Conditions: Mucosal Melanoma Recurrent Melanoma Stage IIIA Skin Melanoma Stage IIIB Skin Melanoma Stage IIIC Skin Melanoma Stage IV Skin Melanoma
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 823
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This randomized phase III trial studies carboplatin, paclitaxel, and sorafenib tosylate to see how well they work compared to carboplatin and paclitaxel in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma that cannot be removed by surgery. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Sorafenib tosylate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor. It is not yet known whether giving carboplatin and paclitaxel together with sorafenib tosylate is more effective than carboplatin and paclitaxel in treating melanoma.

Detailed description:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To compare the overall survival of patients with unresectable stage III or stage IV melanoma treated with carboplatin, paclitaxel and placebo versus carboplatin, paclitaxel and sorafenib (sorafenib tosylate).

II. To compare progression-free survival, response rate, and safety of patients with unresectable stage III or stage IV melanoma treated with carboplatin, paclitaxel and placebo versus carboplatin, paclitaxel and sorafenib.

III. To analyze the pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic properties of sorafenib including angiogenesis, monooxygenases polymorphisms and multidrug resistance (MDR).

IV. To assess the association of expression markers in the patient tumor with clinical outcome.

OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

Arm I: Patients receive paclitaxel intravenously (IV) over 3 hours and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes on day 1. Patients also receive sorafenib tosylate orally (PO) twice daily (BID) (approximately every 12 hours) on days 2-19.

Arm II: Patients receive paclitaxel and carboplatin as in Arm I. Patients also receive placebo PO BID (approximately every 12 hours) on days 2-19.

In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for 10 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients with stable disease or who achieve a partial response or complete response may continue to receive sorafenib tosylate or placebo alone BID (approximately every 12 hours) on days 1-21. Courses with sorafenib tosylate or placebo repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 3 years.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes on day 1. Patients also receive sorafenib tosylate PO BID (approximately every 12 hours) on days 2-19. arm 2: Patients receive paclitaxel and carboplatin as in Arm I. Patients also receive placebo PO BID (approximately every 12 hours) on days 2-19.

Interventions: intervention 1: Carboplatin intervention 2: Laboratory Biomarker Analysis intervention 3: Paclitaxel intervention 4: Pharmacological Study intervention 5: Placebo intervention 6: Sorafenib Tosylate
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Given IV intervention 2: Correlative studies intervention 3: Given IV intervention 4: Correlative studies intervention 5: Given PO intervention 6: Given PO

Protocol document: