Olimersen and Irinotecan in Treating Patients With Metastatic or Recurrent Colorectal Cancer

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2002-09-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Gene therapy such as oblimersen may make tumor cells more sensitive to chemotherapy drugs. Combining irinotecan and oblimersen may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial to study the effectiveness of combining oblimersen and irinotecan in treating patients who have metastatic or recurrent colorectal cancer.

• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• Collaborator: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Treatments: Camptothecin; Irinotecan; Oblimersen

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically or cytologically confirmed unresectable metastatic or recurrent adenocarcinoma of the colon or rectum No brain metastases unless previously treated, asymptomatic, on stable dose of decadron, and CT/MRI scan demonstrates no evidence of edema Phase I: Measurable or evaluable disease Phase II: Measurable disease Evidence of +1 bcl-2 expression on immunohistochemical staining in pathologic material

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 and over Performance status: ECOG 0-2 Life expectancy: At least 12 weeks Hematopoietic: Platelet count at least 100,000/mm3 Hemoglobin at least 9.0 g/dL Absolute granulocyte count at least 1,500/mm3 Hepatic: Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 mg/dL AST/ALT no greater than 3 times upper limit of normal (ULN) (5 times ULN if liver metastases) PT/PTT normal Renal: Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL Other: Not pregnant or nursing Negative pregnancy test Fertile patients must use effective contraception No active infection No serious concurrent systemic disorders that would preclude study treatment

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: No concurrent immunotherapy Chemotherapy: At least 4 weeks since prior chemotherapy (6 weeks for nitrosoureas and mitomycin) and recovered No other concurrent chemotherapy Phase I: At least 4 weeks since prior irinotecan and recovered Phase II: No more than 2 prior fluorouracil-based regimens for metastatic disease No prior irinotecan Endocrine therapy: See Disease Characteristics No concurrent anticancer hormonal therapy Radiotherapy: No concurrent radiotherapy Surgery: See Disease Characteristics Other: No other concurrent experimental medications