Clinical trial NCT00520533
Conditions: Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC)
Keywords: Clinical trials cG250 mAb monoclonal antibody (mAb) G250 sunitinib angiogenesis inhibitors Positron-Emission Tomography Pharmacokinetics Pharmacodynamics
Sponsor: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Start date: 2008-02-01; Completion date: 2012-09-01
Enrollment: 8 participants; Allocation: NA; Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP

Brief summary:
This clinical trial explores the safety, efficacy, and effects on functional imaging of cG250 monoclonal antibody (mAb) administered intravenously weekly in combination with daily oral sunitinib, in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Detailed description:
This study explores the safety, efficacy and effects on functional imaging of the combination of cG250 and sunitinib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer).

When kidney cancer has spread beyond the kidney, it is usually not possible to cure it with surgery. Other treatments such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy are also of limited value. Kidney cancers often rely on certain proteins for their growth, particularly proteins that affect the ways that blood vessels grow into the cancer. Ingrowth of blood vessels supplies cancer cells with oxygen and nutrition; without the blood vessels, cancer deposits can not grow in size. When growth of the blood vessels is blocked, established cancers may stop growing or may shrink. This has been shown to work for some drugs that target this process in kidney cancers. One of these drugs is called sunitinib.

A protein, called G250, is also thought to be important in helping kidney cancers to grow. G250 is found on the cell surface of many kidney cancers. One possible method of interfering with the function of G250 is to target G250 with an antibody known as cG250. Clinical trials with cG250 have shown it to be safe, to home in on kidney cancer cells, and to persist in the blood and the cancer tissue for a long period of time.

The main purpose of this study is to explore whether the combination of sunitinib and cG250 is safe in patients with advanced kidney cancer. The study will also assess whether this combination is able to cause kidney cancer to shrink; will determine where cG250 travels within the body, whether the immune system reacts to the cG250 and whether sunitinib affects that; and whether the combination affects how kidney cancers grow or how blood flows within the tumour.

Eligible patients will receive cG250 10 mg/m² by weekly intravenous infusion for five weeks, followed by a two-week break (one cycle). The first and fifth dose will be trace-labeled with a radioactive substance (124I-cG250) detectable by a special scan called a Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan) to allow studies of the distribution of cG250. Sunitinib 50 mg by daily oral dose will also be given for 4 weeks (commencing on day 8 of the first treatment cycle), followed by a two-week break. Up to two cycles of treatment will be given. If a second cycle is given, cG250 will be given as four weekly doses and daily sunitinib will start on the same day. No 124I-cG250 will be administered after the first treatment cycle.

The extent of the kidney cancer will be assessed by Computed tomography (CT) at baseline and at the end of each treatment cycle. Safety assessments (physical examination, blood tests, gated cardiac blood pool scan, ECG-heart trace) will be performed at the beginning of each treatment cycle, repeated throughout the cycle and end of study. A number of blood tests and PET scans will be done in the first cycle to show how and in what amounts the 124I-cG250 distributes in the body. Other PET scans (18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose fluorodeoxyglucose {\[18\]F-FDG}) and 15O-water {\[15\]O-H2O}) will be performed to allow assessment of tumour growth and blood flow. Blood tests will also show whether the immune system recognises the infused cG250 by making an antibody against it.

A total of 14 patients were expected to be recruited; 8 were consented and 6 received study treatment.

Arms: arm 1: Treatment (cycle 1):

* cG250 10mg/m² IV weekly x 5 doses (1st \& 5th doses trace-labelled with 124I)
* Sunitinib 50 mg/day orally x 4 weeks commencing day 8
* Followed by two-week break

Treatment (cycle 2 - investigator discretion):

* cG250 10mg/m² IV weekly x4 doses
* Sunitinib 50 mg/day orally x 4 weeks (commencing concurrently)
* Followed by two-week break
Interventions: intervention 1: Chimeric monoclonal antibody cG250 intervention 2: Sunitinib malate
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: First Cycle: cG250 10 mg/m² intravenous infusion, weekly for five weeks, followed by a two-week break. 1st \& 5th dose will be trace-labeled with a radioactive substance detectable on a PET scanner (124I-cG250).

Second cycle (investigator discretion): cG250 10 mg/m² intravenous infusion, weekly for four weeks followed by a two-week break. No 124I-cG250 will be used in the 2nd cycle.

Up to 2 cycles available. intervention 2: First Cycle: Sunitinib 50 mg orally daily for 4 weeks (starts 8th day of 1st treatment cycle), followed by a two-week period off sunitinib.

Second cycle (investigator discretion): Sunitinib 50 mg orally daily for 4 weeks (starts on 1st day of 2nd treatment cycle), followed by a two-week period off sunitinib.

Up to 2 cycles available on-study.

Protocol documents: