
Around 1 in 5 people diagnosed with cancer in the UK take part in a clinical trial.
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 defactinib to treat mesothelioma that started in the sheets of tissue covering the lungs (pleural mesothelioma).
Unfortunately, it can be difficult for doctors to treat pleural mesothelioma. You may have chemotherapy, but researchers are looking for ways to improve treatment. In this trial, they are looking at an experimental drug called defactinib.
Defactinib is a type of biological therapy. It stops signals that mesothelioma cells use to divide and grow.
The trial is comparing defactinib with a dummy drug (). It is for people who have recently had chemotherapy and when they finished this treatment, their mesothelioma had got smaller or stayed the same size. The aims of the trial are to
You may be able to enter this trial if
You cannot enter this trial if you
This international phase 2 trial aims to recruit over 370 people.
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.
The trial team will ask you to keep a diary at home. In this, you write down when you take your tablets each day.
As long as you don’t have bad side effects, you can carry on having the trial treatment for as long as it helps you.
During the trial, the researchers will take some extra blood samples to see what happens to the drug in your body. This is called . They will also take blood samples to look for genes or proteins that can show how defactinib affects your body. This may help them to work out why the drug helps some people more than others.
The trial team will ask you to fill out a questionnaire before you start treatment, at each hospital visit during treatment and after you finish treatment. The questionnaire will ask about side effects and how you’ve been feeling. This is called a quality of life study.
You see the trial team and have some tests before you start treatment. The tests include
The trial team will get a sample of your cancer that was removed when you had a to diagnose mesothelioma. If there is no sample available, they will ask you to have a biopsy.
During treatment, you go to see the trial team every 3 weeks for the first 6 months and then every 4 weeks after that. You have regular blood tests and a CT scan or X-ray every 6 to 8 weeks.
When you stop taking the tablets, you see the trial team a week later and again a month later. After that, they will contact you by phone every 2 months to see how you are.
As defactinib is a new drug, there may be side effects we don’t know about yet. In trials so far, the most common side effects have been
Defactinib may affect your ability to have a child (your fertility). It can also make you more sensitive to sunlight. During the trial, you must reduce your exposure to the sun, use sunscreen and wear sunglasses whenever you are in the sun.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor Dean Fennell
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
Verastem Inc
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Around 1 in 5 people diagnosed with cancer in the UK take part in a clinical trial.