Nilotinib in the Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis

Phase IIA Study of the Safety and Tolerability of the Use of Nilotinib in the Treatment of Systemic Sclerosis

A phase IIa open-label single center pilot study to assess the safety and efficacy of Nilotinib in patients with Scleroderma.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Systemic Sclerosis
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Nilotinib (Tasigna)

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to learn how safe and tolerable a medication called Nilotinib (Tasigna) will be for patients diagnosed with Systemic Sclerosis. Systemic Sclerosis (scleroderma) is an autoimmune disease that can involve the skin, the blood vessels, the muscles and other connective tissues, and major organs including the lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and heart. The exact cause of this disorder is not known at this time and no drug has been proven to cure scleroderma. Experiments done in animal models and "test-tube" models of fibrosis suggest that Nilotinib may be a useful therapy for scleroderma. Nilotinib is a medication on the market which has been FDA approved for the treatment of a type of leukemia called chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). It is an oral medication, taken two times a day.

This is a 32 week, open-label, Phase IIa, single center clinical trial. The primary goal of the study is to assess the safety and tolerability of Nilotinib in patients with scleroderma. The secondary goal is to assess how effective Nilotinib is in treating patients with scleroderma. The clinical tests performed such as the Modified Rodnan Skin Score, Pulmonary Function Tests, Echocardiograms, Electrocardiograms, and the blood and skin collected in this study will help determine whether this therapy is safe and effective, and also improve our understanding of scleroderma.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 10
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10021
      • Hospital for Special Surgery

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:

1. Age greater than or equal to eighteen years.
2. Clinical diagnosis of diffuse systemic sclerosis by ACR criteria, with a stable modified Rodnan skin score in the one month preceding introduction of oral nilotinib therapy. The modified Rodnan skin score must be greater than or equal to sixteen at screening and initiation of therapy.
3. Disease duration of less than or equal to 3 years as defined by the date of onset of the first non-Raynaud's symptom.
4. Estimated ejection fraction of greater than 50% by echocardiography

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Inability to render informed consent in accordance with institutional guidelines.
2. Disease duration of greater than 3 years.
3. Patients with mixed connective tissue disease or "overlap" (i.e. those who satisfy more than one set of ACR criteria for a rheumatic disease.)
4. Limited scleroderma.
5. Systemic sclerosis-like illness associated with environmental or ingested agents such as toxic rapeseed oil, vinyl chloride, or bleomycin.
6. Ongoing treatment with immunosuppressive therapies including cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, mycophenolic acid, methotrexate, or cyclosporine, or use of those medications within 1 month of trial entry.
7. The use of other anti-fibrotic agents including colchicine, D-penicillamine, minocycline, or Type 1 oral Collagen in the month prior to enrollment.
8. Use in the prior month of corticosteroids at doses exceeding the equivalent of prednisone 10 mg daily. Use of corticosteroid at < 10 mg of prednisone can continue during the course of the study.
9. Concurrent serious medical condition which in the opinion of the investigator makes the patient inappropriate for this study such as uncontrollable CHF, arrhythmia, severe pulmonary or systemic hypertension, severe GI involvement, hepatic impairment, serum creatinine of greater than 2.0, active infection, severe diabetes, unstable atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, malignancy, HIV, or severe peripheral vascular disease.
10. History of pancreatitis.
11. Prolonged QTc interval defined as a QTc > 450 msec
12. Patients requiring the ongoing use of medications that are antiarrhythmics (including, but not limited to amiodarone, disopyramide, procainamide, quinidine and sotalol) or that prolong the QTc interval (including, but not limited to chloroquine, halofantrine, clarithromycin, haloperidol, methadone, moxifloxacin, bepridil and pimozide) will be excluded.
13. Patients requiring the ongoing use of medications that are potent inhibitors or inducers of CYP3A4.
14. A positive pregnancy test at entry into this study. Men and women with reproductive potential will be required to use effective means of contraception through the course of the study.
15. Participation in another clinical research study involving the evaluation of another investigational drug within ninety days of entry into this study.
16. The presence of severe lung disease as defined by a diffusion capacity of less than 30% of predicted.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Nilotinib 400 mg twice daily	Drug: Nilotinib (Tasigna); Patients will be treated with Nilotinib 400 mg two times a day for 6 months.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Number of Participants With Adverse Events as a Measure of Safety and Tolerability	6 Months and 12 months treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Improvement of Modified Rodnan Skin Score Reported as a Mean (Units Equals Number of Points)	Efficacy of Nilotinib in patients with systemic sclerosis, as defined by an improvement in the Modified Rodnan Skin Score (MRSS) The Modified Rodnan Skin Score (MRSS) measures dermal skin thickness through the examination of 17 body areas: fingers, hands, forearms, arms, feet, legs, and thighs (in pairs), and face, chest, and abdomen. The skin score is evaluated by manual palpation in each of these areas. The skin score is 0 for uninvolved skin, 1 for mild thickening, 2 for moderate thickening, and 3 for severe thickening (hidebound skin). The total skin score is the sum of the skin scores of the individual areas where the minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 51. A higher score indicates greater severity of disease.	6 Months of treatment
Efficacy of Nilotinib in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis, as Defined by an Improvement in the Modified Rodnan Skin Score	Improvement in Modified Rodnan skin score reported as a mean (units equals number of points). The Modified Rodnan Skin Score (MRSS) measures dermal skin thickness through the examination of 17 body areas: fingers, hands, forearms, arms, feet, legs, and thighs (in pairs), and face, chest, and abdomen. In each of these areas, the skin score is evaluated by manual palpation. The skin score is 0 for uninvolved skin, 1 for mild thickening, 2 for moderate thickening, and 3 for severe thickening (hidebound skin). The total skin score is the sum of the skin scores of the individual areas. The minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 51. A higher score indicates greater severity of disease.	12 months treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Hospital for Special Surgery, New York
• Collaborators: Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Rudolph Rupert Scleroderma Program
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Robert Spiera, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Haddon DJ, Wand HE, Jarrell JA, Spiera RF, Utz PJ, Gordon JK, Chung LS. Proteomic Analysis of Sera from Individuals with Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis Reveals a Multianalyte Signature Associated with Clinical Improvement during Imatinib Mesylate Treatment. J Rheumatol. 2017 May;44(5):631-638. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.160833. Epub 2017 Mar 15.
• Gordon JK, Martyanov V, Magro C, Wildman HF, Wood TA, Huang WT, Crow MK, Whitfield ML, Spiera RF. Nilotinib (Tasigna) in the treatment of early diffuse systemic sclerosis: an open-label, pilot clinical trial. Arthritis Res Ther. 2015 Aug 18;17(1):213. doi: 10.1186/s13075-015-0721-3.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): January 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 1, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): July 20, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 4, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 2, 2017
• Last Verified: October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Systemic Sclerosis
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Skin Diseases; Connective Tissue Diseases; Sclerosis; Scleroderma, Systemic; Scleroderma, Diffuse
• Other Study ID Numbers: 10041 (Registry Identifier: DAIDS ES)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No