Antineoplaston Therapy in Treating Patients With Neuroendocrine Tumor That Is Metastatic or Unlikely to Respond to Surgery or Radiation Therapy

Burzynski Research Institute

Status and phase: Withdrawn; Phase 2

Conditions: Islet Cell Carcinoma; Neuroendocrine Carcinoma; Pituitary Tumor; Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Treatments: Procedure: complementary and alternative therapy; Drug: antineoplaston AS2-1; Procedure: alternative product therapy; Procedure: biological therapy; Procedure: cancer prevention intervention; Drug: antineoplaston A10; Procedure: biologically based therapies; Procedure: differentiation therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00003514

CDR0000066557 (Registry Identifier)

BC-NE-2

Details and patient eligibility

About

RATIONALE: Antineoplastons are naturally-occurring substances that may also be made in the laboratory. Antineoplastons may inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well antineoplaston therapy works in treating patients with neuroendocrine tumor that is metastatic or unlikely to respond to surgery or radiation therapy.

Full description

OBJECTIVES:

• Provide treatment with antineoplastons A10 and AS2-1 for patients with metastatic or incurable neuroendocrine tumors.
• Describe response, tolerance to, and side effects of this regimen in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label study.

Patients receive gradually escalating doses of antineoplastons A10 and AS2-1 by intravenous injection 6 times daily until the maximum tolerated dose is reached.

Treatment continues for at least 2 months in the absence of unacceptable toxicity or disease progression. Patients achieving complete response (CR) continue treatment for an additional 8 months after reaching CR.

Tumors are measured every 2 months for 1 year and then every 3 months for 1 year.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 20-40 patients will be accrued for this study.

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed incurable neuroendocrine tumor that is unlikely to respond to existing therapy, meeting 1 of the following criteria:
• Metastatic disease
• Disease that is not curable with surgery or radiotherapy
• Measurable disease by MRI or CT scan
• Tumor must be at least 2 cm

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• Karnofsky 60-100%

Life expectancy:

• At least 2 months

Hematopoietic:

• WBC at least 2,000/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 50,000/mm^3

Hepatic:

• No hepatic insufficiency
• Bilirubin no greater than 2.5 mg/dL
• SGOT and SGPT no greater than 5 times upper limit of normal

Renal:

• No renal insufficiency
• Creatinine no greater than 2.5 mg/dL
• No history of renal conditions that contraindicate high dosages of sodium

Cardiovascular:

• No uncontrolled hypertension
• No history of congestive heart failure
• No history of other cardiovascular conditions that contraindicate high dosages of sodium

Pulmonary:

• No serious lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Other:

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception during and for 4 weeks after study participation
• No active infection
• No concurrent nonmalignant systemic disease
• Not a high medical or psychiatric risk

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• At least 4 weeks since prior immunotherapy
• No concurrent immunomodulating agents

Chemotherapy:

• At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas)

Endocrine therapy:

• Concurrent corticosteroids allowed

Radiotherapy:

• At least 8 weeks since prior radiotherapy

Surgery:

• Recovered from prior surgery

Other:

• Prior cytodifferentiating agents allowed
• No prior antineoplastons
• No other concurrent antineoplastic agents