Pembrolizumab in Recurrent or Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Completed · Phase 2

Conditions studied: Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC)

In brief

Background: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a tumor of the thyroid gland. Surgery is the only current treatment to cure it. The drug pembrolizumab (MK-3475) is a new type of cancer therapy. It works by allowing the immune system to detect and kill tumor cells. Objective: To test how pembrolizumab affects people with MTC and if it can offer them clinical benefit. Eligibility: People ages 18 and older with MTC Patients who have recurrent or metastatic MTC, for whom surgery is not a curative option Patients with some imaging evidence of MTC Patients with minimal symptoms related to MTC Design: Participants will be screened with: * Medical history * Physical exam * Blood, urine, and heart tests * Computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): They lie in a machine that takes pictures of the body. * Bone scan Participants will be put in a group based on their treatment history: * Group 1 if they have had an immune stimulating cancer vaccine * Group 2 if they have had no vaccine Participants will receive the study drug as a 30-minute intravenous (IV) infusion every 3 weeks. Treatment will continue for up to 2 years as long as they tolerate it and their disease does not get worse. Participants will have physical exams and blood tests on the day of each infusion. They will have CT and bone scans every 3 months. Participants may save biopsies before treatment and after starting treatment. Participants will have a final visit 3-4 weeks after stopping treatment. This will include a physical exam and blood and heart tests. After this study, participants can join a long-term follow-up study.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03072160

Run by

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

People needed

17

Starts

2017-06-16

Expected to finish

2019-11-22

Last updated by the study team

2021-02-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• Is currently participating and receiving study therapy or has participated in a study of an investigational agent and received study therapy or used an investigational device within 4 weeks of the first dose of treatment.
• Has a diagnosis of immunodeficiency or is receiving systemic steroid therapy or any other form of immunosuppressive therapy within 7 days prior to the first dose of trial treatment.
• Has a known history of active TB (Bacillus Tuberculosis)
• Hypersensitivity to pembrolizumab or any of its excipients.
• Has had a prior anti-cancer monoclonal antibody (mAb) within 4 weeks prior to study Day 1 or who has not recovered (i.e., less than or equal to Grade 1 or at baseline) from adverse events due to agents administered more than 4 weeks earlier.
• Has had prior targeted small molecule therapy, or radiation therapy within 2 weeks prior to study Day 1 or who has not recovered (i.e., less than or equal to Grade 1 or at baseline) from adverse events due to a previously administered agent. Note: Subjects with less than or equal to Grade 2 neuropathy are an exception to this criterion and may qualify for the study. Note: If subject received major surgery, they must have recovered adequately from the toxicity and/or complications from the intervention prior to starting therapy.
• Has active autoimmune disease that has required systemic treatment in the past 2 years (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids or immunosuppressive drugs). Replacement therapy (e.g., thyroxine, insulin, or physiologic corticosteroid replacement therapy for adrenal or pituitary insufficiency, etc.) is not considered a form of systemic treatment.
• Has known active central nervous system (CNS) metastases and/or carcinomatous meningitis. Subjects with previously treated brain metastases may participate provided they are stable for 6 months (without evidence of progression by imaging for at least four weeks prior to the first dose of trial treatment and any neurologic symptoms have returned to baseline), have no evidence of new or enlarging brain metastases, and are not using steroids for at least 7 days prior to trial treatment. This exception does not include carcinomatous meningitis which is excluded regardless of clinical stability.
• Has history of (non-infectious) pneumonitis that required steroids, evidence of interstitial lung disease or active, non-infectious pneumonitis.
• Has an active infection requiring systemic therapy.
• Has a history or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory abnormality that might confound the results of the trial, interfere with the subjects participation for the full duration of the trial, or is not in the best interest of the subject to participate, in the opinion of the treating investigator.
• Has known psychiatric or substance abuse disorders that would interfere with cooperation with the requirements of the trial.
• Is pregnant or breast feeding or expecting to conceive or father children within the projected duration of the trial, starting with the pre-screening or screening visit through 120 days after the last dose of trial treatment.
• Has received prior therapy with an anti-Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), anti- programmed cell death-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), or anti-Programmed death ligand 2 (PD-L2) agent.
• Has Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (HIV 1/2 antibodies).
• Has active Hepatitis B (e.g., HBsAg reactive) or Hepatitis C (e.g., hepatitis C virus (HCV) ribonucleic acid (RNA) [qualitative] is detected).
• Has received a live vaccine within 30 days of planned start of study therapy
• Concurrent use of systemic steroids, except for physiologic doses of systemic steroid replacement or local (topical, nasal, eye drops or inhaled) steroid use. Limited doses of systemic steroids (e.g., in patients with exacerbations of reactive airway disease or to prevent intravenous (IV) contrast allergic reaction or anaphylaxis in patients who have known contrast allergies) are allowed.
• Serious inter-current medical illness which would interfere with the ability of the patient to carry out the treatment program.
• Patients with second malignancy within 3 years of enrollment; Patients curatively treated non-melanoma skin cancers or carcinoma in situ of the bladder, are not excluded. Patients with Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) and a history of pheochromocytoma will also not be excluded. In addition, patients with prostate cancer who do not require systemic therapy will not be excluded. (A secondary, minor pathologic focus of another form of thyroid cancer may be coincidentally found in 15-20% of patients with medullary thyroid cancer. In such cases, eligibility is based on the discretion of the investigator.)
• Patients with previous history of vandetanib or cabozantinib treatment for more than 28 days of treatment (patients have discontinued treatment for 28 days before enrolling).

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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