Conditions: Lung Cancer
Keywords: Lung Thoracic Immunotherapy Radiotherapy LA - NSCLC Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 27
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This research is being done to find out if a treatment consisting of a combination of thoracic radiotherapy with cetuximab, given together, and followed by chemotherapy with docetaxel and cetuximab (also given together) will kill the cancer cells in the patient's body and shrink the size of their tumor without causing unacceptable side effects. This may allow patients to live longer or decrease the frequency and/or severity of the symptoms caused by the cancer without increasing the frequency and/or severity of the symptoms caused by the treatment.

Detailed description:
Patients will be asked to spend about six months in this study. There will be 4 different phases in this study as follows: (1) Loading Phase: This is the first week (week 1) of the study, when patients receive their first (loading) dose of cetuximab only, in the vein. (2) Concurrent Phase: During this phase patients will be treated simultaneously (concurrently) with radiation therapy to their chest and cetuximab. Radiation is delivered 5 days a week, Monday to Friday for a total of 7 weeks (weeks 2-8). Cetuximab is delivered in the vein, weekly, during the weeks of radiation. (3) Recovery Phase: Patients receive no treatment during these next 3 weeks (weeks 9-11). This phase is designed to allow patients to recover from side effects before they start the last phase. (4) Consolidation Phase: The last phase. Patients will receive 3 doses of chemotherapy with docetaxel during this phase. Docetaxel is given intravenously every 21 days. Patients also receive weekly cetuximab during this phase. Cetuximab is delivered in a similar way as it was during the concurrent (second) phase of this study. In total, this phase lasts 6 weeks (weeks 12-18). Once the therapy treatment is completed, and if the patient's cancer did not get worse, follow up visits will include visits to their physician every three months for 2 years, then every 4 months for 2 years or more, as long as their cancer doesn't get worse (at which time they will be removed from the study).

Arms:
arm 1: Concurrent Cetuximab plus Conformal Thoracic Radiotherapy (CTRT). Patients were treated with definitive radiotherapy (70 Gy in 35 fractions, per our currently-existing institutional standard) with concurrent cetuximab followed by 3 cycles of consolidation docetaxel plus cetuximab.

Interventions: intervention 1: Cetuximab intervention 2: Conformal Thoracic Radiotherapy (CTRT)
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: * Cetuximab dose: based on patient's actual weight. Loading phase dose of cetuximab is 400 mg/m2 IV administered over 120 minutes, on day 1 followed by; Concurrent phase, weekly infusion dose at 250 mg/m2 IV over 60 minutes, on days 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 50.
* Radiation will be accompanied by weekly Cetuximab. Weekly Cetuximab will start on 1st day of radiation (Day 8). So, total number of cetuximab administrations will vary from 7 to 8. Patients will have every other week complete blood counts (CBCs), differentials, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) plus creatinine and Mg. If patient's ANC drops below 1,000 and/or the platelet count below 75,000 during CTRT, the corresponding, weekly dose of cetuximab will be omitted. intervention 2: * Radiation will be accompanied by weekly Cetuximab. Weekly Cetuximab will start on 1st day of radiation (Day 8). So, total number of cetuximab administrations will vary from 7 to 8. Patients will have every other week CBCs, differentials, and BUN plus creatinine and Mg. If patient's ANC drops below 1,000 and/or the platelet count below 75,000 during CTRT, the corresponding, weekly dose of cetuximab will be omitted.
* Radiation therapy will begin on day 8 (with window of ± 3 days). Adequate hematologic profile (ANC \>1,000 and platelets \>75,000) required. Patient may be delayed for a max. of 2 weeks. If \> 2 week delay occurs, patient will come off study.

Protocol document: