Erlotinib, Celecoxib and Reirradiation for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer

February 24, 2017 updated by: Johnny Kao

Phase I/II Dose Escalation Trial of Induction and Concomitant Erlotinib and Celecoxib With Radiation Therapy for Treatment of Poor Prognosis Head and Neck Cancer, Including Reirradiation

There is no optimal treatment for patients with recurrent head and neck cancer after previous radiation. Chemotherapy alone is not curative and patients survive an average of only 6 to 10 months. Surgery is not always possible and often cannot remove every cancerous cell. On the other hand, reirradiation with chemotherapy cures approximately 25 to 30% of patients but has significant toxicity with as many as 15 to 20% suffering from life-threatening or fatal complications. Therefore, less toxic and more effective reirradiation regimens are urgently needed. There are extensive data from animal studies and preliminary human studies showing that blocking epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and COX-2 enhances radiation effect and is more effective than either treatment alone. Erlotinib is a FDA approved oral inhibitor of EGFR and celecoxib is a FDA approved COX-2 inhibitor. Both have been well studied in humans and appear to have less severe toxicity than conventional chemotherapeutic agents.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Despite advances in the treatment of head and neck cancer, locoregional recurrences are the predominant site of treatment failure and are frequently the cause of death. Second primary tumors in the head and neck occur in up to 30% of patients at 10 years of follow-up after eradication of the original tumor due to field cancerization. The standard approach to patients with recurrent but non-metastatic disease has been surgical salvage alone. Unfortunately, this strategy is feasible in only a select group of patients and 5 year survival rates have ranged from 15-40%.

Most patients with previously irradiated unresectable recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer are treated with chemotherapy alone. This approach has offered limited palliation with response rates of 10-40%, median survival of 5 to 10 months. While this may be an acceptable option for patients with clearly incurable widespread metastatic disease, it may not be the best approach for those patients with potentially curable locoregional disease.

While geographic misses and second primary tumors occur, the majority of patients have radioresistant tumors. Therefore, reirradiation alone is unlikely to be effective. High dose reirradiation with concomitant chemotherapy represents a more aggressive approach resulted in encouraging 3-year survival rates of 15 to 35%. This approach represents a potentially curative option for patients with unresectable or partially resected disease arising in a previously irradiated volume. However, the high rates of acute and late toxicity with this approach have limited widespread application of this approach.

Extensive preclinical and clinical data suggest that both epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antagonists and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors enhance the effectiveness of ionizing radiation. In locally advanced head and neck cancer, a recent phase III trial concurrent anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody and radiation demonstrated improved local control, disease free survival and overall survival compared to radiation alone without the increased mucosal toxicity associated with concurrent chemotherapy. COX-2 inhibition and anti-EGFR therapy demonstrates activity against recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer in a recent phase I study. Head and neck cancer represents an ideal site to study biologic markers of tumor response because of the accessibility of tumors for biopsy. Therefore, we propose the combination of Erlotinib and Celecoxib with radiation in a cohort of previously irradiation patients with head and neck cancer.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

15

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

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

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10029
        • Mount Sinai School of Medicine

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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18 years or older
  • Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of squamous cell or poorly differentiated carcinomas of the head and neck or lymphoepithelioma
  • Prior radiation to the head and neck, surgery or chemotherapy is allowed
  • Karnofsky performance status of >= 70%
  • Intact organ and bone marrow function
  • Obtained informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Demonstration of metastatic disease (i.e. M1 disease).
  • Incomplete healing from previous surgery
  • Pregnancy or breast feeding (men and women of child-bearing potential are eligible but must consent to using effective contraception during therapy and for at least 3 months after completing therapy)
  • Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure (CHF), unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements
  • Patients with clinically significant pulmonary dysfunction, cardiomyopathy, or any history of clinically significant CHF are excluded. The exclusion of patients with active coronary artery disease will be at the discretion of the attending physician.
  • Uncontrolled active infection unless curable with treatment of their cancer.

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
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: erlotinib + celecoxib
Drug: erlotinib + celecoxib
In this phase I/II study, patients will be treated with daily erlotinib 150 mg and twice-daily celecoxib 200 to 600 mg for 14 days. Re-irradiation with IMRT will start on day 15 and will continue for 5.5 to 6.5 weeks along with erlotinib and celecoxib. After completion of radiation, patients will be given the option of continuing on erlotinib for 2 years or until unacceptable toxicity or disease progression
Other Names:
  • Celebrex
  • Tarceva

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Toxicity
Time Frame: 30 DAYS
Number of participants with acute and late toxicity
30 DAYS

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Clinical Response
Time Frame: 20 months
Response to Concurrent Erlotinib, Celecoxib, and Reirradiation according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors - Complete Response (CR): Disappearance of all target lesions Partial Response (PR): At least a 30% decrease in the sum of the LD of target lesions, taking as reference the baseline sum LD Progressive Disease (PD): At least a 20% increase in the sum of the LD of target lesions, taking as reference the smallest sum LD recorded since the treatment started or the appearance of one or more new lesions
20 months
Locoregional Progression
Time Frame: 20 months
Patients with locoregional and/or distant progression
20 months
Locoregional Control, Progression-free Survival, Overall Survival and Late Toxicity
Time Frame: 1 year
At a median follow-up of 11 months, the 1 year locoregional control, progression-free survival, and overall survival rates.
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Johnny Kao

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Johnny Kao, M.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

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

February 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 1, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 1, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

September 2, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 10, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 24, 2017

Last Verified

February 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • GCO 06-0509

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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