
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
Please note - this trial is no longer recruiting patients. We hope to add results when they are available.
This trial is looking at a new drug called AUY922 for non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has spread from where it started in the lung or has come back after treatment (advanced lung cancer). It is for people whose lung cancer cells have high levels of a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor ().
Doctors often treat this type of lung cancer with a biological therapy such as erlotinib or gefitinib. But these drugs can stop working and the cancer can start to grow again. This means the cancer has become resistant to these treatments. Researchers are looking for new treatments to help people in this situation. In this trial, they are looking at a new drug called AUY922.
AUY922 is a biological therapy. It is a cancer growth blocker. It stops signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow. We know from that AUY922 can stop cancer cells with high levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR positive) from growing.
In this trial, researchers will compare AUY922 with the chemotherapy drugs pemetrexed and docetaxel. The aims of the trial are to find out
You may be able to enter this trial if
You cannot enter this trial if
This is an international phase 2 trial. It will recruit 120 people from different countries around the world. It is a randomised trial. The people taking part are put into treatment groups by a computer. Neither you nor your doctor will be able to decide which group you are in.
Half the people will have AUY922 through a drip into a vein every week.
The other half will have either pemetrexed or docetaxel chemotherapy through a drip into a vein every 3 weeks. Your doctor will decide which one you have.
You can continue having treatment as long as it is helping you and the side effects aren’t too bad.
The researchers will get a sample of tissue removed when your cancer was diagnosed. If a sample of tissue is not available, they will ask you to have another biopsy before you start the trial treatment. They will use these tissue samples, along with blood samples to look for biomarkers. Biomarkers are substances in the body that doctors can measure to see how a disease is developing or how a treatment is working.
If you are in the group having AUY922, the trial team will take a number of blood samples to look at what happens to the drug in the body. This is called .
You will see the doctor to have some tests before you start treatment. The tests include
During treatment people having AUY922 go to hospital once a week, but there will be extra hospital visits in the first 6 weeks of treatment. During these visits, you have a number of blood tests and ECGs.
People who are having pemetrexed or docetaxel go to the hospital every 3 weeks.
Everybody taking part has a CT or MRI scan every 6 weeks.
At the end of treatment everyone sees the doctor to have the same tests they had at the beginning of the trial.
After treatment you see the doctor every 3 months. If you stopped treatment for any reason other than your cancer was getting worse you will have a CT scan or MRI scan every 3 months until you start another treatment.
AUY922 is a new drug and there may be side effects we don’t know about yet. The most common side effects reported include
The most common side effects of pemetrexed are
The most common side effects of docetaxel are
Your doctor will talk to you about the possible side effects before you agree to take part in the trial.
We have more information about pemetrexed and docetaxel in our cancer drugs section.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Samreen Ahmed
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
Novartis
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.