Repeated Neural Stem Cell Based Virotherapy for Newly Diagnosed High Grade Glioma

A Phase I Study of Repeated Neural Stem Cell Based Virotherapy in Combination With N-Acetylcysteine Amid (NACA) and Standard Radiation and Chemotherapy for Newly Diagnosed High Grade Glioma

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the safety and feasibility of administering repeated doses of neural stem cell (NSC)-conditionally replicative adenovirus (CRAd)-survivin (S)-protomer (p)k7, in persons with newly diagnosed high grade glioma.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• whether multiple doses of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 are safe and feasible
• how multiple doses of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 influence tumor response, overall survival, time to tumor progression, and quality of life.

Participants will:

• undergo a biopsy to confirm high grade glioma, then receive the first dose of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 into the brain
• about 2 weeks later, undergo surgery to remove the tumor and receive the second dose of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 into the brain
• start chemoradiation about 2 weeks after surgery, then about 2 weeks later, receive the 3rd dose of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 into the brain
• four weeks later, at the end of chemoradiation, receive a fourth dose of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 into the brain.
• after radiation is finished, receive standard of care chemotherapy and tumor-treating fields. Two additional doses of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 will be given every 4 weeks.

Every other patient enrolled will receive N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), from registration until the day prior to surgery and the second dose of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Glioma, Malignant; New Diagnosis Tumor
• Intervention / Treatment: Biological: NSC-CRAd-S-pk7; Dietary supplement: N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA)

Detailed Description

The treatment regimen contains 3 phases:

Surgical phase:

Patients undergo a biopsy and upon intraoperative confirmation of high grade glioma, NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 dose #1 will be injected into the biopsy site. Patients will undergo resection of the tumor 14 (+/- 3) days later, administration of second dose of the investigational product (NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 dose #2), and implantation of the catheter system. The investigational product will then be given monthly for a total of 6 doses (see below).

Every other patient enrolled (beginning with the first patient) will also undergo oral administration of NACA (an over-the-counter drug that acts as a free radical scavenger and improves NSC viability) starting at registration until the day prior to surgical tumor resection and planned investigational product injection #2.

Radiotherapy phase:

After recovery from surgery (usually within 2 weeks), standard chemoradiotherapy will be initiated consisting of daily radiotherapy (2 Gy per fraction x 30 fractions) and concomitant temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy (75 mg/m2 daily from day 1 of RT until last day of RT).

About 10-14 days into radiotherapy (= approx. 4 weeks after intraoperative dose #2), patients will be receiving NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 dose #3 through the previously implanted catheter system. This also marks the beginning of the formal dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) period, as this virus' survivin gene promoter is activated by the concomitant irradiation.

Four weeks later, ie. at the end of radiotherapy dose #4 is administered as previously, provided no DLT toxicity has been observed and viral treatment related toxicities have returned to grade ≤ 2.

Adjuvant (also called maintenance) phase:

As per standard of care, approx. 4 weeks after end of radiotherapy, patients will start maintenance TMZ chemotherapy (150 - 200 mg/m2, daily x 5 every 28 days) and loco-regional treatment with alternating Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields, Optune®). NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 doses #5 and #6 will be administered concurrently (± 3 days) with adjuvant cycle 1 and 2 of TMZ.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 20
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Christina Amidei, PhD; Phone Number: (312) 695-9124; Email: christina.amidei@nm.org
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Roger Stupp, MD; Phone Number: (312) 695-8143; Email: roger.stupp@northwestern.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of a high-grade glioma (WHO grade 3 or grade 4).
• Patients must have presumed high grade glioma (WHO grade 3 or 4) based on clinical and radiologic evaluation for registration.
• A pathologic confirmation of high grade glioma must be made at the time of stereotactic biopsy prior to NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 injection; if this is not possible, the injection will not be performed and the subject will no longer be eligible for the study).
• Tumor must be accessible for injection and must not be located in the brainstem or contained within the ventricular system.
• Planning to undergo standard radiation/chemotherapy.
• 18 years of age or older.
• Performance status (PS) must be WHO PS of < 2.
• Stable or decreasing dose of corticosteroids equivalent to ≤ 6 mg/day for the 5 days prior to inclusion
• Serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT or AST) < 3x upper limit of normal
• Serum creatinine < 2mg/dl
• Platelets > 100,000/mm3 and white blood cells (WBCs) > 3000/mm3

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior or ongoing liver disease including known cirrhosis.
• Known hepatitis B or C infection, known HIV infection.
• Chronic use of immunosuppressive drugs (with exception of corticosteroids required for mass effect).
• Acute viral, bacterial or fungal infections requiring therapy.
• Pregnant or breast-feeding patients.
• Evidence of metastatic disease or other malignancy (except squamous or basal cell skin cancers).
• Prior radiation therapy to the brain or prior treatment for brain tumor.

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

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: NSC-CRAd-S-pk7; NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 1·50 x 10⁸ NSCs loaded with1·875 x viral particles administered intra-tumorally on Day 0 and Day 15, then every 4 weeks for up to 6 total doses.	Biological: NSC-CRAd-S-pk7; NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 1·50 x 10⁸ NSCs loaded with1·875 x viral particles administered intra-tumorally on Day 0 and Day 15, then every 4 weeks for up to 6 total doses.
Experimental: NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 + N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA); NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 1·50 x 10⁸ NSCs loaded with 1·875 x viral particles administered intra-tumorally on Day 0 and Day 15, then every 4 weeks for up to 6 total doses. In addition, N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) 600 mg oral, is taken daily from registration to just prior to dose 2 of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7.	Biological: NSC-CRAd-S-pk7; NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 1·50 x 10⁸ NSCs loaded with1·875 x viral particles administered intra-tumorally on Day 0 and Day 15, then every 4 weeks for up to 6 total doses.; Dietary supplement: N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA); N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) 600 mg oral, is taken daily from registration to just prior to dose 2 of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Dose-limiting toxicity of repeat NSC-CRAd-S-pk7 dosing	Determination of the dose limiting toxicity of repeated dosing of NSC-CRAd-S-pk7	8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Objective response to therapy	Objective response to therapy as determined by Immune Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (iRANO) criteria	5 years
Overall survival	Overall survival time from the first study product injection to death	5 years
Progression-free survival	Time from the first study product injection to first confirmed disease progression as determined by objective tumor response	18 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain (FACT-Br) score change	Change in score on FACT-Br over time as a measure of quality of life, with scores ranging from 0-200; higher scores indicate better quality of life.	22 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northwestern University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Roger Stupp, MD, Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Stupp R, Mason WP, van den Bent MJ, Weller M, Fisher B, Taphoorn MJ, Belanger K, Brandes AA, Marosi C, Bogdahn U, Curschmann J, Janzer RC, Ludwin SK, Gorlia T, Allgeier A, Lacombe D, Cairncross JG, Eisenhauer E, Mirimanoff RO; European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Brain Tumor and Radiotherapy Groups; National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. Radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide for glioblastoma. N Engl J Med. 2005 Mar 10;352(10):987-96. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa043330.
• Ahmed AU, Thaci B, Tobias AL, Auffinger B, Zhang L, Cheng Y, Kim CK, Yunis C, Han Y, Alexiades NG, Fan X, Aboody KS, Lesniak MS. A preclinical evaluation of neural stem cell-based cell carrier for targeted antiglioma oncolytic virotherapy. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013 Jul 3;105(13):968-77. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djt141.
• Ahmed AU, Thaci B, Alexiades NG, Han Y, Qian S, Liu F, Balyasnikova IV, Ulasov IY, Aboody KS, Lesniak MS. Neural stem cell-based cell carriers enhance therapeutic efficacy of an oncolytic adenovirus in an orthotopic mouse model of human glioblastoma. Mol Ther. 2011 Sep;19(9):1714-26. doi: 10.1038/mt.2011.100. Epub 2011 May 31.
• Fares J, Ahmed AU, Ulasov IV, Sonabend AM, Miska J, Lee-Chang C, Balyasnikova IV, Chandler JP, Portnow J, Tate MC, Kumthekar P, Lukas RV, Grimm SA, Adams AK, Hebert CD, Strong TV, Amidei C, Arrieta VA, Zannikou M, Horbinski C, Zhang H, Burdett KB, Curiel DT, Sachdev S, Aboody KS, Stupp R, Lesniak MS. Neural stem cell delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus in newly diagnosed malignant glioma: a first-in-human, phase 1, dose-escalation trial. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Aug;22(8):1103-1114. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00245-X. Epub 2021 Jun 29.
• Kim CK, Ahmed AU, Auffinger B, Ulasov IV, Tobias AL, Moon KS, Lesniak MS. N-acetylcysteine amide augments the therapeutic effect of neural stem cell-based antiglioma oncolytic virotherapy. Mol Ther. 2013 Nov;21(11):2063-73. doi: 10.1038/mt.2013.179. Epub 2013 Jul 25.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): June 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 5, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 5, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 13, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 2, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 30, 2024
• Last Verified: March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Virotherapy; NSC-CRAd-S-pk7
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial; Neoplasms, Neuroepithelial; Neuroectodermal Tumors; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal; Neoplasms, Nerve Tissue; Glioma; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Anti-Infective Agents; Antiviral Agents; Protective Agents; Respiratory System Agents; Antioxidants; Antidotes; Free Radical Scavengers; Expectorants; Acetylcysteine; N-monoacetylcystine
• Other Study ID Numbers: NU 23C02

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: No individual participant data (IPD) will be shared with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

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