Treatment for Chronic Pain in Patients With Advanced Cancer

April 1, 2020 updated by: NCIC Clinical Trials Group

A Phase III Double-Blind Equivalence Study of Two Different Formulations of Slow-Release Morphine Followed by a Randomization Between Dextromethorphan or Placebo Plus Statex SR for Chronic Cancer Pain Relief in Terminally Ill Patients

RATIONALE: Different drug formulations and combinations of drugs may help patients with chronic pain live more comfortably. It is not yet known which regimen is most effective for chronic pain.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of different morphine formulations with or without dextromethorphan in treating chronic pain in patients who have advanced cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

  • Compare the analgesic efficacy of two formulations of morphine (Statex SR versus MS-Contin) in patients requiring morphine for the treatment of chronic cancer pain.
  • Compare the effect of these 2 formulations of morphine on the total analgesic consumption, sleep disturbances, sleep and nausea, responses of different types of pain, and toxic effects experienced in the two treatment groups.
  • Compare the effect of coadministration of morphine and dextromethorphan versus morphine and placebo on pain control in the respective patient groups (phase B).
  • Compare the effect of morphine and dextromethorphan or placebo on total analgesic consumption, sleep disturbances, sleep and nausea, responses of different types of pain, and toxic effects on the two treatment groups (phase B).

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, multicenter study. Patients are stratified by stabilization dose (less than 120 mg/day vs greater than 120 mg/day of morphine) and institution in phase A, and neuropathic pain (yes vs no) in phase B.

  • Phase A: Patients are randomized to receive oral morphine in one of two formulations (MS Contin or Statex SR) every 12 hours for 7 days.
  • Phase B: Eligible patients from phase A who have taken no more than 2 breakthrough doses of analgesic per day in the previous 2 days are re-randomized to receive dose escalated oral dextromethorphan capsules or placebo every 4 hours, and oral morphine tablets every 12 hours for 14 days.
  • Phase C: All patients fulfilling entry criteria at the end of phase A or any time during phase B may receive compassionate use morphine tablets for up to 90 days.

Patients complete a pain diary twice each day during treatment.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

87

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Alberta
      • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 1Z2
        • Cross Cancer Institute
    • Newfoundland and Labrador
      • St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, A1B 3V6
        • Newfoundland Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2M9
        • Princess Margaret Hospital
    • Quebec
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H2W 1S6
        • McGill University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

16 years to 120 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Histologically or cytologically proven advanced cancer with chronic pain
  • Cancer pain requiring strong opioids having an average pain score of less than 6/10 on the visual analog scale within last 24 hours
  • Pain managed by a stable maintenance dose of MS-Contin formulation of morphine for at least 2 days with no more than 2 breakthrough immediate release morphine doses per 24 hours
  • Pain that is expected to be controlled by a stable and adequate total daily dose of sustained release morphine for the first 7 days of the study

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

  • 16 and over

Performance status:

  • Not specified

Life expectancy:

  • At least 2 months

Hematopoietic:

  • Not specified

Hepatic:

  • SGOT or SGPT no greater than 3 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
  • No liver disease

Renal:

  • Creatinine no greater than 2 times ULN
  • No kidney failure

Pulmonary:

  • No clinically significant respiratory depression
  • No severe obstructive airway disease

Other:

  • Fluent in English or French
  • No known hypersensitivity or allergy to study medications or components or other multiple drug allergies
  • Normal cognition defined by the Folstein Mini-Mental State Questionnaire (at least 24/30 correct)

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

  • Not specified

Chemotherapy:

  • At least 14 days since prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

  • Concurrent steroids allowed

Radiotherapy:

  • At least 14 days since prior analgesic radiotherapy

Surgery:

  • Not specified

Other:

  • At least 3 months since prior investigational agents
  • At least 1 month since prior clinical study
  • No concurrent analgesics other than morphine
  • No other concurrent medications containing dextromethorphan
  • Concurrent antidepressant medication allowed
  • Concurrent nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs allowed
  • At least 14 days since prior monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors
  • No concurrent MAO inhibitors

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

NCIC Clinical Trials Group

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Eduardo Bruera, MD, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 11, 1998

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 26, 2001

Study Completion (Actual)

February 10, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 1, 1999

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2003

First Posted (Estimate)

January 27, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 3, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 1, 2020

Last Verified

April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SC17
  • CAN-NCIC-SC17 (Other Identifier: PDQ)
  • CDR0000066789 (Other Identifier: PDQ)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Pain

Clinical Trials on dextromethorphan hydrobromide

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Bangladesh

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe