Clinical Trial: Lenvatinib in Recurrent and/or Metastatic Adenoid Cystic Carcinomas of the Salivary Glands: ACC-LEN14

Study Status: Active, not recruiting
Recruit Status: Active, not recruiting
Study Type: Interventional




Official Title: Phase II Study on Lenvatinib in Recurrent and/or Metastatic Adenoid Cystic Carcinomas of the Salivary Glands of the Upper Aerodigestive Tract

Brief Summary: ACC is rare and represent approximately 25% of salivary gland carcinomas. The standard treatment is surgical excision followed by radiotherapy in selected cases. The disease is characterized by a progressive course with local and distant recurrences. First-line treatment is palliative chemotherapy that had modest results. Expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor in ACC of salivary origin has been reported. Several papers report that a high percentage of ACCs carries a chromosome translocation that results in the overexpression of the oncogene MYB, which is involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and in upregulation of several growth and angiogenetic factors contributing to the autocrine activation of the FGFR and VEGFR-mediated angiogenesis. Recently two whole genome sequencing of several ACC tumor/normal pairs have found mutations in genes involved in the FGF/IGF/PI3K pathway corroborating the hypothesis that this subset might benefit from inhibitors of this pathway. Based on these premises several antiangiogenic drugs and FGFR inhibitors are currently under investigation and a response rate of 11% was observed in ACC. Lenvatinib is an oral multiple RTK inhibitor targeting VEGFR-1-3, FGFR-1-4, RET, c-KIT, and PDGFR. On February 13, 2015 the drug has been approved by FDA for the treatment of patients with locally recurrent or metastatic, radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. Based on preclinical and clinical data, the investigators believe that targeting angiogenesis, FGFR pathway and tumor microenvironment might represent a rational basis to test Lenvatinib in patients with relapsed and/or metastatic ACC.