ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT03253068Updated May 19, 2020

Pembrolizumab Plus Amurubicin in Patients With Refractory Small-cell Lung Cancer

A Phase 2 interventional study of Pembrolizumab plus amurubicin in Small Cell Lung Cancer Extensive Stage, sponsored by Wakayama Medical University. Status unknown at 1 site in Japan. Open to participants aged 20 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-05-19.

Sponsored by Wakayama Medical University · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified May 2020), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.

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Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
25
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
20 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Where this study stands

Counted across the records on this site · 2026-11-14

Among 78 studies in Small Cell Lung Carcinoma with a site in Japan — 27 open to participants now, 44 under way, 18 of them phase 3. Small Cell Lung Carcinoma · Japan.

Planned enrollment
71st of 76
25 · median 240
Started
2017
with 7 others
Phase 2
12 of 78
3 open now
Registered
22nd of 78
by date

Among the 78 studies in Small Cell Lung Carcinoma with a site in Japan, this one is the 71st largest by planned enrollment of the 76 interventional ones that give a count, is one of 8 that started in 2017, is one of 12 in phase 2, and was the 22nd registered.

Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

1,301 studies on the registry are indexed under Small Cell Lung Carcinoma; 365 are open to participants now.

Browse Small Cell Lung Carcinoma studies →

Open to participants now

27 of the 78 studies in Small Cell Lung Carcinoma with a site in Japan are open now. Recruiting first, the newest first:

22 more — sign in →

All 27 open studies →

A study can be open while its sites in Japan have not opened yet or have stopped. Only those recruiting at a site in Japan →

Who these studies take

Of the 265 Small Cell Lung Carcinoma studies recruiting now, 175 (66%) set no upper age limit and 66 (25%) stop at 75 or younger; 3 take children under 18; 8 take healthy volunteers.

This study: 20 Years and older · all sexes · no healthy volunteers.

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Watch this landscapeDownload CSVNarrow it in search →With an account: a weekly mail of what changed among 78 studies in Small Cell Lung Carcinoma with a site in Japan, or all of them as a file.
02

Study summary

To explore the overall response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1 as assessed by investigators in subjects with refractory small cell lung cancer treated with pembrolizumab (Pembro) plus amurubicin (AMR).

Read the detailed description

Open, uncontrolled, multi-center, phase II study.

03

Conditions studied

  • Small Cell Lung Cancer Extensive Stage
04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
20 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. Have a or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of SCLC.
  2. Confirmed radiological relapse within 90 days from the last day of chemotherapy.
  3. Have adequate tumor tissue sample to test immunohistochemistry.
  4. Have based on 1.1 as determined by the site.
  5. Be ≥20 years of age on day of signing .
  6. Have a performance status of 0 or 1 on the
  7. Have adequate organ function as indicated by the following laboratory values
  8. Is expected to live more than 90 days.
  9. Be willing and able to provide written informed consent/assent for the trial.
  10. Female subject of should have a negative urine or serum pregnancy within 72 hours from registration.
  11. Female subjects of childbearing potential must be willing to use an adequate method of as outlined in Section 5.7.2 - Contraception, for the course of the study through 120 days (or longer as specified by local institutional guidelines) after the last dose of study medication.
  12. Male subjects of childbearing potential must agree to use an adequate method of contraception as outlined in Section 5.7.2- Contraception, starting with the first dose of study therapy through 120 days (or longer as specified by local institutional guidelines) after the last dose of study therapy.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Is currently participating and receiving study therapy or has participated in a study of an agent and received study therapy or used an investigation device within 30 days from registration.
  2. Is receiving systemic therapy ≤ 3 days from registration or receiving any other form of medication.
  3. Has received prior systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy, biological therapy, OR major surgery within 3 weeks of the first dose of trial treatment; received thoracic radiation therapy of > 30 Gy within 6 months from registration.
  4. Has received prior therapy with an , anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-L2, anti-CD137, or anti-Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) antibody.
  5. Has symptomatic central nervous system (CNS) and/or carcinomatous meningitis.
  6. Active disease that has required systemic treatment in past 2 years (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids or immunosuppressive drugs).
  7. Has had an allogeneic tissue/solid organ transplant.
  8. History of noninfectious pneumonitis that required steroids or current active pneumonitis, or any evidence of interstitial lung disease by CT scan.
  9. Has received or will receive a within 30 days from registration.
  10. Has an active infection requiring intravenous systemic therapy and oral administration.
  11. Has known history of (HIV) (HIV 1/2 antibodies).
  12. Has known active , or .
  13. Has any history of prior , with the exception of basal cell carcinoma of the skin, superficial bladder cancer, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, in situ cervical cancer, or has undergone potentially curative therapy with no evidence of that disease recurrence for 5 years since initiation of that therapy.
  14. Has Known history of serious allergy.
  15. Has a history or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory abnormality that might confound the results of the trial, interfere with the subject's participation for the full duration of the trial, or is not in the best interest of the subject to participate, in the opinion of the treating investigator.
  16. Has known psychiatric or substance abuse disorders that would interfere with cooperation with the requirements of the trial.
  17. Is pregnant or breastfeeding, or expecting to conceive or father children within the projected duration of the trial, starting with the pre-screening or screening visit through 120 days (or longer as specified by local institutional guidelines) after the last dose of trial treatment.
  18. or allergy to pembrolizumab or any of its , and/or to AMR or any of its excipients.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(21)

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.

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.

Line of therapy

A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.

“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Metastases

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Excipients

The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.

05

Study design

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

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Pembrolizumab plus amurubicin

    Pembrolizumab 200mg/body plus amurubicin 40mg/m2, intravenous, every 3 weeks

    Drug: Pembrolizumab plus amurubicin

Interventions

  • DrugPembrolizumab plus amurubicin

    Pembrolizumab 200mg/body plus amurubicin 40mg/m2, intravenous, every 3 weeks

    Also known as: Keytruda, calsed

This study also gives Pembrolizumab. No intervention listed here names it: that was found by reading the record.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Overall response rate

    Overall response rate will be assessed using RECIST ver1.1 by investigators

    Time frame: Imaging will be performed every 6 weeks through study completion, an average of 6 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Wakayama Medical University
    Wakayama, 641-8509, Japan
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Akamatsu H, Teraoka S, Hayashi H, Fujimoto D, Hayata A, Haratani K, Ozawa Y, Yoshida T, Iwasa T, Shimokawa T, Tomii K, Nakagawa K, Yamamoto N. Pembrolizumab Plus Amrubicin in Patients With Relapsed SCLC: Multi-Institutional, Single-Arm Phase 2 Study. JTO Clin Res Rep. 2021 May 18;2(7):100184. doi: 10.1016/j.jtocrr.2021.100184. eCollection 2021 Jul. PubMed 34590034 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

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

Started Aug 2017 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2020, 40 months after the start.

Of 150 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Small Cell Lung Carcinoma, half reached primary completion within 53 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 36 and three quarters within 87. This study's planned 40 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 204 studies reached it within 46 months; a quarter within 29 and three quarters within 84.

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

Registered
Aug 12, 2017
First posted
Aug 17, 2017
StartActual
Aug 1, 2017
Primary completionEst.
Dec 28, 2020
CompletionEst.
Dec 31, 2020
Last update
May 19, 2020
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 May 19, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03253068
Lead sponsor
Wakayama Medical University
Responsible party
Hiroaki Akamatsu (Assistant Professor, Wakayama Medical University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 17, 2017
Start date
Aug 1, 2017
Primary completion
Dec 28, 2020 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 31, 2020 (estimated)
Last update
May 19, 2020

Study contacts

Hiroaki Akamatsu, M.D.
principal investigator · Third Department of Internal Medicine, Wakayama Medical University
Nobuyuki Katakami, M.D., Ph.D.
principal investigator · Division of Integrated Oncology, Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation
Kazuhiko Nakagawa, M.D., Ph.D.
principal investigator · Department of Medical Oncology, Kinki University, Faculty of Medicine

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 status unknown, as verified in May 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Pembrolizumab

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