Conditions: Esophageal Cancer
Keywords: adenocarcinoma of the esophagus squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus stage I esophageal cancer stage II esophageal cancer stage III esophageal cancer stage IV esophageal cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 22
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
RATIONALE: Erlotinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving erlotinib together with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving erlotinib together with radiation therapy works in treating older patients with stage I, stage II, stage III, or stage IV esophageal cancer.

Detailed description:
OBJECTIVES:

Primary

* Assess the overall survival of older patients with stage I-IV squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction treated with erlotinib hydrochloride in combination with radiotherapy.

Secondary

* Assess the proportion of patients achieving mucosal complete response after treatment with this regimen.
* Determine the progression-free survival of patients treated with this regimen.
* Assess the effect of this regimen on dysphagia control, performance status, and overall quality of life of these patients.
* Investigate the correlation between smoking status and overall survival of these patients.
* To correlate the Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and phosphor Epidermal growth factor receptor (pEGFR) expression by IHC and EGFR mutation status with clinical outcomes.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive oral erlotinib hydrochloride once daily for 1 year in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo external beam radiotherapy 5 days a week in weeks 1-4 or 5 days a week for the first 5.5 weeks.

Tumor tissue samples are analyzed by IHC for the expression of E-cadherin, P-cadherin, vimentin, cytokeratin, phospho-S6, and Ki67.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 30 days and annually thereafter.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients receive oral erlotinib hydrochloride once daily for 1 year

Interventions: intervention 1: erlotinib hydrochloride intervention 2: immunohistochemistry staining method intervention 3: radiation therapy
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Oral intervention 2: Correlative Study intervention 3: Radiation Treatment

Protocol document: