Conditions: Kidney Cancer
Keywords: stage IV renal cell cancer recurrent renal cell cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 26
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
RATIONALE: Tretinoin may help kidney cancer cells develop into normal cells. Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of cancer cells.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of liposomal tretinoin plus interferon alfa in treating patients who have metastatic kidney cancer.

Detailed description:
OBJECTIVES:

* Determine the response in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with tretinoin liposome and interferon alfa-2b.
* Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients.
* Study retinoic acid receptor expression on tissue obtained from selected patients who have tumor biopsies.

OUTLINE: This is a dose-escalation study of tretinoin liposome with concurrent individual dose escalation of interferon alfa-2b. (Phase I closed to accrual as of 9/24/03.)

Patients receive tretinoin liposome IV over 30 minutes once weekly and interferon alfa-2b subcutaneously on five consecutive days (M-F) for 8 weeks. Courses repeat every 8 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of tretinoin liposome until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) has been determined. The MTD is defined as the dose preceding that at which 2 of 3 or 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Once the MTD is determined additional patients are accrued and treated at that dose. (Phase I closed to accrual as of 9/24/03.)

During the first 3 weeks of the study, patients receive interferon alfa-2b at weekly dose escalations. After week 3, patients continue at the highest acceptable dose level of interferon alfa-2b for the remainder of the study. (Phase I closed to accrual as of 9/24/03.)

Patients are followed at 30 days after the last treatment.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 3-18 patients will be accrued into the phase I portion of this study (Phase I closed to accrual as of 9/24/03). A total of 14-25 patients will be accrued into the phase II portion of this study.

Arms:
arm 1: Weekly ATRA-IV with recombinant interferon alfa

Interventions: intervention 1: recombinant interferon alfa intervention 2: tretinoin liposome
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None intervention 2: None

Protocol document: