Appropriate Dosing to Optimise Personalised Cancer Treatments (ADOPT)

University of Dundee

Status: Completed

Conditions: Melanoma Stage IV; Melanoma Stage III; Renal Cancer Stage IV; Lung Cancer, Non-small Cell; Ovarian Cancer; Renal Cancer Stage III

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: Venous blood sampling; Diagnostic Test: Dried blood Spot (DBS)

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04154163

2-032-19

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is a pilot study to assess feasibility of dried blood spot (DBS) samples for pharmacokinetic measurements of targeted anti-cancer drugs in oncology patients such as patients with BRAF-mutant melanoma receiving targeted treatment with BRAF and MEK inhibitors.

Full description

In the pharmacology laboratory, we have developed a method for measuring drug concentrations in animals using dried blood spots (DBS). DBS is a simple method that could be easily carried out by patients at home, using either filter paper-based DBS cards (e.g. Whatman 903, FTA DMPK-C) or small sponges (www.neoteryx.com).

The routine use of DBS to clinically test blood was first used in the 1960s as a safe and simple method of testing for inherited metabolic disorders in new born babies. However, in recent years there has been increasing use of DBS to test blood for other things, including for drugs as a way to monitor the drug level in the blood.

This method has great potential application in testing blood for drug levels in cancer patients. We wish to establish if this DBS technique is feasible in real-life practice for cancer patients on targeted anti-cancer therapies as should this be the case this innovation could herald a new era in personalised treatment of advanced human cancers allowing doctors to more safely use combinations of targeted therapies. These combinations of targeted therapies have been shown to inhibit development of drug resistance and are increasingly being used in clinical practice. However, targeted therapies often fail (especially combinations of targeted therapies) because of unacceptable toxicities making them intolerable for the patient. With an easy and acceptable method for monitoring the drug level in blood, as could be provided by DBS, the right amount of drug could be given to each individual patient and this 'personalised' drug dosing as standard of care might result in much greater success with combinations of anti-cancer drugs.

This drug monitoring is especially important for targeted anti-cancer therapies because many of these (such as Dabrafenib, used for many cases of advanced melanoma) have profound affects on the liver enzymes that metabolise (get rid of) most medications. Dabrafenib is a potent inducer of P450 liver enzymes and this induction means that other drugs metabolised by the same liver pathway (the great majority of drugs are metabolised by the same pathways) will have significantly reduced blood levels if the patient is on Dabrafenib. So it is especially important to be able to monitor blood levels of both Dabrafenib and of other co-medications that the patient may be taking. The DBS sampling method would allow this and would provide a safe, convenient and cheap test that could be conducted in the patient's home and posted back to the laboratory.

Enrollment: 18 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 100 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female participants
• Age 18 years and over
• Confirmed diagnosis of stage 4 or stage 3 unresectable cancers; BRAF+ melanoma, c-KIT+ melanoma, advanced renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma and ovarian carcinoma.
• Able to perform study assessments
• Individuals who are participating in the follow-up phase of another interventional trial/study, or who are enrolled in an observational study, will be co-enrolled where the CIs of each study agree that it is appropriate

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to give informed consent
• World Health Organisation (WHO) performance status 3-4
• Known allergy or intolerance to Dabrafenib +/- Trametinib, Prazopanib, Erlotinib, Gefitinib, Imatinib, Osimertinib or Olaparib
• Unstable co-morbidities; cardiovascular disease e.g. severe congestive cardiac failure, end stage renal failure, hepatic impairment, vasculopathy, inflammatory arthritis or interstitial lung disease/ pneumonitis which, in the opinion of the CI, would make the patient unsuitable to be enrolled in the study
• Language barrier preventing adequate understanding of the study and a lack of suitable translator service to overcome this barrier
• Pregnancy

Trial design

18 participants in 2 patient groups

Stage 1 Participants

Description:

Blood test Day 1 DBS and venous blood Blood test Day 2 DBS (+/- and venous blood) Blood test Day 15 DBS only Blood test Day 16 DBS only

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Venous blood sampling

Diagnostic Test: Dried blood Spot (DBS)

Stage 2 Participants

Description:

Non-drug naive participants: Blood test Day 1 DBS Blood test Day 2 DBS Blood test Day 15 DBS Blood test Day 16 DBS Drug naive participants: Blood test Day 1 DBS Blood test Day 2 DBS Blood test Day 3, 4, or 5 DBS Blood test Day 4, 5 or 6 DBS Blood test Day 15 DBS Blood test Day 16 DBS

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Dried blood Spot (DBS)