ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03012581AcSéUpdated Feb 28, 2024

Secured Access to Nivolumab for Adult Patients With Selected Rare Cancer Types

A Phase 2 interventional study of Nivolumab in Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Head and Neck Neoplasm and Skin Neoplasms, sponsored by UNICANCER. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-02-28.

Sponsored by UNICANCER · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
269
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a Phase 2, non-randomised, open-label, multicentric study to investigate the efficacy and safety of nivolumab monotherapy in 6 cohorts of patients with specific rare cancers who have unresectable locally advanced or metastatic disease, which is resistant or refractory to standard therapy, or for which standard therapy does not exist, or is not considered appropriate, and for which no other experimental treatment options are available.

Read the detailed description

The study plans to enrol up to 300 patients in total. Eligible patients who have provided their written informed consent for study participation will be assigned to one of 6 cohorts determined by indication:

  • Cohort 1: Non-clear cell RCC
  • Cohort 2: Rare head and neck cancer
  • Cohort 3: Rare skin cancer
  • Cohort 4: non-colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability (MSI-nonCRC)
  • Cohort 5: Penile cancer
  • Cohort 6: POLE exonucleasic domain mutated cancer

Between 20 and 50 patients will be enrolled in each cohort, with the exception of the cohort 1 (Non-clear cell RCC) and cohort 3 (Rare skin cancer). Following the amendment 6, up to a maximum of 20 additional patients may be included in the cohort 1 (Non-clear cell RCC) or cohort 3 (Rare skin cancer), within the limit of 300 patients to be included in total, due to potential signals observed in some subsets.

The study will use a two-stage Bayesian enrichment design. The first stage treats all patients from the different cohorts with the investigational product and identifies possibly sensitive indications. The second stage will compare outcomes among subsets of patients in the identified cohorts to distinguish between subpopulations of patients who may benefit from the treatment and patients for whom there is no evidence of efficacy.

02

Conditions studied

  • Carcinoma, Renal Cell
  • Head and Neck Neoplasm
  • Skin Neoplasms
  • Microsatellite Instability
  • Penile Neoplasms
  • Cancer With POLE Exonucleasic Domain Mutation
03

In context

Carcinoma, Renal Cell

2,037 studies on the registry are indexed under Carcinoma, Renal Cell; 395 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 269 is above the median of 43 across 1,564 interventional studies indexed under Carcinoma, Renal Cell.

Browse Carcinoma, Renal Cell studies →

Lead sponsor

UNICANCER is the lead sponsor of 219 studies on the registry; 52 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Patient information sheet and written form signed.
  2. confirmed diagnosis of a pathology corresponding to one of the following selected cancer types:

    • Non-clear cell renal-cell carcinomas: papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC, type I, type II and non-classified pRCC), chromophobe RCC (ChRCC), renal medullary carcinoma (RMC), collecting duct/Bellini duct carcinoma (CDC), microphthalmia-associated transcription (MiT) family translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC), renal cell carcinoma with a prominent sarcomatoid component (sarcRCC).From the 51st patient included in this cohort, only the following histological type will be selected: collecting duct/Bellini duct carcinoma (CDC).
    • Rare head and neck cancers: principal and accessory salivary gland tumours, facial tissue tumours.
    • Rare skin cancers: adnexal carcinomas, basal cell carcinoma resistant to vismodegib.From the 51st patient included in this cohort, only the following histological type will be selected: Basal Cell carcinoma.
    • Non-colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability determined locally by immunohistochemistry or polymerase chain-reaction (PCR)
    • Squamous cell carcinoma of penis.
    • Any non MSI-high cancer with POLE exonucleasic domain mutation (somatic or germline) in hotspots (codons 286, 411, 424 and 459) or other germline or somatic variants with high probability of pathogenesis according to in silico assessment by the INCa ad hoc biology group.
  3. disease or unresectable locally advanced that is resistant or to standard therapy or for which standard therapy does not exist or is not considered appropriate by the Investigator.
  4. Aged ≥18 years old.
  5. according to v1.1 guidelines for solid tumours.
  6. Able to provide a formalin fixed/paraffin embedded (FFPE) sample of a metastatic site or primitive tumour tissue.

    Note: Patients for whom suitable archived biopsy material is not available must be willing to undergo a biopsy of a tumour lesion prior to study entry, unless this is medically (e.g. site inaccessible or patient safety concerns).

  7. Patients must have a mandatory treatment-free interval of at least 21 days following previous systemic anti-cancer treatments.
  8. Patients who have received previous systemic anticancer treatment and/or radiotherapy should have recovered from any treatment related toxicity, to a level of ≤ grade 1 (according to criteria, v 4.0) with the exception of Grade 2 alopecia.
  9. Adequate hematologic function ( (ANC) ≥1.0 x10⁹/L, ≥100 x10⁹/L, (Hb) ≥9 g/L) measured within 14 days of treatment initiation.
  10. Adequate renal function ( ≥50 mL/min using the (MDRD) or CKI EPI method) measured within 14 days of treatment initiation.
  11. Adequate hepatic function (serum ≤1.5 x the reference (ULN) unless due to Gilbert's syndrome; (ASAT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) ≤2.5 x ULN) measured within 14 days of treatment initiation. For patients with documented liver metastasis ASAT/ALAT ≤5 x ULN is acceptable.
  12. Strictly normal blood levels of calcium and magnesium, measured within 14 days of treatment initiation.
  13. (ECOG) Performance Status of ≤1.
  14. Estimated ≥90 days.
  15. Patients who are sexually active must agree to use a medically accepted method of (e.g. implants, injectables, combined oral contraceptives, some intrauterine devices or vasectomized partner, for participating women; condoms for participating men) or practice complete abstinence, beginning 14 days before the first administration of product (IP), while on treatment and for at least 5 months after the last administration of IP for female patients, and 7 months after the last administration of IP for male patients.
  16. Women of must have a negative urine or serum pregnancy test within 72 hours prior to the first administration of IP. If urine test results are positive or cannot be confirmed as negative, a serum pregnancy test will be required.
  17. Women who are breastfeeding should discontinue nursing prior to the first administration of IP and for at least 90 days after the last administration of IP.
  18. Patients must be affiliated to a Social Security System or equivalent.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Prior treatment with an anti-PD1 or antibody
  2. Eligible, and willing, to participate in a clinical trial of an alternative anticancer therapy targeting their disease which is open to accrual in France.
  3. Concurrent medication at a dose greater than prednisone 10 mg/day or equivalent.
  4. Has active disease that has required systemic treatment in the past 2 years (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids or drugs). Replacement therapy (eg., thyroxine, insulin, or physiologic corticosteroid replacement therapy for adrenal or pituitary insufficiency, etc.) is not considered a form of systemic treatment.
  5. History of (non-infectious) pneumonitis that required steroids, or current pneumonitis.
  6. History of severe reaction to any monoclonal antibody therapy
  7. Radiotherapy (except for brain and extremities) within 21 days prior to the first administration of IP.
  8. Treatment with other drugs or participation in another clinical trial within 21 days prior to the first administration of IP or concomitantly with the trial.
  9. Has known symptomatic central nervous system (CNS) . Patients with previously treated may participate provided they are stable (without evidence of progression by imaging for at least four weeks prior to the first dose of trial treatment and any neurologic symptoms have returned to baseline), have no evidence of new or enlarging brain metastases, and are not using steroids for at least 7 days prior to trial treatment.
  10. Has known carcinomatous meningitis or a history of .
  11. Serum creatinine >1.5 x or (GFR) \<50 mL/min.
  12. Other within the past 5 years other than basal cell skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix.
  13. Active serious infections in particular if requiring systemic antibiotic or antimicrobial therapy.
  14. Active or chronic , and/or (HIV) infection (HIV 1/2 antibodies), or a known history of active Tuberculosis bacillus.
  15. Has received a within 30 days of planned start of study treatment. Note: Seasonal influenza vaccines for injection are generally inactivated vaccines and are allowed.
  16. Active alcohol or drug abuse.
  17. Psychological, familial, sociological or geographical factors potentially hampering compliance with the study protocol and follow-up schedule.
  18. Any condition which in the Investigator's opinion makes it undesirable for the subject to participate in the trial or which would jeopardize compliance with the protocol.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(34)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Histologically or cytologically confirmed

The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).

Your pathology report is the document that shows this.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Relapsed and refractory

Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.

Measurable disease

The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.

The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.

RECIST

The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.

“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

CTCAE grade

The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.

1
Mild.
2
Moderate.
3
Severe.
4
Life-threatening.
5
Death due to the event.

“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)

The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.

It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors

PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.

PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

Leptomeningeal disease

Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.

Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
269 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Nivolumab

    Nivolumab 240 mg IV over 60 minutes every 14 days.

    Drug: Nivolumab

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Objective response rate

    ORR will be assessed per cohort by an IRC according to RECIST v1.1.

    Time frame: measured at the first scheduled disease assessment following study treatment initiation (Day 84, ± 7 days)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Progression-free survival

    Assessed according to RECIST v1.1

    Time frame: From date of inclusion until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, whichever comes first, assessed up to 36 months

  2. Overall survival

    Time frame: From date of inclusion until the date of death from any cause, assessed up to 36 months

  3. Best response

    Assessed according to RECIST v1.1

    Time frame: From inclusion up to 36 months

  4. Response duration

    Assessed according to RECIST v1.1

    Time frame: from first observation of objective response until date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, whichever comes first, assessed up to 36 months

  5. Time to response

    Assessed according to RECIST v1.1

    Time frame: from inclusion first observation of objective response, assessed up to 36 months

  6. Frequency and severity of adverse events

    assessed according to the NCI-CTCAE v4

    Time frame: from inclusion until 100 days after last dose of investigational product

  7. Objective response rate in subgroups of subjects with high versus low expression (cutoff set at the median for the population measured) of different immune markers (PD-L1, CD4+, FOXP3+, Fas-L, OX40, VEGF, CD31; CD34)

    ORR will be assessed per cohort by an IRC according to RECIST v1.1.

    Time frame: measured at the first scheduled disease assessment following study treatment initiation (Day 84, ± 7 days)

  8. Progression-free survival in subgroups of subjects with high versus low expression (cutoff set at the median for the population measured) of different immune markers (PD-L1, CD4+, FOXP3+, Fas-L, OX40, VEGF, CD31; CD34)

    Assessed according to RECIST v1.1.

    Time frame: From date of inclusion until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, whichever comes first, assessed up to 36 months

  9. Overall survival in subgroups of subjects with high versus low expression (cutoff set at the median for the population measured) of different immune markers (PD-L1, CD4+, FOXP3+, Fas-L, OX40, VEGF, CD31; CD34)

    Time frame: From date of inclusion until the date of death from any cause, assessed up to 36 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus
    Villejuif, 94805, France
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Jun 2017 to primary completion in Dec 2022, 66 months.

Of 183 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Carcinoma, Renal Cell, half reached primary completion within 67 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 41 and three quarters within 98. This study's 66 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 230 studies reached it within 58 months; a quarter within 33 and three quarters within 94.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 2, 2017
First posted
Jan 6, 2017
StartActual
Jun 16, 2017
Primary completionActual
Dec 22, 2022
CompletionActual
Nov 11, 2023
Last update
Feb 28, 2024
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 28, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03012581
Lead sponsor
UNICANCER
Collaborators
National Cancer Institute, France, Ligue contre le cancer, France, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 6, 2017
Start date
Jun 16, 2017
Primary completion
Dec 22, 2022
Completion
Nov 11, 2023
Last update
Feb 28, 2024

Study contacts

Aurélien Marabelle, MD
principal investigator · Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Nivolumab

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