Conditions: Colorectal Cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 13
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the more common cancers in the United States with over 145,000 new cases expected in 2005. Surgery is the main treatment for CRC. However for some who relapse after surgery, or are unable to have surgery, chemotherapy is the primary treatment for this more advanced CRC. Some chemotherapy drugs are given to the patient by themselves, but many are given in combination with other chemotherapy treatment drugs and they seem to work better together than by themselves. This study will investigate the effectiveness of the combination of three chemotherapy drugs in patients who have been previously treated for their CRC and it has returned. This study will also evaluate any rash that is associated with the drug Cetuximab. The three therapy drugs are Mitomycin C, Irinotecan, and Cetuximab.

Detailed description:
We propose a phase II trial which combines mitomycin C, irinotecan and cetuximab in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer with wild type non mutated K-Ras. The goals of this investigation are to develop an effective systemic therapy for previously treated patients with CRC with wild type K-Ras, to further explore the relationship of mitomycin C induced topoisomerase 1 gene expression and response to irinotecan, and to define and characterize the biology of cetuximab induced skin rash.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients will receive mitomycin C 7 mg/m2 as a bolus infusion on day -1 of each 28 day cycle.

Patients will receive cetuximab 400 mg/m2 loading dose over 90 minutes cycle 1, day 1. All subsequent weekly cetuximab treatments will be 250 mg/m2 as a 60 minute infusion days 1, 8, 15, and 22 of each 28 day cycle.

Patients will receive irinotecan 140 mg/m2 as a 90 minute infusion on days 1 and 15 of each 28 day cycle after cetuximab infusion. Patients found to be homozygous for UGT1A1\*28 allele will receive irinotecan 110 mg/m2.

Interventions: intervention 1: Mitomycin C intervention 2: Cetuximab intervention 3: Irinotecan.
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Patients will receive mitomycin C 7 mg/m2 as a bolus infusion on day -1 of each 28 day cycle. intervention 2: Patients will receive cetuximab 400 mg/m2 loading dose over 90 minutes cycle 1, day 1. All subsequent weekly cetuximab treatments will be 250 mg/m2 as a 60 minute infusion days 1, 8, 15, and 22 of each 28 day cycle. intervention 3: Patients will receive irinotecan 140 mg/m2 as a 90 minute infusion on days 1 and 15 of each 28 day cycle after cetuximab infusion. Patients found to be homozygous for UGT1A1\*28 allele will receive irinotecan 110 mg/m2.

Protocol document: