NCT03838029

Perioperative Intervention to Reduce Metastatic Processes in Pancreatic Cancer Patients Undergoing Curative Surgery

Perioperative Use of a Beta-adrenergic Blocker and a COX-2 Inhibitor in Patients Undergoing Surgery With Primary Pancreatic Cancer: Intervention Aiming to Reduce Pro-metastatic Processes

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 210 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Assaf-Harofeh Medical Center · Other Government
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years – 80 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

In Israel, of the \~1000 patients diagnosed annually with pancreatic cancer (PC), approximately 250 (25 percent) will be eligible for curative surgery, of which 80 percent will succumb to post-surgical metastatic disease. A reduction in post-surgical metastatic disease will save dozens of patients in Israel annually, and tens-of thousands-around the world. The short perioperative period (days to weeks around surgery) is characterized by stress-inflammatory responses, including catecholamines (CAs, e.g., adrenaline) and prostaglandins (PGs, e.g., prostaglandin-E2) release, and induce deleterious pro-metastatic effects. Animal studies implicated excess perioperative release of CAs and PGs in facilitating cancer progression by affecting the malignant tissue, its local environment, and anti-metastatic immune functions. Congruently, our animal studies indicate that combined use of the beta-adrenergic blocker, propranolol, and the prostaglandins inhibitor, etodolac - but neither drug separately - efficiently prevented post-operative metastatic development. We recently conducted two clinical trials in three medical centers in Israel, recruiting breast (n=38) and colorectal (n=34) cancer patients, assessing the safety and short-term efficacy of perioperative propranolol and etodolac treatment. Drugs were well tolerated, without severe adverse events. Importantly, molecular/biological analyses of the excised primary tumor indicated that drug treatment caused promising anti-metastatic transformations, as well as improvements in immune and inflammatory indices. These included (i) decreased tumor cell capacity to migrate, (ii) reduced pro-metastatic capacity of the malignant tissue, and (iii) improvement in immune infiltrating into the tumor (Paper published in Clinical Cancer Research, 2017). Herein, we propose to conduct a double-blind placebo-controlled two-arm Phase II clinical trial in 210 pancreatic cancer patients undergoing curative surgery in Israel. A perioperative 35-day drug treatment will be initiated 5 days before surgery. Primary outcomes will include (i) 1-year disease-free-survival (DFS), and 5-year overall survival (OS); and (ii) biological markers in blood samples, and in the excised tumor tissue. Secondary outcomes will include safety indices and psychological measures of depression, anxiety, distress, and fatigue.

Conditions

• Pancreatic Neoplasms

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Propranolol and etodolac	A perioperative combined drug regimen
OTHER	Placebo	Placebo

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-11-20
• Primary completion: 2026-01-01
• Completion: 2026-01-01
• First posted: 2019-02-12
• Last updated: 2019-11-20

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: Israel