New Individualized Therapy Trial for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer — NITMEC  

Colorectal Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: A Phase I/II Study of Gleevec® Combined With Panitumumab (Vectibix®) in Patients Prescreened for C-kit/PDGFr Activated Pathways Using a Proteomic Based Assay

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of imatinib mesylate in combination with panitumumab for the treatment of stage IV colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver. It will also assess the whether imatinib mesylate, either alone or in combination with panitumumab, is effective in treating this type of cancer. In addition, the study will evaluate the feasibility of a predefined lab score and whether it can predict which patients will respond to treatment with imatinib mesylate.

Clinical Trial Description

Recently, a series of clinical trial outcome reports have shown that KRAS mutations (and to a lesser extent KRAS mutations with BRAF V600E mutation) significantly negatively correlate with response to anti-epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mAbs, such as panitumumab, in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. WT KRAS status was shown to be required but not sufficient to confer sensitivity to panitumumab monotherapy. The molecular mechanisms underlying the response or lack of response to EGFR-directed therapies in CRC patients with WT RAS status are unknown. Potential mechanisms of response include activation of EGFR through receptor mutation or autocrine/paracrine ligand binding, activation while tumors that do not respond to EGFR-directed therapy may have activation of other distinct pathways such as VEGF, PDGF, and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor; activating mutations of additional signaling proteins downstream of EGFR such as PI3K, and Src, or downstream of KRAS, such as RAF; and loss of function genes such as phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). Identifying prognostic and predictive biomarkers to EGFR-directed therapy will prove important for the selection of therapeutic combinations to maximize clinical benefit. In addition to ascertaining resistance mechanisms other biomarkers such as EGFR gene copy number and expression levels of EGFR ligands in tumor cells may be useful to further refine responder population. The current approach applies to the panitumumab monotherapy and indicates that KRAS status should be considered when selecting mCRC patients as candidates for treatment. Thus, patients who are found to harbor KRAS mutation(s) as identified in the pre-treatment liver biopsy specimen will not be eligible for continuation on the trial, but following patient consent, the pre-treatment biopsy will be studied for pathway activation analysis by a CAP/CLIA compliant independent laboratory for research purposes only in the hopes for generating future hypothesis on pathway activation correlating with KRAS mutation status and help extend research into predictive pathway biomarkers for anti-EGFR therapy.

This is a two arm prospective non-randomized study that is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of Gleevec and Vectibix in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer to the liver. It also studies the change in phosphorylation levels of Gleevec® targets (PGDT) and tumor burden in patients treated with Gleevec® monotherapy followed by Gleevec® + Vectibix® combination therapy versus treatment with standard of care (panitumumab). ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Colorectal Cancer
• Colorectal Neoplasm
• Colorectal Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00867334
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Inova Health Care Services
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Start date: June 2009
• Completion date: August 2011