Induction Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck

A Phase II Study of Carboplatin, Nab-paclitaxel and Cetuximab for Induction Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck

This is a non-randomized, open-label phase II trial of 40 patients with poor prognosis head and neck cancer, defined as surgically unresectable and/or ≥N2b disease and judged appropriate for non-surgical definitive therapy.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Head and Neck Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Cetuximab; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Drug: Carboplatin

Detailed Description

This is a non-randomized, open-label phase II trial of 40 patients with poor prognosis head and neck cancer, defined as surgically unresectable and/or ≥N2b disease and judged appropriate for non-surgical definitive therapy. Patients must have Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-1 with good organ function and will be treated with six weekly cycles of carboplatin, nab-paclitaxel and cetuximab prior to scheduled concomitant chemoradiation. The study is designed to evaluate whether this induction regimen can result in an improved response rate (complete response (CR) + partial response (PR)) with less toxicity than the current standard induction docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) regimen.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
      • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Tennessee
    • Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37232
      • Vanderbilt University
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98194
      • University of Washington

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Histologically or cytologically confirmed SCCHN or poorly differentiated or undifferentiated cancer of the head and neck.
• Measurable disease.
• All primary sites are eligible excluding nasopharyngeal.

• Surgically unresectable and/or N2b or greater nodal disease; Note: surgical unresectability will be defined as the combination of the treating surgeon's judgment of unresectability plus one of the following objective criteria:

  • Encasement of tumor or nodes to the carotid artery or ¾ encasement of the carotid artery.
  • Involvement of prevertebral musculature
  • Invasion of the bone of the skull base
  • Need for glossectomy or extensive glossal resection where functional outcome is considered unacceptable to surgeon or patient
  • Involvement of the cervical spine
  • Severe, unacceptable functional deficit that would result from any proposed definitive surgical resection.
• ECOG performance status 0-1

• Prior therapy:

  • Chemotherapy: No prior chemotherapy for the treatment of SCCHN.
  • Platinum chemotherapy: No previous history of carboplatin or cisplatin therapy.
  • Nab-paclitaxel: No previous treatment with nab-paclitaxel or another taxane.
  • Cetuximab: No previous treatment with cetuximab Or another epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor.
  • Radiation therapy: No prior radiation to the head and neck region.
• Age > or = 18 years. Men and women are eligible for participation.

• Must have acceptable organ and marrow function as defined below. Laboratory tests should be completed within 14 days prior to registration:

  • Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) > or = 1,500/mm3
  • Platelets > or = 100,000/mm3
  • Hemoglobin (Hgb) > 9g/dL
  • Total bilirubin < or = 1.5mg/dL
  • Albumin > 2.5 g/dL
  • Aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) < or = 2.5 times institutional upper limit of normal, alkaline phosphatase < 2.5 x upper limit of normal, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) > 30 mL/min (by standard Cockcroft and Gault formula or measured via 24 hour urine collection)
• No pre-existing neuropathy greater than grade I
• Women of childbearing potential must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test performed within 7 days prior to day 1 of study treatment.
• Women of childbearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception prior to study entry, for the duration of study participation and for three months after completing treatment. Adequate contraception is defined as any medically recommended method (or combination of methods) as per standard of care.
• Patients must have the ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document.
• Patients must have a negative result for preformed immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to galactose-alpha-1,3,-galactose.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior treatment with any of the study medications.
• Prior radiation to any of the field required to treat the tumor.
• Any metastatic disease.
• The patient may have had a prior malignancy but must be disease-free for three years prior to study entry. A history of superficial non-melanoma skin cancer or in situ carcinoma of the cervix less than three years will be allowed.
• Pregnant or lactating female
• Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection requiring IV antibiotics, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements. Cardiac disease such as symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, or myocardial infarction will result in exclusion only if active within the past six months. Cardiac dysrhythmia will only result in exclusion if active and symptomatic (for example, rate-controlled atrial fibrillation will not result in exclusion).

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: Treatment; nab-paclitaxel 100mg/m2; Carboplatin area under curve (AUC)2 (IV); Cetuximab 400mg/m2 week 1 then 250mg/m2 for six weeks

Drug: Cetuximab; Weekly cetuximab given intravenously for 6 weeks during induction chemotherapy and continue during the 2-3 week break prior to definitive chemoradiotherapy.; Other Names: Erbitux; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Weekly nab-paclitaxel given intravenously following cetuximab infusion for 6 weeks.; Other Names: Abraxane; Drug: Carboplatin; Weekly carboplatin given intravenously following nab-paclitaxel infusion for 6 weeks.; Other Names: Paraplatin

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Clinical Response Rate Following Induction Chemotherapy	Evaluation of target lesions via imaging with CT or MRI scans at 2-3 weeks post induction chemotherapy. Per Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors Criteria (RECIST v1.0) for target lesions and assessed by MRI: Complete Response (CR), Disappearance of all target lesions; Partial Response (PR), >=30% decrease in the sum of the longest diameter of target lesions.	9 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of Complete Response Following Induction Chemotherapy	Report the rate of complete responses, defined as disappearance of all target lesions, following induction chemotherapy. Per Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors Criteria (RECIST v1.1) for target lesions and assessed by MRI: Complete Response (CR), Disappearance of all target lesions.	Baseline evaluation to 3 weeks after induction chemotherapy
Progression Free Survival	Rate of Progression Free Survival (Time to death or progression defined by imaging of target lesions via CT or MRI scan post induction chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy every 3 months for one year)	1 year
Objective Response Rate (CR+PR)	Objective Response Rate as defined by RECIST 1.1 after induction chemotherapy followed by definitive chemoradiation. Per Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors Criteria (RECIST v1.1) for target lesions and assessed by MRI: Complete Response (CR), Disappearance of all target lesions; Partial Response (PR), >=30% decrease in the sum of the longest diameter of target lesions; Objective Response (OR) = CR + PR.	20 weeks
Complete Response Rate (CR)	Complete Response Rate as defined by RECIST 1.1 after induction chemotherapy followed by definitive chemoradiation	20 weeks
Overall Survival	Rate of Overall Survival	1 year
Number of Participants With at Least One Grade 3-4 Toxicity	Toxicity will be assessed according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 4.	9 Weeks
Number of Participants With at Least One Grade 3-4 Toxicity, Listed by Event	Toxicity will be assessed according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 4.	24 Weeks
Patient-reported Quality of Life Scores	Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Head & Neck (FACT-HN) is the FACT-G and a 12 item head and neck cancer specific subscale completed at screening (Screening), 3 weeks post induction chemotherapy (Treatment Break), 7 weeks post concomitant chemoradiotherapy (7 weeks Off Treatment), one year post off-treatment (1 year Off Treatment). The FACT-G is a 27 item measure of general QOL assessing function in 4 domains: physical well-being (PWB), social-family well-being (SFWB), emotional well-being (EWB) and functional well-being (FWB). Items are rated by patients on a Likert scale from 0 to 4 (resulting in potential total scores between 0 and 156). Higher scores represent better QOL.	screening until one year after treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Collaborators: Celgene Corporation

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Homepage
• National Cancer Institute Homepage

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 20, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 5, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 8, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): August 9, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 23, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 3, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Carboplatin; Chemotherapy; Cetuximab; Phase II; Abraxane; Head and neck cancer; Locally advanced; Nab-paclitaxel; Induction; Squamous Cell
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Carcinoma; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial; Neoplasms, Squamous Cell; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Antineoplastic Agents; Tubulin Modulators; Antimitotic Agents; Mitosis Modulators; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Carboplatin; Paclitaxel; Cetuximab
• Other Study ID Numbers: LCCC1103