Conditions: Lip and Oral Cavity Cancer Oral Leukoplakia Oropharyngeal Cancer Tongue Cancer
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 325
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This randomized phase II trial is studying how well Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate works in preventing cancer in patients with oral leukoplakia. Chemoprevention is the use of certain substances to keep cancer from forming, growing, or coming back. The use of Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate, a substance made from soy, may keep cancer from forming in patients with oral leukoplakia

Detailed description:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine if chemoprevention by the Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate (BBIC) can prevent cancer in patients with oral leukoplakia (OL).

II. Determine the clinical and histologic response rate of OL to BBIC.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Measure the effect of BBIC on intermediate marker endpoint levels. II. Correlate the clinical and histologic responses of OL with cellular levels of proteolytic activity, erb-B2 (neu), retinioc acid receptor β, bcl-2, and mutant p53 expression, and serum levels of neu.

III. Determine the individual and group side effects of BBIC.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, study. Prior to randomization, all patients receive oral placebo for 4 weeks. Patients who show good compliance (\> 75% packet count) are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

ARM I: Patients receive oral Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate twice daily for 6 months in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

ARM II: Patients receive oral placebo twice daily for 6 months in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients complete questionnaires about diet, tobacco, and alcohol usage at baseline and at the completion of study treatment. Blood, urine, and biopsy tissue are collected at baseline and at the completion of study treatment. Oral mucosal cells are collected at baseline, during the run-in phase, at randomization, after completion of study treatment, and at 3 months after completion of study treatment. Samples are examined for protease activity, levels of bcl-2 and erbB-2, mutant p53 oncogene expression and epidermal growth factor receptor, and retinoic acid receptor-β expression.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 3 months.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients receive oral Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate twice daily for 6 months arm 2: Patients receive oral placebo twice daily for 6 months

Interventions: intervention 1: Bowman-Birk inhibitor concentrate intervention 2: placebo intervention 3: laboratory biomarker analysis
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Given orally intervention 2: Given orally intervention 3: Correlative studies

Protocol document: