Thalidomide in Treating Patients With Thyroid Cancer

June 4, 2017 updated by: Kenneth Ain

Phase II Trial of Thalidomide for Therapy of Radioiodine-Unresponsive Papillary and Follicular Thyroid Carcinomas and Medullary Thyroid Carcinomas

RATIONALE: Thalidomide may stop the growth of thyroid cancer by stopping blood flow to the tumor.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness thalidomide in treating patients who have thyroid cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

  • Determine the antitumor activity of thalidomide, in terms of tumor response and duration of response, in patients with metastatic follicular, papillary, or medullary thyroid carcinoma that is unresponsive to systemic radioiodine.
  • Compare the differences in antitumor activity of this drug in patients with medullary carcinomas vs those with papillary or follicular carcinomas.
  • Determine the toxic effects and duration of toxic effects of this drug in these patients.

OUTLINE: Patients receive oral thalidomide once daily for 2 weeks and then twice daily. Treatment continues for 1 year in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A maximum of 50 patients will be accrued for this study.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Phase 2

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

    • Kentucky
      • Lexington, Kentucky, United States, 40536-0298
        • Albert B. Chandler Medical Center, University of Kentucky

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

18 years to 120 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Histologically confirmed follicular, papillary, insular, or medullary thyroid carcinoma
  • Must meet criteria for 1 of the following:

    • Unresectable, distantly metastatic tumor that does not concentrate radioactive iodine
    • Follicular or papillary thyroid carcinoma with a large distant tumor burden that has not sufficiently responded to cumulative iodine I 131 doses exceeding 800 mCi
  • Radiographic evidence of tumor progression, meeting 1 of the following criteria:

    • Evidence gathered over a period of at least 1 year with at least 3 separate x-ray studies, defining tumor volume
    • Similar radiographic evidence over a shorter period of time, delineating more than 30% increase in tumor volume

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

  • 18 and over

Performance status:

  • Karnofsky 70-100%

Life expectancy:

  • Not specified

Hematopoietic:

  • Absolute neutrophil count at least 750/mm^3
  • Hemoglobin at least 10.5 g/dL

Hepatic:

  • Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)

Renal:

  • Creatinine no greater than 1.5 times ULN
  • BUN no greater than 1.5 times ULN

Other:

  • No active infection not controlled with medications
  • Not pregnant or nursing
  • Negative pregnancy test
  • Fertile patients must use effective double contraception (1 hormonal method plus 1 barrier method OR 2 simultaneous barrier methods) for female patients or barrier contraception for male patients for more than 4 weeks prior to, during, and for at least 4 weeks after study participation

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

  • No prior thalidomide
  • No other concurrent biologic therapy

Chemotherapy:

  • At least 4 weeks since prior systemic chemotherapy
  • No concurrent systemic chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

  • Not specified

Radiotherapy:

  • See Disease Characteristics
  • Prior radiotherapy allowed
  • Concurrent limited external-beam radiotherapy to isolated sites of bony metastases allowed, provided that these sites are not the sole sites of metastatic disease and do not constitute the sites of evaluable disease for this study
  • No concurrent radioiodine therapy

Surgery:

  • See Disease Characteristics
  • Prior surgery allowed
  • Concurrent surgery allowed to sites that do not constitute evaluable disease for this study

Other:

  • No concurrent medications that are known to increase the risk of peripheral neuropathy

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: Treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Kenneth Ain, MD, Lucille P. Markey Cancer Center at University of Kentucky

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

June 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2003

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 9, 2001

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2003

First Posted (Estimate)

January 27, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 6, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 4, 2017

Last Verified

June 1, 2017

More Information

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.

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