception of hydroxyurea for white blood cell (WBC) control, G-CSF, and low permanent doses of steroid (= 25 mg oral prednisolone per day) for inflammatory disorders

• Therapeutic radiation or chemotherapy within the past 6 months

• History of allergic reactions to ascorbic acid

• History of kidney or urinary tract stones requiring intervention within the past year

• Lack of ability to understand the information given, or lack of willingness to sign a written informed consent document

• Unwillingness to comply with the protocol

• Unwillingness to discontinue any and all use of vitamin C medication/supplementation including multivitamin at least 3 days (but preferably longer) prior to inclusion and baseline sampling

• Planned azacitidine treatment after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =3

• Uncontrolled comorbidity including impaired hepatic function (total serum bilirubin >1.5 × upper limit of the normal range (ULN), serum alanine transaminase >3 × ULN, chronic hepatitis with decompensated cirrhosis), disabling psychiatric disease, severe neurologic disease, severe metabolic disease, or severe cardiac disease (NYHA class 3-4)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia
• Leukemia
• Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Chronic
• Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Juvenile
• Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Intervention

Dietary Supplement:
• Vitamin C
Oral vitamin C (ascorbic acid) 1000 mg daily will be administered from day 1 in the 1st AZA cycle (D1/C1) and continued until discontinuation of AZA or EOS as combination treatment.
• Placebo
Placebo capsules (two capsules once daily) will be administered from day 1 in the 1st AZA cycle (D1/C1) and continued until discontinuation of AZA or EOS.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Denmark	Aalborg University Hospital	Aalborg
Denmark	Aarhus University Hospital	Aarhus
Denmark	Herlev University Hospital	Copenhagen
Denmark	Rigshospitalet	Copenhagen
Denmark	Odense University Hospital	Odense
Denmark	Zealand University Hospital	Roskilde
Sweden	Sahlgrenska University Hospital	Gothenburg
Sweden	Skåne University Hospital	Lund
Sweden	Karolinska University Hospital	Stockholm
Sweden	Uppsala University Hospital	Uppsala

Sponsors (14)

Lead Sponsor

Collaborator

Kirsten Grønbæk

Aalborg University Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital, Imperial College London, Karolinska University Hospital, Odense University Hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, Skane University Hospital, Technical University of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, University of Southern California, Uppsala University Hospital, Van Andel Institute - Stand Up To Cancer Epigenetics Dream Team, Zealand University Hospital

Countries where clinical trial is conducted

Denmark,  Sweden, 

References & Publications (2)

Aaronson NK, Ahmedzai S, Bergman B, Bullinger M, Cull A, Duez NJ, Filiberti A, Flechtner H, Fleishman SB, de Haes JC, et al. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30: a quality-of-life instrument for use in international clinical trials in oncology. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993 Mar 3;85(5):365-76. doi: 10.1093/jnci/85.5.365. — View Citation

Goswami P, Oliva EN, Ionova T, Else R, Kell J, Fielding AK, Jennings DM, Karakantza M, Al-Ismail S, Lyness J, Collins GP, McConnell S, Langton C, Al-Obaidi MJ, Oblak M, Salek S. Paper and electronic versions of HM-PRO, a novel patient-reported outcome measure for hematology: an equivalence study. J Comp Eff Res. 2019 May;8(7):523-533. doi: 10.2217/cer-2018-0108. Epub 2019 Apr 30. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Event-free survival	Event-free survival in months in the group of patients receiving oral vitamin C + AZA (arm A) vs. the group of patients receiving placebo + AZA (arm B) calculated from the time of randomization to EOS. Event is defined as death, relapse, progression or lack of a response at 6 AZA cycles as defined by IWG 2006 (MDS and CMML) and ELN 2017 (AML) response criteria	0-54 months
Secondary	Adverse events and serious adverse events	Number and ratio of patients with adverse events in arm A vs. arm B assessed from the time of administration of intervention (day 1, AZA cycle 1 = D1/C1) to EOS. Total number of adverse events and serious adverse events and the number per year from D1/C1 to EOS in arm A vs. arm B. Number of patients discontinuing the intervention and discontinuation rate in arm A vs. arm B from D1/C1 to EOS	0-54 months
Secondary	Overall survival	Overall survival in months in arm A vs. arm B calculated from the time of randomization to EOS	0-54 months
Secondary	Overall response rate	Rate of overall response and rates of individual responses (as according to international consensus criteria), including best response, in arm A vs. arm B after 6 AZA cycles and at EOS	0-54 months
Secondary	Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures	Change in PRO measures including health-related quality of life scores (EORTC QLQ-C30 and Hematological Malignancy (HM)-PRO) from baseline to end of 1st AZA cycle, after 6 AZA cycles and EOS, if AZA treatment ongoing, respectively, in arm A vs. arm B. Numerical PRO scores after the 1st AZA cycle and after 6 AZA cycles (and EOS), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B	0-54 months
Secondary	Variant allele frequency (VAF) of mutated clones	Change in VAF of mutated clones (in percentage points and in percentage) in bone marrow mononuclear cells from baseline to end of 6th AZA cycle and to end of treatment (if occurring before EOS) in arm A vs. arm B. Number and ratio of patients with appearance of new mutations between baseline and end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment) in arm A vs. arm B. Total number of new mutations in arm A vs. arm B from baseline to end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment)	0-54 months
Secondary	Global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC)/5-methylcytosine (5-mC)	Change in global 5-hmC/5-mC in bone marrow CD34+ cells from baseline to end of 1st AZA cycle, end of 6th AZA cycle and end of treatment (if occurring before EOS), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B. Global 5-hmC/5-mC in bone marrow CD34+ cells at end of 1st AZA cycle and end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B	0-54 months
Secondary	Site specific 5-hmC/5-mC	Change in 5-hmC/5-mC at specific loci at promoters/enhancers/long terminal repeats (LTRs) or at other regulatory genomic regions of tumor suppressors, oncogenes, genes involved in hematopoietic development or human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) in bone marrow CD34+ cells from baseline to end of 1st AZA cycle, end of 6th AZA cycle and end of treatment (if occurring before EOS), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B. Site specific 5-hmC/5-mC in bone marrow CD34+ cells at end of 1st AZA cycle and end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B	0-54 months
Secondary	Gene expression	Change in expression of genes involved in viral defense pathways, cell differentiation and tumor suppression and oncogenes in bone marrow CD34+ cells from baseline end of 1st AZA cycle, end of 6th AZA cycle and end of treatment (if occurring before EOS), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B. Expression of genes involved in viral defense pathways, cell differentiation and tumor suppression in bone marrow CD34+ cells at end of 1st AZA cycle and end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B	0-54 months
Secondary	mRNA expression of HERV and HERV specific T-cell responses	Change in levels of mRNA expression of HERV in bone marrow CD34+ cells and HERV specific T-cell responses from baseline to end of 1st AZA cycle, end of 6th AZA cycle and end of treatment (if occurring before EOS), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B. Levels of HERV mRNA in bone marrow CD34+ cells and HERV specific T-cell responses at end of 1st AZA cycle and end of 6th AZA cycle (and end of treatment), respectively, in arm A vs. arm B.	0-54 months
Secondary	Duration of azacitidine (AZA) therapy	Duration of AZA therapy in patients randomized to AZA + oral vitamin C (arm A) compared to patients randomized to AZA + placebo (arm B) assessed at end of study (EOS)	0-54 months