Dataset Information

Phase III randomized study of fotemustine and dacarbazine versus dacarbazine with or without interferon-α in advanced malignant melanoma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The effect of the addition of fotemustine and/or interferon (IFN) to standard therapy with dacarbazine alone in patients with advanced malignant melanoma was investigated in a multicenter, randomized 2x2 factorial design trial.

Methods

A total of 260 patients were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: (A) fotemustine and dacarbazine repeated on 3-week cycle; (B) same treatment as (A) plus IFN-α2b three times per week; (C) dacarbazine alone repeated on 3-week cycle; (D) same treatment as (C) plus IFN-α2b three times per week. Two comparisons were planned to assess the efficacy of fotemustine (groups A+B vs. C+D) and IFN-α2b (groups A+C vs. B+D).

Results

Addition of fotemustine did not significantly improve overall survival (OS) (p=0.28) or progression-free survival (PFS) (p=0.55); Hazard ratio (HR) for OS was 0.93 (95% CI 0.71-1.21). Similarly, addition of IFN-α2b did not improve OS (p=0.68) or PFS (p=0.65); HR for OS was 0.92 (95% CI 0.70-1.20). Overall response rate was not improved by the addition of either fotemustine (p=0.87) or IFN-α2b (p=0.57). The combination of all three drugs resulted in the highest occurrence of adverse events.

Conclusions

No significant improvement in outcomes were observed with the addition of either fotemustine or IFN-α2b to dacarbazine.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01359956.

SUBMITTER: Daponte A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3598549 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Phase III randomized study of fotemustine and dacarbazine versus dacarbazine with or without interferon-α in advanced malignant melanoma.

Daponte Antonio A Signoriello Simona S Maiorino Luigi L Massidda Bruno B Simeone Ester E Grimaldi Antonio Maria AM Caracò Corrado C Palmieri Giuseppe G Cossu Antonio A Botti Gerardo G Petrillo Antonella A Lastoria Secondo S Cavalcanti Ernesta E Aprea Pasquale P Mozzillo Nicola N Gallo Ciro C Comella Giuseppe G Ascierto Paolo Antonio PA

Journal of translational medicine 20130213

<h4>Background</h4>The effect of the addition of fotemustine and/or interferon (IFN) to standard therapy with dacarbazine alone in patients with advanced malignant melanoma was investigated in a multicenter, randomized 2x2 factorial design trial.<h4>Methods</h4>A total of 260 patients were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: (A) fotemustine and dacarbazine repeated on 3-week cycle; (B) same treatment as (A) plus IFN-α2b three times per week; (C) dacarbazine alone repeated on 3-wee ...[more]

PMID: 23402397

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Project description:Clinical studies based on novel rationales and mechanisms of action of chemotherapy agents and cytokines can contribute to the development of new concepts and strategies of antitumor combination therapies. In previous studies, we investigated the paradoxical immunostimulating effects of some chemotherapeutics and the immunoadjuvant activity of interferon alpha (IFN-α) in preclinical and clinical models, thus unraveling novel rationales and mechanisms of action of chemotherapy agents and cytokines for cancer immunotherapy. Here, we carried out a randomized, phase II clinical trial, in which we analyzed the relapse-free (RFS) and overall survival (OS) of 34 completely resected stage III-IV melanoma patients, treated with peptide-based vaccination (Melan-A/MART-1 and NY-ESO-1) in combination with IFN-α2b, with (arm 2) or without (arm 1) dacarbazine preconditioning. All patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At a median follow-up of 4.5 years (interquartile range, 15.4-81.0 months), the rates of RFS were 52.9 and 35.3% in arms 1 and 2, respectively. The 4.5-year OS rates were 68.8% in arm 1 and 62.7% in arm 2. No significant differences were observed between the two arms for both RFS and OS. Interestingly, the RFS and OS curves remained stable starting from 18 and 42 months, respectively. Grade 3 adverse events occurred in 5.9% of patients, whereas grade 4 events were not observed. Both treatments induced a significant expansion of vaccine-specific CD8+ T cells, with no correlation with the clinical outcome. However, treatment-induced increase of polyfunctionality and of interleukin 2 production by Melan-A-specific CD8+ T cells and expansion/activation of natural killer cells correlated with RFS, being observed only in nonrelapsing patients. Despite the recent availability of different therapeutic options, low-cost, low-toxic therapies with long-lasting clinical effects are still needed in patients with high-risk resected stage III/IV melanoma. The combination of peptide vaccination with IFN-α2b showed a minimal toxicity profile and resulted in encouraging RFS and OS rates, justifying further evaluation in clinical trials, which may include the use of checkpoint inhibitors to further expand the antitumor immune response and the clinical outcome. Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu/ctr-search/search, identifier: 2008-008211-26.

Project description:Malignant melanomas are highly resistant to chemotherapy. First-line chemotherapeutics used in melanoma therapy are the methylating agents dacarbazine (DTIC) and temozolomide (TMZ) and the chloroethylating agents BCNU and fotemustine. Here, we determined the mode of cell death in 11 melanoma cell lines upon exposure to TMZ and fotemustine. We show for the first time that TMZ induces apoptosis in melanoma cells, using therapeutic doses. For both TMZ and fotemustine apoptosis is the dominant mode of cell death. The contribution of necrosis to total cell death varied between 10 and 40%. The O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) activity in the cell lines was between 0 and 1100 fmol mg(-1) protein, and there was a correlation between MGMT activity and the level of resistance to TMZ and fotemustine. MGMT inactivation by O(6)-benzylguanine sensitized all melanoma cell lines expressing MGMT to TMZ and fotemustine-induced apoptosis, and MGMT transfection attenuated the apoptotic response. This supports that O(6)-alkylguanines are critical lesions involved in the initiation of programmed melanoma cell death. One of the cell lines (MZ7), derived from a patient subjected to DTIC therapy, exhibited a high level of resistance to TMZ without expressing MGMT. This was related to an impaired expression of MSH2 and MSH6. The cells were not cross-resistant to fotemustine. Although these data indicate that methylating drug resistance of melanoma cells can be acquired by down-regulation of mismatch repair, a correlation between MSH2 and MSH6 expression in the different lines and TMZ sensitivity was not found. Apoptosis in melanoma cells induced by TMZ and fotemustine was accompanied by double-strand break (DSB) formation (as determined by H2AX phosphorylation) and caspase-3 and -7 activation as well as PARP cleavage. For TMZ, DSBs correlated significantly with the apoptotic response, whereas for fotemustine a correlation was not found. Melanoma lines expressing p53 wild-type were more resistant to TMZ and fotemustine than p53 mutant melanoma lines, which is in marked contrast to previous data reported for glioma cells treated with TMZ. Overall, the findings are in line with the model that in melanoma cells TMZ-induced O(6)-methylguanine triggers the apoptotic (and necrotic) pathway through DSBs, whereas for chloroethylating agents apoptosis is triggered in a more complex manner.

Dataset Information

Phase III randomized study of fotemustine and dacarbazine versus dacarbazine with or without interferon-α in advanced malignant melanoma.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Trial registration

Publications

Phase III randomized study of fotemustine and dacarbazine versus dacarbazine with or without interferon-α in advanced malignant melanoma.

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