Trial of Afatinib in Combination With Weekly Paclitaxel in the Second Line Treatment

Esophageal Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: Phase II Trial of Afatinib in Combination With Weekly Paclitaxel in the Second Line Treatment of HER2 Amplified Advanced Gastric, Gastroesophageal Junction and Esophageal Cancer

Status Withdrawn

Clinical Trial Summary

The investigators are doing this research program to find out if the investigational drug, afatinib which is a medication known to block the function of the ErbB2 protein might help standard chemotherapy, in particular paclitaxel, work better.

Afatinib (GILOTRIF) is a highly potent, irreversible inhibitor of the EGFR and HER2. On July 12, 2013 the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) approved afatinib for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors had specific EGFR gene mutations (exon 19 deletions or exon 21 i.e. L858R substitution mutations) as detected by an FDA approved test.

Paclitaxel is a standard, anti-cancer medicine that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of lung cancer.

The combination of Afatinib and Paclitaxel are considered investigational when used in this research program. An investigational drug is a drug that is not approved by the FDA for its indication.

Clinical Trial Description

Standard Procedures:

Subjects are offered second line chemotherapy with paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 intravenous infusion over 60 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle until disease progression or intolerable toxicity.

Experimental Procedures:

In addition to the standard chemotherapy, afatinib 40 mg orally once daily will be administered starting on the first day of paclitaxel. Translational studies to assess circulating tumor cells at the start of therapy and then at several later time points, including at the time of progression. These studies will assess the correlation of circulating tumor cell numbers with radiographic response and pilot studies will also be conducted to assess HER2 expression, HER2 genomic amplification, HER2 pathway activation and secondary genetic changes in the HER2 coding sequence as well as other pathway components. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Esophageal Cancer
• Esophageal Neoplasms
• Gastrooesophageal Cancer
• HER-2 Positive Gastric Cancer
• Stomach Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT02274012
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Columbia University
• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: May 29, 2014
• Completion date: August 12, 2015