A Study to Give Treatment Inside the Eye to Treat Retinoblastoma

Unilateral Retinoblastoma Clinical Trial

Official title:

Intravitreal Melphalan for Intraocular Retinoblastoma

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05504291
• Other study ID #: ARET2121
• Secondary ID: NCI-2022-06082AR
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: November 4, 2022
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2026

Study information

• Verified date: May 2024
• Source: Children's Oncology Group
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This phase II trial tests the safety and side effects of adding melphalan (by injecting it into the eye) to standard chemotherapy in early treatment of patients with retinoblastoma (RB). RB is a type of cancer that forms in the tissues of the retina (the light-sensitive layers of nerve tissue at the back of the eye). It may be hereditary or nonhereditary (sporadic). RB is considered harder to treat (higher risk) when there are vitreous seeds present. Vitreous seeds are RB tumors in the jelly-like fluid of the eye (called the vitreous humor). The term, risk, refers to the chance of the cancer not responding to treatment or coming back after treatment. Melphalan is in a class of medications called alkylating agents. It may kill cancer cells by damaging their deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and stopping them from dividing. Other chemotherapy drugs given during this trial include carboplatin, vincristine, and etoposide. Carboplatin is in a class of medications known as platinum-containing compounds. It works in a way similar to the anticancer drug cisplatin, but may be better tolerated than cisplatin. Carboplatin works by killing, stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells. Vincristine is in a class of medications called vinca alkaloids. It works by stopping cancer cells from growing and dividing and may kill them. Etoposide is in a class of medications known as podophyllotoxin derivatives. It blocks a certain enzyme needed for cell division and DNA repair and may kill cancer cells. Adding melphalan to standard chemotherapy early in treatment may improve the ability to treat vitreous seeds and may be better than standard chemotherapy alone in treating retinoblastoma.

Description:

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To determine the feasibility of administering intravitreal melphalan by cycle 6 when given in combination with systemic carboplatin, vincristine, and etoposide (CVE) for the treatment of Group D retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine the safety and toxicity profile associated with intravitreal melphalan in combination with systemic CVE for the treatment of Group D retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding.

II. To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal melphalan in conjunction with systemic chemotherapy in Group D intraocular retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding.

EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine if eyes that become eligible for injection at cycle 3 or later would have been eligible for injection at diagnosis by retrospective central review of examination under anesthesia (EUA) and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) images from diagnosis.

II. To validate and standardize the extraction, storage and collection protocols across multiple centers to demonstrate that aqueous humor from eyes undergoing therapy have high enough tumor-derived deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) concentration for whole genome sequencing and RB1 testing.

III. To explore the relationship between highly-recurrent retinoblastoma (RB) somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) and ocular salvage as well as tumor fraction (% of tumor DNA) as a marker of minimal residual disease and risk of intraocular disease relapse.

IV. To evaluate the effects of intravitreal melphalan therapy in the histopathology of enucleated eyes for progressive or recalcitrant retinoblastoma while on therapy.

V. To evaluate the long-term visual potential of eyes salvaged using intravitreal therapy.

OUTLINE:

CYCLES 1-2: Patients receive CVE regimen consisting of: carboplatin intravenously (IV) over 15-60 minutes on days 1 and 2 of each cycle, vincristine IV on day 1 of each cycle, and etoposide IV over 90-120 minutes on day 1 and 2 of each cycle. Treatment repeats every 28 days for up to 2 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) and imaging of the eye during a procedure called examination under anesthesia (EUA) at baseline and prior to each cycle. NOTE: UBM is completed prior to cycle 1 only.

CYCLES 3+: Patients receive CVE regimen as in cycles 1-2. Patients also undergo EUA prior to each cycle to determine eligibility to receive melphalan. If found eligible, patients receive intravitreal injection of melphalan once between days -14 to 14 of each cycle. Patients who are not eligible for melphalan for any cycle receive CVE only regimen for that cycle. Treatment repeats every 28 days for up to 4 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. NOTE: Patients may be eligible to receive additional cycles of melphalan alone (maximum of 6 injections).

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up periodically until 5 years from study enrollment.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 28
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2026
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2026
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A to 18 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient must be < 18 years of age at enrollment

• Patient must have newly diagnosed intraocular (localized) retinoblastoma and meet one of the following criteria:

• Unilateral Group D retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding; OR

• Bilateral retinoblastoma with worst eye Group D, with vitreous seeding present and the contralateral eye is Group A-C; OR

• Bilateral retinoblastoma with one Group D eye with vitreous seeding and one Group E eye where the Group E eye has been enucleated prior to any therapy. Note exclusion for high-risk features

• Patients must have a performance status corresponding to Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scores of 0, 1 or 2. Use Karnofsky for patients > 16 years of age and Lansky for patients =<16 years of age

• Peripheral absolute neutrophil count (ANC) >= 750/uL (must be performed within 7 days prior to enrollment unless otherwise indicated)

• Platelet count >= 75,000/uL (transfusion independent) (must be performed within 7 days prior to enrollment)

• A serum creatinine based on age/gender as follows (must be performed within 7 days prior to enrollment; must be repeated prior to the start of protocol therapy if > 7 days have elapsed from their most recent prior assessment):

• 1 month to < 6 months = 0.4 (male and female)

• 6 months to < 1 year = 0.5 (male and female)

• 1 to < 2 years = 0.6 (male and female)

• 2 to < 6 years = 0.8 (male and female)

• 6 to < 10 years = 1.0 (male and female)

• 10 to < 13 years = 1.2 (male and female)

• 13 to < 16 years = 1.5 (male) and 1.4 (female)

• >= 16 years = 1.7 (male) and 1.4 (female) OR - a 24-hour urine Creatinine clearance >= 70 mL/min/1.73 m^2 OR - a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) >= 70 mL/min/1.73 m^2. GFR must be performed using direct measurement with a nuclear blood sampling method OR direct small molecule clearance method (iothalamate or other molecule per institutional standard)

• Note: Estimated GFR (eGFR) from serum creatinine, cystatin C or other estimates are not acceptable for determining eligibility

• For patients < 1 month of age, serum creatinine levels must be < 1.5 x the treating institution's creatinine upper limit of normal (ULN) for patients < 1 month of age or the creatinine clearance or radioisotope GFR must be >= 70 mL/min/1.73 m^2

• Total bilirubin =< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) for age (must be performed within 7 days prior to enrollment; must be repeated prior to the start of protocol therapy if > 7 days have elapsed from their most recent prior assessment)

• Serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) (alanine aminotransferase [ALT]) =< 135 U/L (must be performed within 7 days prior to enrollment; must be repeated prior to the start of protocol therapy if > 7 days have elapsed from their most recent prior assessment)

• Note: For the purpose of this study, the ULN for SGPT (ALT) has been set to the value of 45 U/L

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with evidence of metastatic or extra-orbital spread

• Patients must not have an invasive infection at time of protocol entry

• Patients must not have had any prior anti-cancer therapy to the study eye(s), including focal, local, or systemic chemotherapy or radiation therapy

• Note: A study eye is defined as being Group D with vitreous seeding. Patients may have had enucleation of one eye as long as the remaining eye is Group D with vitreous seeds

• Patients with no reasonable expectation for any useful vision in the Group D eye as determined by the treating physician

• Patients with bilateral disease who undergo enucleation of a Group E eye prior to initiation of therapy and show evidence of high-risk histopathology features in the enucleated eye. High-risk histopathology includes choroid involvement >= 3 mm, post lamina optic nerve involvement, full thickness scleral invasion or optic nerve invasion to the cut end

• Female patients who are pregnant since fetal toxicities and teratogenic effects have been noted for several of the study drugs. A pregnancy test is required for female patients of childbearing potential

• Lactating females who plan to breastfeed their infants

• Sexually active patients of reproductive potential who have not agreed to use an effective contraceptive method for the duration of their study participation

• All patients and/or their parents or legal guardians must sign a written informed consent

• All institutional, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Cancer Institute (NCI) requirements for human studies must be met

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Retinoblastoma
• Unilateral Retinoblastoma

Intervention

Procedure:
• Biospecimen Collection
Undergo correlative studies

Drug:
• Carboplatin
Given IV
• Etoposide
Given IV

Procedure:
• Examination Under Anesthesia
Undergo imaging of the eye during EUA

Drug:
• Melphalan
Given I-VITRE

Procedure:
• Ultrasound Biomicroscopy
Undergo UBM during EUA

Drug:
• Vincristine
Given IV

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Australia	Perth Children's Hospital	Perth	Western Australia
United States	Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron	Akron	Ohio
United States	C S Mott Children's Hospital	Ann Arbor	Michigan
United States	Children's Hospital Colorado	Aurora	Colorado
United States	Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas	Austin	Texas
United States	Children's Hospital of Alabama	Birmingham	Alabama
United States	Cleveland Clinic Foundation	Cleveland	Ohio
United States	UT Southwestern/Simmons Cancer Center-Dallas	Dallas	Texas
United States	Duke University Medical Center	Durham	North Carolina
United States	Baylor College of Medicine/Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center	Houston	Texas
United States	M D Anderson Cancer Center	Houston	Texas
United States	Children's Hospital Los Angeles	Los Angeles	California
United States	Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital	Memphis	Tennessee
United States	Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford University	Palo Alto	California
United States	Washington University School of Medicine	Saint Louis	Missouri

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Children's Oncology Group

Countries where clinical trial is conducted

United States,  Australia, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Retrospective central review of examination under anesthesia and ultrasound biomicroscopy images	In order to determine if eyes that become eligible for injection at cycle 3 or later would have been eligible for injection at diagnosis, the retrospective central review on images from diagnosis for eyes that are eligible for injection at cycle 3 or later will be summarized.	Cycle 3 or later(1 cycle = 28 days)
Other	Validate and standardize the aqueous humor extraction, storage, and collection protocols across multiple centers	Extract tumor-derived deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), from aqueous humor, for whole genome sequencing and retinoblastoma (RB)1 testing.	Up to 5 years
Other	Highly-recurrent RB somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) tumor fraction	Will explore the relationship between highly-recurrent RB SCNAs and tumor fraction (% of tumor DNA) as a marker of minimal residual disease and risk of intraocular disease relapse.	Up to 5 years
Other	Tumor fraction	Will explore the relationship between highly-recurrent RB SCNAs and ocular salvage as well as tumor fraction (% of tumor DNA) as a marker of minimal residual disease and risk of intraocular disease relapse.	Up to 5 years
Other	Proportion of enucleated eyes with particular histopathological characteristics that are known or suspected to affect prognosis adversely	Will be calculated along with the 95% confidence interval. The number of evaluable eyes for this aim will depend on the ocular salvage rate.	Up to 5 years
Other	Long-term visual potential	Eligible patients who retain the affected eye will be evaluated for visual acuity. The visual acuity will be evaluated prior to cycle 1 and at one year from end of therapy, if age-appropriate. The visual acuity data will be summarized by evaluation time points.	Up to 5 years
Primary	Feasibility success rate of intravitreal melphalan injection in combination with systemic chemotherapy	A patient will be considered to have experienced intravitreal injection feasibility success if intravitreal melphalan can be delivered by cycle 6. If the treating physician does not inject because the eye has a full complete response (CR) for vitreous seeds after 2 cycles of systemic chemotherapy, it will be counted as a success in the feasibility analysis. Any feasibility evaluable patient who does not experience feasibility success will be considered a feasibility failure. For a bilateral patient with two Group D eyes with vitreous seeds, he/she will be categorized based on the worse results with the intent of being conservative, i.e., if intravitreal melphalan can be delivered in one eye but not the other by cycle 6 for any reason other than a CR of vitreal seeds, the patient will be deemed as experiencing a failure.	Up to cycle 6 (1 cycle = 28 days)
Secondary	Percentage of patients with grade 3 or higher toxicities	Any eligible patient who receives protocol therapy will be considered as evaluable for toxicity.	Up to 30 days after last dose of study treatment
Secondary	Event-free survival (EFS)	Any eligible patient who receives protocol therapy will be considered as evaluable for EFS. Patients who need non-protocol chemotherapy, external beam radiotherapy, or enucleation will be considered as having a treatment failure and be considered as experiencing EFS events. The analysis will be conducted per patient level. The EFS along with the 95% confidence intervals will be estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.	Up to 5 years