Testing of ADI-PEG in Hepatocellular Carcinoma - Full Text View

Purpose

Amino acid deprivation therapy is an effective means for the treatment of some forms of cancer. Recently it has been found that human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) cell lines appear to require arginine for growth. Arginine is not an essential amino acid for human adults or infants as it can be synthesized from citrulline (for review see Rogers 1994). Therefore, selective elimination of arginine from the circulation may be a means of treating patients with metastatic melanoma or non resectable HCC.

The enzyme arginine deiminase (ADI) metabolizes arginine into citrulline (Cunin 1986). However, ADI is only found in microbes and not in humans. ADI is therefore, highly immunogenic and has a short serum half-life following injection. These potential drawbacks (microbial source and thus viewed as foreign by the human immune system, and a short serum half-life) can be overcome by covalent attachment of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to argininedeiminase and termed this drug ADI-PEG 20.

ADI-PEG 20 appears to be an effective anti-cancer treatment for human HCC. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data indicates a once a week injection of 160 IU/m2 of ADI-PEG 20 eliminates all detectable arginine from the circulation for at least 7 days. This treatment appears to be well tolerated. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of this treatment in patients with HCC. Efficacy is a primary end point of this study. No patients will recieve placebo.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular	Drug: ADI-PEG 20	Phase II

MedlinePlus related topics:

Cancer Liver Cancer

U.S. FDA Resources

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Treatment, Non-Randomized, Open Label, Uncontrolled, Single Group Assignment, Safety/Efficacy Study

Official Title:	Phase II Testing of ADI-PEG in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Further study details as provided by FDA Office of Orphan Products Development:

Estimated Enrollment:	34
Study Start Date:	September 2002
Estimated Study Completion Date:	October 2003

Eligibility

Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

Criteria

Histologically confirmed diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Non-resectable disease.
Progressive disease after chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery or immuno-therapy, and be no longer responding to such therapy, or have refused such therapy.
Been off previous treatment for at least 4 weeks.
Been fully recovered from all prior surgery.
Age of > 18 years.
Karnofsky performance status of > 70.
Expected survival of > 12 weeks.
Total bilirubin < 3.0 mg/dl.
Serum albumin > 3.0 g/dl.
Serum SGOT < 5 x upper limit of normal.
Serum alkaline phosphatase < 5 x upper limit of normal.
Serum ammonia < 55 mg/dl.
Serum glucose > 60 mg/dl.
Serum amylase < 1.5 x upper limit of normal.
ANC > 1,500 / ml.
Platelets > 100,000 / ml.
Female subjects of childbearing age and male subjects must be asked to use appropriate contraception for both the male and female for the duration of the study. Subjects must agree to use two forms of contraception or agree to refrain from intercourse for the duration of the study. Females must not be pregnant at the start of the study, and a serum HCG pregnancy test must be negative before entry into the study.
Informed consent.
Not be enrolled in other IND studies.
Disease must be measurable or evaluable.

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00056992

Locations


United States, Texas
	MD Anderson Cancer center
	Houston, Texas, United States

Sponsors and Collaborators

FDA Office of Orphan Products Development

More Information

Study ID Numbers:	2206
First Received:	March 26, 2003
Last Updated:	January 31, 2006
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00056992
Health Authority:	United States: Food and Drug Administration

Study placed in the following topic categories:

Liver Neoplasms

Liver Diseases

Digestive System Diseases

Digestive System Neoplasms

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular

Liver neoplasms

Gastrointestinal Neoplasms

Adenocarcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial

Carcinoma

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Neoplasms

Neoplasms by Site

Neoplasms by Histologic Type

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on October 07, 2008

Sponsored by:	FDA Office of Orphan Products Development
Information provided by:	FDA Office of Orphan Products Development
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00056992