A Study Of Sunitinib Compared To Placebo For Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Islet Cell Tumors

This study randomized patients with advanced pancreatic islet cell tumors to receive either sunitinib or placebo. Patients who were randomized to sunitinib received 37.5 mg of sunitinib daily, those randomized to placebo received a tablet that looked similar but had no active drug. Neither the patient or the doctor knew whether the patient was receiving sunitinib or placebo. Patients were followed to determine the status and size of their tumors, survival, quality of life and safety of the drug.

The study was designed to detect a 50% improvement in median PFS[Progression Free Survival] with 90% power and was to enroll 340 subjects. An interim analysis was planned when 130 events had occurred, and the final analysis was to be conducted when 260 events had occurred.

Study A6181111 was stopped early during the enrollment period because of a clear and clinically meaningful improvement in efficacy for the sunitinib treatment arm as recommended by the DMC [Data Monitoring Committee]. The actual number of subjects enrolled was 171 and the actual number of PFS events recorded was 81 PFS events. The decision to terminate the study was not based on safety concerns related to sunitinib administration.

• Carcinoma, Islet Cell
• Carcinoma, Pancreas

• Drug: sunitinib malate
  • sunitinib malate oral starting dose 37.5 mg daily (continuous dosing).
  • Dose may be decreased to 25 mg daily in case of adverse events.
  • It may be increased to 50 mg daily if no response is seen after 8 weeks on treatment.
  • Dosing to continue until unacceptable toxicity, progression of disease, death, or study termination.
• Drug: Placebo
  Placebo to match sunitinib taken daily (oral) on the same schedule as active agent below.

• Experimental: A
  Intervention: Drug: sunitinib malate
• Placebo Comparator: B
  Intervention: Drug: Placebo

• Lamarca A, Barriuso J, Kulke M, Borbath I, Lenz HJ, Raoul JL, Meropol NJ, Lombard-Bohas C, Posey J, Faivre S, Raymond E, Valle JW. Determination of an optimal response cut-off able to predict progression-free survival in patients with well-differentiated advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours treated with sunitinib: an alternative to the current RECIST-defined response. Br J Cancer. 2018 Jan;118(2):181-188. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.402. Epub 2017 Nov 21.
• Vinik A, Bottomley A, Korytowsky B, Bang YJ, Raoul JL, Valle JW, Metrakos P, Hörsch D, Mundayat R, Reisman A, Wang Z, Chao RC, Raymond E. Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life with Sunitinib Versus Placebo for Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: Results From an International Phase III Trial. Target Oncol. 2016 Dec;11(6):815-824.
• Faivre S, Niccoli P, Castellano D, Valle JW, Hammel P, Raoul JL, Vinik A, Van Cutsem E, Bang YJ, Lee SH, Borbath I, Lombard-Bohas C, Metrakos P, Smith D, Chen JS, Ruszniewski P, Seitz JF, Patyna S, Lu DR, Ishak KJ, Raymond E. Sunitinib in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: updated progression-free survival and final overall survival from a phase III randomized study. Ann Oncol. 2017 Feb 1;28(2):339-343. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdw561.
• Raymond E, Dahan L, Raoul JL, Bang YJ, Borbath I, Lombard-Bohas C, Valle J, Metrakos P, Smith D, Vinik A, Chen JS, Hörsch D, Hammel P, Wiedenmann B, Van Cutsem E, Patyna S, Lu DR, Blanckmeister C, Chao R, Ruszniewski P. Sunitinib malate for the treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. N Engl J Med. 2011 Feb 10;364(6):501-13. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1003825. Erratum in: N Engl J Med. 2011 Mar 17;364(11):1082.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Well-differentiated advanced/metastatic pancreatic islet cell tumor
• Tumor has shown progression within the past year.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current treatment with any chemotherapy, chemoembolization therapy, immunotherapy, or investigational anticancer agent other than somatostatin analogues
• Prior treatment with any tyrosine kinase inhibitors or anti-VEGF[Vascular endothelial growth factor] angiogenic inhibitors.
• Prior treatment with non-VEGF-targeted angiogenic inhibitors is permitted