
"I am glad that taking part in a trial might help others on their own cancer journey.”
Please note - this trial is no longer recruiting patients. We hope to add results when they are available.
This trial is looking at a drug called brivanib to see if it helps people with advanced cancer.
Cancers need a blood supply to help them grow and survive. Growing cancers can attract new blood vessels. This is called ‘angiogenesis'. Researchers are looking at ways to stop cancers being able to grow these new blood vessels. Drugs that block cancer blood vessel growth are called anti angiogenics.
In this trial, they are looking at an anti angiogenic drug called brivanib (also known as brivanib alaninate or BMS 582664). Brivanib may be able to stop cancer blood vessels growing by blocking 2 growth factors called VEGF and FGF.
The aim of the trial is to find out if brivanib helps people with and to see if the drug is safe.
You can enter this trial if you
You cannot enter this trial if you
This is a phase 2 trial that will recruit about 300 people. At the beginning of the trial, people with different types of cancer including breast cancer could take part, but now it is only recruiting people with ovarian cancer.
Everybody taking part in the trial has brivanib for 12 weeks to begin with. You take up to 4 brivanib tablets every day. You will be asked to keep a diary at home to record when you take your tablets.
After 12 weeks, you have a scan to see if your cancer has got bigger or smaller.
If your cancer has grown in size by a quarter or more, you will stop having brivanib and leave the trial. Your doctor will discuss other treatment options with you.
If your cancer has reduced in size by at least half, you can carry on having brivanib.
If your cancer has not got much bigger, or much smaller, you will be put into 1 of 2 treatment groups by a computer. Neither you nor your doctor can decide which group you are in. This is called randomisation. People in group 1 carry on having brivanib. People in group 2 have dummy () tablets.
Neither you nor your doctor will know which group you are in. This is called a ‘double blind trial’. But if your cancer starts getting bigger during this part of the trial, the trial doctors can find out if you are taking brivanib or placebo tablets. If are taking the placebo tablets, you can switch back to having brivanib again.
As long as you don’t have any bad side effects, you can carry on taking brivanib for as long as it helps you.
The trial doctors will get a sample of tissue removed when you had a to diagnose cancer. If there is no tissue available, they may ask you to have another biopsy. And they will get take an extra blood sample at the beginning of the trial.
They will use these samples to learn more about how brivanib works and what happens to it in the body. They will also look at the DNA in your samples to see how genes affect the way people respond to the drug and the side effects they have.
You will see the trial doctors and have some tests before you start treatment. The tests include
You go to hospital once a week for the first 3 weeks of treatment, and then once every 3 weeks after that. You have blood tests at each visit. You have a CT or MRI scan every 6 weeks during treatment, and an echocardiogram every 3 months.
After you finish treatment, you go back to see the trial doctors and have more blood tests and a scan.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor Stan Kaye
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
Freephone 0808 800 4040
"I am glad that taking part in a trial might help others on their own cancer journey.”