A Phase 1 interventional study of Gemcitabine in Malignant Neoplasm of Bone and Articular Cartilage, Malignant Neoplasms of Female Genital Organs and Malignant Neoplasms of Independent (Primary) Multiple Sites, sponsored by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 12 Years to 50 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.
Sponsored by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment
Any time the words "you," "your," "I," or "me" appear, it is meant to apply to the potential participant.
The goal of this clinical research study is to find the highest tolerable dose of gemcitabine that can be given by inhalation (breathing it as a mist) to patients with solid tumors that have spread to the lungs from other parts of the body.
The safety and side effects of this drug will also be studied.
This is an investigational study. Gemcitabine is FDA approved and commercially available for the treatment of pancreatic and lung cancer, and other solid tumors. Its administration by inhalation is investigational. The study doctor can explain how the study drug is designed to work.
Up to 44 participants will be enrolled in this study. All will take part at MD Anderson.
Study Drug Administration:
If you are found to be eligible to take part in this study, you will be assigned to a dose level of gemcitabine based on when you join this study. Up to 6 dose levels of gemcitabine will be tested. Up to 3 participants will be enrolled at each dose level. The first group of participants will receive the lowest dose level. Each new group will receive a higher dose than the group before it, if no intolerable side effects are seen. This will continue until the highest tolerable dose of gemcitabine is found.
Each study cycle is 28 days. You will take gemcitabine by mist 2 times each week for 4 weeks (28 days). Treatment will be administered at MD Anderson. A machine called a nebulizer will be used to make the gemcitabine mist. The study staff will provide you with protective materials and instructions on how to take the treatment. You will breathe the drug mist through the mouthpiece of the nebulizer. The study staff will tell you which days you will receive the study drug. If the doctor thinks it is in your best interest, you may continue to receive the study drug for up to 12 cycles.
Length of Study:
You may continue taking the study drug for up to 12 cycles. You will no longer be able to take the study drug if the disease gets worse, if intolerable side effects occur, or if you are unable to follow study directions. If you have developed a tumor outside of the lungs either before or while you are on study, and the doctor thinks it is in your best interest, you may have a local control procedure (such as radiation or surgery) that may help to control the disease while continuing to receive the study drug. You would sign a separate consent form explaining these procedures and their risks. If you and your doctor decide on a systemic cancer treatment by mouth or vein, you will no longer be able to receive treatment on this study. A systemic cancer treatment is designed to spread and treat cancer cells throughout the body.
Your participation on the study will be over after your last follow-up phone call.
Study Visits:
Within 3 days before Day 1 of every cycle:
On Day 8 of Cycle 1:
You will have a CT scan at the end of Cycles 2, 4, and 6, and then every 3 cycles after that. The study doctor will tell you when you will have these scans. If you have a chest X-ray, MRI, and PET scan as part of standard of care while you are on study, the study doctor may use the results to check the status of the disease.
To avoid having to come to the study clinic too often, you may have blood draws done by your personal doctor.
You may be called by the study staff and asked about how you are doing and about any side effects about 1 day after your first 2 doses of the study drug, at the end of Cycle 1, and 1 time every 3 months after that until you leave the study or the study ends. These calls should last about 15-20 minutes each time.
Other Information:
Each day that you take study drug:
You will also be given an electronic device (such as a laptop or tablet) so that you can upload the information from the lung function tests and send it to the study doctor. You will only be able to access study specific material on this device. The study staff will show you how to use all of the provided machines. If the device is lost, stolen, or damaged, you will need to immediately report it to the study staff and you will be responsible for its replacement.
You should bring the nebulizer with you to all study visits.
You will be asked to return the nebulizer, pulse oximeter, lung function device, and electronic device when your participation on this study is over.
End of Dosing Visit:
Within 30 days of your last dose of the study drug:
258 studies on the registry are indexed under Bone Neoplasms; 68 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 44 is close to the median of 44 across 163 interventional studies indexed under Bone Neoplasms.
Browse Bone Neoplasms studies →M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is the lead sponsor of 3,047 studies on the registry; 578 are open to participants now.
Of its 612 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 409 (67%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
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.
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
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.
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.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Reproductive potential
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Dose Escalation Cohort: Participants take Gemcitabine by mist 2 times each week for 4 weeks (28 days). Expansion Cohort: Participants with OS lung metastases receive study drug at the maximum tolerated dose from Dose Escalation Cohort. Participants may continue to receive the study drug for up to 12 cycles per decision of doctor.
Drug: Gemcitabine
Nebulized dose of aerosol GCB twice a week continuously (escalating treatment dose schema, starting at 0.75 mg/kg to 3.0 mg/kg). Participants receive a pre-determined volume of nebulized solution, according to the dose level and weight of the participant, with each aerosol GCB administration. One cycle is 4 weeks in duration.
Also known as: GCB, aerosol gemcitabine, Aerosolized GCB
Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) Recommended for Phase 2 Dose of Aerosol Gemcitabine (GCB)
MTD is defined as highest dose level with six patients with at most 1 dose limiting toxicity (DLT) occurring during cycle 1. Dose levels will continue to be increased until 1 participant experiences DLT. If only 1 of 3 participants experiences DLT, 3 additional patients will be entered. Dose escalation conducted via accelerated titration method for first 2 dose levels followed by 3+3 method for remaining dose levels. Cohorts of 1 participant per dose level for first 2 dose levels. If at any time during cycle 1 there is an instance of pulmonary grade 2 toxicity or pulmonary function tests (PFT) decline\>10% related to study drug, current dose level expanded to 3 participants \& switched to 3+3 design. If neither of these nor any other DLT occur in dose levels 1-2, switch will be to the 3 + 3 design beginning with dose level 3. Three participants will be treated at dose level 3, if still no DLT, 3 more treated at dose level 4.
Time frame: 4 weeks
Toxicities of Aerosol Gemcitabine (GCB)
Dose limiting toxicities associated with the MTD of aerosol GCB using the NCI Common Terminology Criteria version 4 for Adverse Events (CTCAE) will be utilized for AE reporting. DLT defined as any of the following events that are at least (possibly, probably or definitely) attributable to aerosol GCB. The observation period for the purposes of dose-escalation will be the first cycle of therapy. DLT Definition includes: * Any episode of respiratory (bronchospasm, cough and/or dyspnea) grade 2 toxicity. * or \> 10% decrease in FEV1 that persists \> 3 days after the drug is stopped or recurrent episode of respiratory (bronchospasm, cough and/or dyspnea) grade 2 toxicity. * Any grade 3 or 4 non-hematological toxicity. * Any grade 4 neutropenia or thrombocytopenia.
Time frame: Reviewed with each 4 week cycle, up to 24 weeks for six dose levels
Assessment of Serum Levels of Aerosol Gemcitabine (GCB)
Assessment of serum levels of Gemcitabine (GCB) for evidence of spillover into the circulation and correlate with presence or absence of toxicity.
Time frame: Day 1 of therapy
Response of Serum Levels of Aerosol Gemcitabine (GCB)
Response evaluated using the revised Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) guideline (version 1.1)
Time frame: Baseline, end of Cycles 2, 4, and 6, and then every 3 cycles up to 30 days after study dose stopped. Cycles are 28 days.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Studies of the drug tested here: Gemcitabine