Stage IV Surgery Versus Best Medical Therapy (STG4SURG)

A Phase III, Randomized Trial of Surgical Resection With or Without BCG Versus Best Medical Therapy as Initial Treatment in Stage IV Melanoma

This study will establish the role of surgical versus nonsurgical approaches in patients whose melanoma has spread to distant sites. Results will help clinicians develop a standardized initial approach that prolongs survival and optimizes quality of life. Results also will indicate whether Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) postoperative immunotherapy significantly improves the outcome of patients treated with surgery.

Study Overview

• Status: Terminated
• Conditions: Stage IV Resectable Melanoma
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: best medical therapy; Procedure: Surgery; Procedure: Surgery plus 2 adjuvant doses of BCG

Detailed Description

This study is designed to examine the impact of surgical resection versus medical therapy as initial treatment therapy for patients with Stage IV melanoma. Surgical resection is thought to be efficacious in highly selected patients with solitary metastases, but not in patients with multiple sites of metastases. Even in those with solitary metastases, there is considerable debate among major melanoma centers over whether undergoing initial systemic medical therapy prior to surgical resection should be preferred to initial surgical resection upon Stage IV diagnosis. According to Dr. Dan Coit, Co-leader of the Melanoma Disease Management Team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute in New York, a trial of initial medical therapy is their standard approach on the multidisciplinary melanoma service even for patients with solitary distant metastases (personal communication, 15 Dec 2009).

Many who favor upfront medical therapy believe that delay before surgical resection may avoid unnecessary surgery by identifying patients who progress early due to the outgrowth of occult metastases at multiple sites, which may make the patient unresectable.

This is a Phase III, randomized, international, multicenter study of metastasectomy with or without BCG versus best medical therapy as initial therapy in Stage IV melanoma. This study has three arms: surgical resection plus BCG as an immune adjuvant, surgical resection plus observation, and best medical therapy (BMT). Since no systemic medical therapy has been demonstrated to be superior to DTIC and multiple new therapies are being evaluated, the choice as to what constitutes best medical therapy will be determined by the individual investigator based on the standard of care for systemic medical therapy at that particular multicenter site. Best systemic medical therapy may include clinical trials of new agents or standard non-protocol treatments (e.g., DTIC or Temodar according to the standard of care at the multi-center site).

Patients who progress on the best medical treatment arm may switch to a different medical therapy or, if appropriate, have surgical therapy; similarly, surgery patients may have additional surgical resection or receive medical therapy.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 12
• Phase: Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Australia
  • Queensland
    • Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 4101
      • Princess Alexandra Hospital
• Israel
  • Tel-Aviv, Israel, 94239
    • Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
• Italy
  • Naples, Italy, 80121
    • Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Napoli
• Netherlands
  • Groningen, Netherlands, 9700 RB
    • Univesitair Medisch Centrum Groningen
• United States
  • California
    • Sacramento, California, United States, 95817
      • UC Davis Medical Center
    • Santa Monica, California, United States, 90404
      • John Wayne Cancer Institute
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60612
      • Rush University
  • Minnesota
    • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
      • Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
  • New York
    • Buffalo, New York, United States, 14203
      • Buffalo General Hospital
  • North Carolina
    • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
      • Wake Forest University
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210
      • Ohio State University Medical Center
  • Pennsylvania
    • Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, 17033
      • Penn State Hershey Cancer Center
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19107
      • Thomas Jefferson University
    • Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, 18711
      • Geisinger Clinic
    • Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, United States, 19096
      • Main Line Health System
  • Texas
    • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75235
      • Dallas Surgical Group
    • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75390-9155
      • UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
  • Utah
    • Murray, Utah, United States, 84157
      • IHC Cancer Services Intermountain Healthcare
    • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84112
      • Huntsman Cancer Institute

Participation Criteria

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:

• Patients must provide informed written consent for participation.
• At least 18 years of age
• Have a minimum life expectancy (excluding melanoma) of 5 years.
• All known disease must be surgically resectable in the opinion of a participating surgeon.
• Must have a histologic diagnosis of Stage IV melanoma arising from a primary cutaneous site or visceral metastasis from an unknown primary site and be within 4 months of initial stage IV diagnosis.
• Up to 3 visceral organs involved
• Up to 6 lesions allowed
• Must have ECOG performance status of 0 or 1.
• Must be in good general health with no serious co-morbid illness. Good clinical judgment must be exercised in careful selection of patients who are candidates for surgical resection of distant metastases.

• Laboratory values within 30 days of randomization:

  1. WBC >3,000/mm3
  2. Lymphocytes >800/mm3
  3. Platelets >100,000/mm3
  4. Creatinine <2.0 mg/dL
  5. Bilirubin <2.0 mg/dL
  6. Alkaline phosphatase < 2X upper limit of normal (ULN)
  7. SGOT < 2X ULN
  8. SGPT < 2X ULN
  9. LDH < 1.5X ULN

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unresectable metastatic disease or more than 4 months since stage IV diagnosis.
• Brain or bone metastatic sites.
• History of primary uveal or mucosal melanoma.
• Another concomitant diagnosis that limits life expectancy to less than 5 years.
• Chronic immunosuppression due to inherited, acquired or iatrogenic immune defect. This includes active HIV, hepatitis, or use of immunosuppressive medications as a component of anti-rejection therapy for organ transplant, as treatment for an autoimmune disease.
• More than 3 involved visceral organ sites or more than 6 metastatic lesions.
• Psychiatric disorder or organic brain syndrome that might preclude participation in the protocol.
• Diagnosis of other malignancy in the past 5 years except adequately treated low grade malignancies such as basal cell carcinoma, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, carcinoma-in-situ of the cervix, or other neoplasm that will not limit life expectancy to less than 5 years.
• Serious cardiac, gastrointestinal, hepatic or pulmonary disease that would make surgical resection high-risk.
• Pregnancy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Best Medical Therapy; The best medical therapy group will not initially undergo surgery, but will be treated with the therapy that medical oncologists or surgeons feel is best for the patient. This treatment may include standard or experimental therapies.	Other: best medical therapy; Patients randomized to the Best Medical Therapy arm will decide on a course of medical therapy based on what the patient's medical oncologists feels is best for the patient. Best systemic medical therapy may include clinical trials of new agents or standard non-protocol treatments. Patients who progress on the best medical treatment arm may switch to a different medical therapy or, if still appropriate, may receive surgery.
Active Comparator: Surgery Alone; The surgery alone group will undergo complete resection (surgical removal) of all known disease, if possible. After surgery, patients will be followed regularly and monitored for disease recurrence.	Procedure: Surgery; surgical resection to remove all known disease
Active Comparator: Surgery + BCG; The Surgery + BCG group will first have a complete resection (surgical removal) of all known disease, if possible. After recovery from surgery, two doses of BCG will be given two weeks apart. Each dose is given as 8 separate injections into the skin (called intradermal injections).	Procedure: Surgery plus 2 adjuvant doses of BCG; Patients in the surgical resection + BCG arm will have an additional two visits to receive BCG. The first dose of BCG will be given no earlier than 4 weeks after surgery, and the second BCG dose will follow 2 weeks later. The actual doses are determined by the patient's pre-study tuberculin-reactivity status. Patients with a pre-study PPD induration of ≥10 mm will be given half the normal dose of BCG. Those with PPD induration of ≥20 mm will be given 25% of the normal dose.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Overall survival	Defined as time from randomization to death from any cause	3 interim analyses will be conducted when 75, 148, and 217 events (deaths) have occurred. The final analysis will be conducted when all 284 expected events have occurred.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Time to progression of initial metastatic sites (progression-free survival)	For this study, PFS is defined as the time from randomization to disease recurrence at initial metastatic site in patients rendered disease-free by surgery, or time from randomization to RECIST-defined progression of target lesions in patients receiving best medical therapy or those having residual disease following surgery.	3 interim analyses will be conducted when 75, 148, and 217 primary events have occurred. The final analysis will be conducted when all 284 expected events have occurred.
Melanoma-specific survival	Defined as time from randomization to death due to melanoma. Death due to causes other than melanoma are not considered events for this analysis.	3 interim analyses will be conducted when 75, 148, and 217 recurrences/progressions have occurred. The final analysis will be conducted when all 284 expected events have occurred.
Time to development of new metastatic sites.	This endpoint is defined as the time from randomization to disease recurrence at new metastatic sites in patients rendered disease-free by surgery, or time from randomization to the development of new metastatic sites of disease in patients in the best medical therapy group. Progression of existing lesions in the best medical therapy arm will not be considered an event for this endpoint.	3 interim analyses will be conducted when 75, 148, and 217 primary events have occurred. The final analysis will be conducted when all 284 expected events have occurred.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Saint John's Cancer Institute
• Collaborators: Melanoma Research Alliance
• Investigators: Study Chair: Donald L. Morton, MD, Saint John's Cancer Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 12, 2009
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 13, 2009
• First Posted (Estimate): November 16, 2009

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 26, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2012
• Last Verified: September 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: surgery; resectable; melanoma; stage IV; medical therapy
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Neuroectodermal Tumors; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal; Neoplasms, Nerve Tissue; Neuroendocrine Tumors; Nevi and Melanomas; Melanoma
• Other Study ID Numbers: MORD-STG4SURG-0409; 3P01CA012582-35S1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)