CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT04216251PREPAREUpdated May 3, 2024Results posted

PRevention Using EPA Against coloREctal Cancer

A Phase 1/2 interventional study of AMR101 in Colorectal Adenoma, Colorectal Cancer and Endoscopic Surgery, sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-05-03.

Sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital · Phase 1/2, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Phase 1/2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
81
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This research study is evaluating the effect of AMR101 as a possible chemopreventive agent to reduce risk of colorectal cancer in individuals with a history of colorectal adenoma.

  • The name of the study drug involved in this study is:

-- AMR101 (VASCEPA).

Read the detailed description

This prospective, single-arm, research study evaluating the effect of AMR101, as a chemopreventive agent to reduce risk of colorectal cancer in individuals with a history of colorectal adenoma.

  • AMR101 is made of marine omega-3 fatty acid, which is a family of natural substances found in the oil of certain fish, such as salmon and mackerel. Marine omega-3 fatty acid cannot be produced in sufficient amount by the human body and has to be obtained through diet or supplemented to maintain normal function in the body.
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved AMR101 as a treatment for any disease.
  • AMR101 is commercially available in the US as VASCEPA (icosapent ethyl)
  • The research study procedures include screening for eligibility and study treatment including evaluations and follow up visits, including:

    • Lifestyle questionnaire,
    • Nutritional survey
    • Flexible sigmoidoscopy (24 biopsies of normal colorectal mucosa, one stool sample)
    • Blood samples,
  • AMR101 administered daily, orally for 8-12 weeks and it is expected 80 participants will take part.
02

Conditions studied

  • Colorectal Adenoma
  • Colorectal Cancer
  • Endoscopic Surgery
  • Eicosapentaenoic Acid
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome

Keywords

  • Colorectal Adenoma
  • Colorectal Cancer
  • colonoscopic Surgery
  • Endoscopic Surgery
  • Eicosapentaenoic acid
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome
  • Mucosal Tissue
03

In context

Colorectal Neoplasms

5,599 studies on the registry are indexed under Colorectal Neoplasms; 1,459 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 81 is close to the median of 77 across 4,123 interventional studies indexed under Colorectal Neoplasms.

Browse Colorectal Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

Massachusetts General Hospital is the lead sponsor of 2,536 studies on the registry; 446 are open to participants now.

Of its 214 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 161 (75%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Participants must meet the following criteria on screening examination to be eligible to participate in the study:

  • Underwent screening or surveillance colonoscopy with removal of at least one adenoma;
  • Age 18-80 years.

    • This study will only include adult participants because colorectal carcinogenesis in children is more likely to be related to a cancer predisposition syndrome with distinct biological mechanisms compared with sporadic colorectal cancer in adults. Patients over age 80 will not be enrolled since the benefits and risks of AMR101 over the age of 80 have not yet been well-characterized.
  • ECOG performance status ≤2 (Karnofsky ≥60%, see Appendix A)
  • The effects of AMR101 on the developing human fetus are unknown. For this reason, women of child-bearing potential must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation. Should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she is participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately.
  • Subjects must be able and willing to follow study procedures and instructions.
  • Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Participants who exhibit any of the following conditions at screening will not be eligible for admission into the study

  • Currently using or have used any fish oil supplement at any dose more than once per week within the last month
  • Regularly consuming more than three servings of fish per week.
  • History of allergic reactions attributed to fish or compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to omega-3 fatty acid.
  • Diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, liver or kidney disease, bleeding diathesis
  • Any prior diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer (including esophageal, small intestine, colon, pancreatic), or any diagnosis of other cancers (with the exception of nonmelanoma skin) in which there has been any active treatment within the last three years.
  • Known diagnosis of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) or Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC, Lynch Syndrome).
  • Any adenoma that was not completely removed during previous colonoscopy.
  • Known bleeding tendency/condition (e.g. von Willebrand disease) or history of peptic ulcer or gastrointestinal bleed, endoscopic complications, or contraindication to colonoscopy.
  • Current use of anticoagulant therapies, including Heparin, Warfarin, Dalteparin sodium,Bivalirudin, Argatroban, Lepirudin, Heparin Sodium, Heparin/Dextrose, and an unwillingness or inability to discontinue anticoagulants.
  • Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements.
  • Inability or unwillingness to abstain from non-protocol use of fish oil supplements or to provide blood or stool samples or colon biopsies during the study.
  • Participants who are receiving any other investigational agents.
  • Inability or unwillingness to swallow pills.
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding. The effects of AMR101 on the developing human fetus are unknown. For this reason,women of child-bearing potential must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation. Should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she is participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately. Similarly, lactating women are excluded from this study because there is an unknown but potential risk of adverse events in nursing infants secondary to treatment of the mother with AMR101. Consequently, breastfeeding should be discontinued if the mother is enrolled on the study.
  • Known positive test for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus, or acute or chronic hepatitis B infection. Participants with these infections are ineligible because they are at increased risk of significant complications in the perioperative period, and because fresh tissue from patients with these infections cannot be harvested for research purposes, per institutional policy. Appropriate studies will be undertaken in participants receiving combination antiretroviral therapy when indicated.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1 / Phase 2
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
81 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    AMR101

    Study procedures include screening for eligibility and study treatment including ARM101 Lifestyle questionnaire, Nutritional survey. Flexible sigmoidoscopy (24 biopsies of normal colorectal mucosa, one stool sample),blood, evaluations, and follow up visits. - AMR101-oral predetermined protocol dosage, daily for a minimum of 8 weeks and maximum of 12 weeks

    Drug: AMR101

Interventions

  • DrugAMR101

    AMR101-oral predetermined protocol dosage, daily for a minimum of 8 weeks and maximum of 12 weeks

    Also known as: VASCEPA

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in the Marine Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (MO3PUFA) Composition in Colorectal Tissues as a Result of the AMR101 Treatment.

    Measured using the extraction of fatty acid with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from the biopsy tissue.

    Time frame: 8-12 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in the Gut Microbiome Composition

    Measured using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of microbial DNA on pre- and post-treatment stool samples. The reported results represent the Shannon Diversity Index, which is a quantitative measure that reflects how many different bacterial species there are in a sample. The index's values range from 0 to 5, but usually range from 1.5 to 3.5. The greater the index, the more diverse the gut microbiota. A negative change indicates a decrease in diversity and a positive change indicates an increase in diversity. We used the vegan R package to conduct the analysis.

    Time frame: 8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks

  2. Change in Fecal Metabolite Levels (Butyrate)

    Butyrate is the metabolite of our most interest for the current study, based on the prior data suggesting that marine omega-3 fatty acid may increase the production of butyrate by bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber. The metabolites were measured by the non-targeted global metabolomic panel. The measurement represents the abundance (assessed as weight percentage of density) of a metabolite after total-signal normalization to account for varying water weight across stool samples.

    Time frame: 8-12 weeks

07

Results

Posted Feb 14, 2024

Participant flow

Patients who meet the inclusion criteria will be identified through investigators during their routine clinical practice, supplemented by a periodic query of the MGH endoscopy and pathology databases. Potentially eligible participants are approached by letter from their treating physician. Two weeks after receiving the letter, study staff will contact eligible parties and screen for eligibility via phone interview. Enrollment began in December 2020 and ended in September 2022.

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneAMR101
Started81
Completed73
Not completed8

Outcome measures

PrimaryChange in the Marine Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (MO3PUFA) Composition in Colorectal Tissues as a Result of the AMR101 Treatment.

Measured using the extraction of fatty acid with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from the biopsy tissue.

Time frame:
8-12 weeks
Reported as:
Mean · percentage of total fatty acids
Change in the Marine Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (MO3PUFA) Composition in Colorectal Tissues as a Result of the AMR101 Treatment.
percentage of total fatty acidsPre-treatmentPost-treatment
Change in the Marine Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (MO3PUFA) Composition in Colorectal Tissues as a Result of the AMR101 Treatment.0.54 ± 0.332.95 ± 1.65
SecondaryChange in the Gut Microbiome Composition

Measured using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of microbial DNA on pre- and post-treatment stool samples. The reported results represent the Shannon Diversity Index, which is a quantitative measure that reflects how many different bacterial species there are in a sample. The index's values range from 0 to 5, but usually range from 1.5 to 3.5. The greater the index, the more diverse the gut microbiota. A negative change indicates a decrease in diversity and a positive change indicates an increase in diversity. We used the vegan R package to conduct the analysis.

Time frame:
8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks 8-12 weeks
Reported as:
Median · Shannon diversity index
Change in the Gut Microbiome Composition
Shannon diversity indexPre-treatmentPost-treatment
Change in the Gut Microbiome Composition3.082 (2.927 to 3.266)3.133 (2.968 to 3.281)
SecondaryChange in Fecal Metabolite Levels (Butyrate)

Butyrate is the metabolite of our most interest for the current study, based on the prior data suggesting that marine omega-3 fatty acid may increase the production of butyrate by bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber. The metabolites were measured by the non-targeted global metabolomic panel. The measurement represents the abundance (assessed as weight percentage of density) of a metabolite after total-signal normalization to account for varying water weight across stool samples.

Time frame:
8-12 weeks
Reported as:
Median · Weight percentage of butyrate density
Change in Fecal Metabolite Levels (Butyrate)
Weight percentage of butyrate densityPre-treatmentPost-treatment
Change in Fecal Metabolite Levels (Butyrate)0.64 (0.42 to 0.81)0.63 (0.39 to 0.76)

Adverse events

Collected over 3 months. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
AMR1010/81 (0%)1/81 (1.2%)20/81 (24.7%)
Most frequent serious events
Most frequent serious events
EventAMR101
Ischemic right foot with thrombosis of right external iliac artery stent and common femoral arteryVascular disorders1/81
Most frequent other events
Most frequent other events
EventAMR101
GI Upset (i.e. nausea/gas/diarrhea/constipation/stomach ache/loss of appetite)Gastrointestinal disorders12/81
COVID and Flu-like symptoms (congestion, chills, fever, body ache, headache)Infections and infestations4/81
Pain (joint pain, muscle aches)Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders3/81
Chest painRespiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders2/81
Skin issues (acne, hyperpigmentation)Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders2/81
EsophagitisGastrointestinal disorders1/81

Baseline characteristics

We have enrolled 81 healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 80 who have undergone screening or surveillance colonoscopy with removal of at least one adenoma and was not regularly using fish oil supplements or consuming more than 3 servings of fish per week.

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)AMR101
<=18 years0
Between 18 and 65 years49
>=65 years32
Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)AMR101
Mean61.95 ± 8.91
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)AMR101
Female26
Male55
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants)AMR101
Hispanic or Latino5
Not Hispanic or Latino75
Unknown or Not Reported1
Race (NIH/OMB)
Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants)AMR101
American Indian or Alaska Native1
Asian4
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander0
Black or African American0
White76
More than one race0
Unknown or Not Reported0
08

Study locations

1 site
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
09

References and documents

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Dec 10, 2021
  • Informed consent form · Dec 28, 2021

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — The Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to Sponsor Investigator or designee. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinicaltrials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Sap, Icf

10

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 3, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
11

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04216251
Lead sponsor
Massachusetts General Hospital
Collaborators
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Responsible party
Mingyang Song (Principal Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jan 2, 2020
Start date
Dec 9, 2020
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2022
Completion
Sep 30, 2022
Results posted
Feb 14, 2024
Last update
May 3, 2024

Study contacts

Mingyang Song, MD
principal investigator · Massachusetts General Hospital

Oversight

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

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