Gemcitabine, Nab-Paclitaxel, and Bosentan for the Treatment of Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer

A Phase 1 Study of Gemcitabine, Nab-Paclitaxel, and Bosentan in Patients With Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of bosentan and how well it works when given together with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable). Bosentan may block the hormone endothelin and prevent the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Giving bosentan with chemotherapy (gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel) may work better in treating patients with pancreatic cancer compared to chemotherapy alone.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Stage III Pancreatic Cancer AJCC v8; Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer AJCC v8; Unresectable Pancreatic Carcinoma
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Quality-of-Life Assessment; Other: Questionnaire Administration; Drug: Gemcitabine; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Drug: Bosentan

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To assess the safety, toxicity and feasibility of administering bosentan with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To assess the response rate associated with this combination therapy in first line pancreatic cancer patients.

II. To assess the progression-free survival and overall survival of all patients who start protocol therapy, and describe the outcomes based on measures of compliance during the lead-in week, and compliance with supplement during chemotherapy.

EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine the impact of bosentan on the mass transport in the tumor (surrogate of alterations in tumor stroma and blood flow). (Pharmacodynamic Investigations) II. To describe the pharmacokinetic profile of nab-paclitaxel and bosentan and compare to historic single-agent profile. (Pharmacokinetic Investigations) III. To explore the association between hepatotoxicity to study agents and organic anion-transporting polypeptide (OATP) polymorphisms. (Pharmacogenomic Investigations) IV. To explore biomarkers on pre-treatment biopsy samples and peripheral blood samples for correlations of predictive of response.

V. To describe quality of life utilizing the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy: General (FACT-G) questionnaire.

OUTLINE:

Patients receive bosentan orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days -7 to 21 or 8-21 of cycle 1 and days 1-21 of subsequent cycles. Patients also receive nab-paclitaxel intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes and gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Cycles repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 30 days. Patients who complete study treatment without disease progression are followed up every 2 months until disease progression and then biannually thereafter. Patients who complete study treatment with disease progression are followed up biannually.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 21
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Duarte, California, United States, 91010
      • Recruiting
      • City of Hope Medical Center
      • Contact: Ravi Salgia; Phone Number: 626-218-3712; Email: rsalgia@coh.org
      • Principal Investigator: Ravi Salgia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Main Inclusion Criteria

• Adult patients with unresectable pancreatic carcinoma
• Patients must be a candidate to receive one of the following chemotherapy combinations as determined by the treating physician:

Arm A2: gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel given every 2 weeks (arm A1 is closed per this amendment)

Arm B: mFOLFIRINOX given every 2 weeks

• Willingness to permit study team to obtain and use archival tissue, if already existing, or, be willing to undergo a fresh tumor biopsy if clinically possible (exceptions may be provided by study PI if medically unsafe to perform biopsy).
• Weight ≥ 40 kg
• ANC ≥ 1500/mm3; platelets ≥ 100,000/mm3
• AST, ALT ≤ 1.5 x ULN. Patients with liver metastases ≤ 3 x ULN
• Total serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 x ULN
• Creatinine clearence ≥ 60 mL/min

Main Exclusion Criteria

• Current or planned use of Warfarin, Cyclosporine A, Rifampicin, Glyburide (other diabetic medications are allowed)
• Current or planned use of agents contraindicated for use with strong CYP3A4 inducers
• Strong inhibitors or inducers of CYP2C9
• Strong inhibitors or inducers of CYP3A
• Agent or agents that moderately inhibit both CYP2C9 and CYP3A (via a single concomitant agent, or co-administration of concomitant agents)
• No other prior malignancy is allowed except for the following: adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, in situ cervical cancer, adequately treated Stage I or II cancer from which the patient is currently in complete remission, or any other cancer from which the patient has been disease free for five years.
• Current or history of ≥ Grade 2 peripheral neuropathy
• Known allergy to eggs or any of the components within the study agents and/or their excipients.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment (bosentan, nab-paclitaxel, gemcitabine) - Participant 1-9; Patients receive bosentan PO BID on days 8-21 of cycle 1 and days 1-21 of subsequent cycles. Patients also receive nab-paclitaxel IV over 30 minutes and gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Cycles repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.	Other: Quality-of-Life Assessment; Ancillary studies; Other Names: Quality of Life Assessment; Other: Questionnaire Administration; Ancillary studies; Drug: Gemcitabine; Given IV; Other Names: dFdCyd; dFdC; Difluorodeoxycytidine; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Given IV; Other Names: ABI-007; Abraxane; Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; ABI 007; Albumin-Stabilized Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Paclitaxel Albumin; paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation; protein-bound paclitaxel; Drug: Bosentan; Given PO; Other Names: Tracleer; Ro 47-0203; Bosentan Monohydrate
Experimental: Treatment (bosentan, nab-paclitaxel, gemcitabine) - Participant 10-12; Patients receive bosentan PO BID on days -7 to 21 and days 1-21 of subsequent cycles. Patients also receive nab-paclitaxel IV over 30 minutes and gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Cycles repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.	Other: Quality-of-Life Assessment; Ancillary studies; Other Names: Quality of Life Assessment; Other: Questionnaire Administration; Ancillary studies; Drug: Gemcitabine; Given IV; Other Names: dFdCyd; dFdC; Difluorodeoxycytidine; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Given IV; Other Names: ABI-007; Abraxane; Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; ABI 007; Albumin-Stabilized Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Paclitaxel Albumin; paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation; protein-bound paclitaxel; Drug: Bosentan; Given PO; Other Names: Tracleer; Ro 47-0203; Bosentan Monohydrate
Experimental: Treatment (bosentan, nab-paclitaxel, gemcitabine) - Participant 13-21; Patients receive bosentan PO BID on days 1-21 of cycle 1 and days 1-21 of subsequent cycles. Patients also receive nab-paclitaxel IV over 30 minutes and gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1, 8, and 15. Cycles repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.	Other: Quality-of-Life Assessment; Ancillary studies; Other Names: Quality of Life Assessment; Other: Questionnaire Administration; Ancillary studies; Drug: Gemcitabine; Given IV; Other Names: dFdCyd; dFdC; Difluorodeoxycytidine; Drug: Nab-paclitaxel; Given IV; Other Names: ABI-007; Abraxane; Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; ABI 007; Albumin-Stabilized Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Albumin-bound Paclitaxel; Nanoparticle Paclitaxel; Paclitaxel Albumin; paclitaxel albumin-stabilized nanoparticle formulation; protein-bound paclitaxel; Drug: Bosentan; Given PO; Other Names: Tracleer; Ro 47-0203; Bosentan Monohydrate

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence of adverse events	Will be recorded using the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version (v) 4.0.	Up to 30 days after last dose of protocol therapy
Dose limiting toxicities (DLTs)	Toxicities will be graded according to NCI CTCAE v 4.0. DLT's apply only to bosentan-only single stage AND cycle 1 and should be attributable to the treatment.	Up to 21 days (Cycle 1)
Compliance	Number of bosentan tablets and bottles returned will be reconciled with the patient diary.	During the first week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Progression-free survival (PFS)	Will be evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier methods, both as a single group and by disease classification (metastatic versus [vs.] advanced unresectable). Response will also be examined by disease classification as part of a secondary analysis.	Time to disease progression/ relapse or death as a result of any cause, assessed up to 2 years
Overall survival (OS)	Will be evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier methods, both as a single group and by disease classification (metastatic vs. advanced unresectable). Response will also be examined by disease classification as part of a secondary analysis.	Time to death as a result of any cause, assessed up to 2 years
Time to treatment failure (TTF)	Will be evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier methods, both as a single group and by disease classification (metastatic vs. advanced unresectable). Response will also be examined by disease classification as part of a secondary analysis.	Time to treatment termination for any reason (progression, toxicity, death, patient preference), assessed up to 2 years

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Temporal impact of bosentan therapy on tumor vs. normal pancreatic tissue perfusion profile (tumor stroma and blood flow)		Up to 2 years
Levels of nab-paclitaxel, bosentan and active plasma metabolite Ro 48-5033	Will be quantitated in the peripheral blood.	Up to 2 years
Analysis of loci that encode organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATP) in participants who experience severe hepatotoxicity, increased during protocol therapy		Up to 2 years
Quantification of the number of circulating tumor cells and temporal proteomic/micro ribonucleic acid (miRNA) profile will assess response to therapy		Up to 2 years
Histopathology/ structural assessment and quantification of the miRNA profile	Will allow the identification of prognostic biomarkers.	Up to 2 years
Quality of life assessment	Assesses using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy: General (FACT-G) questionnaire.	Up to 2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: City of Hope Medical Center
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ravi Salgia, City of Hope Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 9, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 9, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 7, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): November 12, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 16, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Endocrine System Diseases; Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Digestive System Neoplasms; Digestive System Diseases; Endocrine Gland Neoplasms; Pancreatic Diseases; Pancreatic Neoplasms; Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins; Proteins; Sulfur Compounds; Organic Chemicals; Heterocyclic Compounds, 1-Ring; Heterocyclic Compounds; Hydrocarbons; Cycloparaffins; Hydrocarbons, Alicyclic; Hydrocarbons, Cyclic; Terpenes; Hydrocarbons, Aromatic; Amides; Taxoids; Cyclodecanes; Diterpenes; Deoxycytidine; Cytidine; Pyrimidine Nucleosides; Pyrimidines; Benzene Derivatives; Health Care Economics and Organizations; Benzenesulfonamides; Sulfonamides; Sulfones; Albumins; Paclitaxel; Economics; Albumin-Bound Paclitaxel; Bosentan; Gemcitabine; 130-nm albumin-bound paclitaxel; Taxes
• Other Study ID Numbers: 21314; NCI-2021-06609 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program)); 19312 (Other Identifier: City of Hope Medical Center)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No