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CompletedNCT03944304Updated Apr 3, 2026

Paclitaxel in Patients With GIST With Low P-glycoprotein Expression After Failure of at Least Imatinib and Sunitinib, and Regorafenib.

A Phase 2 interventional study of Paclitaxel in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, sponsored by Asan Medical Center. Completed at 1 site in South Korea. Open to participants aged 20 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-03.

Sponsored by Asan Medical Center · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
40
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
20 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

With the development of KIT mutation and KIT tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib (GlivecTM, Novartis), survival of patients with advanced and/or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) has significantly improved. Recently, sunitinib (SuteneTM, Pfizer) and regorafenib (StivargaTM, Bayer) have been proven to be effective as second- and third-line treatment, respectively in GIST patients who failed to imatinib treatment.

However, almost all patients eventually experience disease progression due to the development of drug resistance to first-line imatinib, second-line sunitinib treatment, and third-line regorafenib.

Historic data suggest that GISTs do not respond to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, but systematic unbiased screening has not been performed. A recent large-scaled chemotherapy susceptibility screening with GIST cells showed that among a total of 89 chemotherapies, 37 have anti-cancer effect in at least one type of GIST cells. It was suggested that of these agents, transcriptional inhibitors and chemotherapies such as topoisomerase II, paclitaxel, and bortezomib would be effective.

Based on this study result, Asan Medical Center has recently performed a phase II study for efficacy and safety evaluation of paclitaxel in patients with advanced and/or metastatic GIST after failure of at least imatinib and sunitinib. Although paclitaxel showed limited anti-tumor efficacy, it was more effective in patients with low P-glycoprotein expression.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of paclitaxel in patients with metastatic or advanced GIST with low P-glycoprotein expression after failure of at least imatinib, sunitinib and regorafenib.

02

Conditions studied

  • Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

Keywords

  • Single-center
  • Prospective
  • single-arm
  • open-label
  • phase II
03

In context

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors

333 studies on the registry are indexed under Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors; 61 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 40 is below the median of 50 across 243 interventional studies indexed under Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors.

Browse Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors studies →

Lead sponsor

Asan Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 562 studies on the registry; 71 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

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

Inclusion criteria

  1. Age 20 years or older, at the time of acquisition of informed consent
  2. Histologically confirmed metastatic or unresectable GIST with CD117(+), DOG-1(+), or mutation in KIT or PDGFRαgene
  3. Patients who failed to at least imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib (disease progression and/or intolerance) (Note: The number of previous treatment is not limited. Previous use of other chemotherapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), or any other chemotherapeutic agents concurrently used with imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib is permitted.)

    Disease progression is defined as follows:

    • Increase of tumor size by more than 20% according to RECIST version 1.1,
    • Appearance of a definite new lesion (excluding small cystic new lesions in the liver within 6 months of starting TKIs)
    • A new solid nodule with in a cystic mass, or
    • Increase of the size (> 20%) of previously existing solid nodule within a cystic mass

    Intolerability to previous TKI is defined as follows:

    • Less than 75% of medication compliance due to non-hematological toxicity of grade 2 or above despite dose reduction to a one-step lower level (300 mg/day for imatinib; 37.5 mg/day for 4-week on/2-week off schedule or 25 mg/day with continuous schedule for sunitinib; and 120 mg/day for regorafenib)
    • Febrile neutropenia, Grade 4 neutropenia lasting >6 days, Grade 4 thrombocytopenia, Grade 3 thrombocytopenia accompanied with clinically significant hemorrhage, Grade 3-4 or intolerable continuous Grade 2 non-hematologic toxicity despite dose reduction to one-step lower level as described above
  4. P-glycoprotein immunohistochemistry (IHC) H-score ≤250 in tumor tissue obtained after failure of previous treatment for GIST, including imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib

    • H-score is a sum of the multiplications of each intensity score (0-3) measured by the IHC and its corresponding proportion (0-100) of tumor cells (a score of 0-300).
    • Intensity is evaluated as 0 (negative), 1 (weak), 2 (moderate), or 3 (strong).
    • e.g.) If a proportion with an intensity of 3 is 40%, proportion with an intensity of 2 is 30%, proportion with an intensity of 1 is 20%, and proportion with an intensity of 0 is 10%, H-score is 200 (3x40 + 2x30 + 1x20).
  5. ECOG performance status of 0\~2
  6. Toxicity of all previous treatments is recovered to Grade 0 or Grade 1 according to NCI-CTCAE Version 5.0
  7. At least one measurable lesion by RECIST Version 1.1.
  8. Adequate bone marrow, hepatic, renal, and other organ functions

    • Neutrophil ≥ 1,500/mm3
    • Platelet ≥ 100,000/mm3
    • Hemoglobin ≥ 8.0 g/dL
    • Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN)
    • AST/ALT \< 3 x ULN without liver metastases or AST/ALT \< 5 x ULN with liver metastases
    • Creatinine ≤1.5 x ULN
  9. Expected life expectancy of ≥12 weeks
  10. Washout period of previous TKIs or chemotherapy for more than 4 times the half life (Seven days of washout period is enough for imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib)
  11. Patients who signed informed consent

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. A pregnant or nursing woman, or a woman of childbearing age
  2. A woman or a man who is not willing to use effective contraception during study drug administration or within 3 months following end of study drug administration. Barrier method should be used both in men and women during study drug administration and up to 3 months following end of administration. Oral preparations, implants, or contraceptive injections are not deemed as effective contraceptions in this study since these may be influenced by cytochrome P450 interactions.

    Women of childbearing age are defined as sexually mature women who have not received hysterectomy or do not undergo natural menopause for more than 12 consecutive months, at least (that is, who had the menses within previous 12 months), and must be shown to be negative in serum or urine pregnancy test within 14 days before starting paclitaxel treatment.

  3. If a patient falls under one of the followings within 6 months prior to recruitment: myocardial infarction, severe/unstable angina pectoris, coronary/peripheral artery bypass, NYHA class III or IV congestive heart failure, stroke or transient ischemic attacks, serious cardiac arrhythmia requiring treatment
  4. 4) Uncontrolled infection
  5. Diabetes with sign of clinically significant peripheral disease
  6. Acute or chronic liver disease and all chronic hepatic impairments (a patient with stable chronic hepatitis B is eligible.)
  7. Uncontrolled gastrointestinal toxicity (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting) accompanied with toxicity above NCI CTCAE Grade 2
  8. Other severe, acute, or chronic medical or psychiatric condition or laboratory abnormality that may increase the risk associated with study participation or study drug administration or may interfere with the interpretation of study results and, in the judgment of the investigator, would make the subject inappropriate for this study
  9. A patient who has hemorrhage that is thought to threaten one's life requiring transfusion or endoscopic or surgical intervention, or Grade 3 or 4 hemorrhage within 3 months prior to treatment with study drug
  10. Major surgery ≤ 28 days prior to starting study drug or who have not recovered from side effects of such therapy If diagnosis of HIV infection is known (HIV test is not obligatory)
  11. Known diagnosis of HIV infection (HIV testing is not mandatory)
  12. History of another primary malignancy that is currently clinically significant or currently requires active intervention
  13. A patient with brain metastasis when evaluated by radiological imaging (e.g. CT, MRI) if there is a symptom that is clinically suspected of brain metastasis
  14. Alcohol or substance abuse disorder
05

Study design

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

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Paclitaxel

    Paclitaxel will be administered at 80mg/m2/day every four weeks at Day 1, Day 8 and Day 15 per cycle. One cycle consists of 4 weeks (28 days).

    Drug: Paclitaxel

Interventions

  • DrugPaclitaxel

    Paclitaxel will be administered at 80mg/m2/day every four weeks at Day 1, Day 8 and Day 15 per cycle. One cycle consists of 4 weeks (28 days).

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Disease control rate

    evaluate with RECIST Version 1.1 by dynamic abdomen and pelvis CT scan

    Time frame: At week 16

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Asan Medical Center
    Seoul, 05505, South Korea
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 3, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03944304
Lead sponsor
Asan Medical Center
Responsible party
Min-Hee Ryu (Professor, Asan Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 9, 2019
Start date
May 27, 2019
Primary completion
Jan 6, 2025
Completion
Oct 14, 2025
Last update
Apr 3, 2026

Study contacts

Min-Hee Ryu
principal investigator · Asan Medical Center

Oversight

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

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This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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