ClinicalTrials.gg
SuspendedNCT05067257Updated Mar 18, 2024

Study to Assess Epidural Resiniferatoxin for the Treatment of Intractable Pain Associated With Advanced Cancer

A Phase 2 interventional study of Resiniferatoxin and Placebo in Pain, Intractable, Pain Cancer and Pain, sponsored by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.. Suspended at 4 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-03-18.

Sponsored by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was suspended
Sorrento Therapeutics filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
120
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This Phase 2 study assesses the safety and efficacy of a single injection of Resiniferatoxin versus placebo for the treatment of intractable advanced cancer pain.

Read the detailed description

This is a global multicenter, randomized Phase 2 study for subjects with advanced cancer experiencing intractable pain to assess the safety and efficacy of a single epidural injection of Resiniferatoxin versus vehicle control. Additional subjects who elect to not enroll but are willing to be followed will comprise a Concurrent Control Group. Subjects will be followed for twelve months.

02

Conditions studied

  • Pain, Intractable
  • Pain Cancer
  • Pain

Keywords

  • advanced cancer pain
  • cancer pain
  • pain
  • resiniferatoxin
  • RTX
03

In context

Pain, Intractable

90 studies on the registry are indexed under Pain, Intractable; 16 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 60 across 64 interventional studies indexed under Pain, Intractable.

Browse Pain, Intractable studies →

Lead sponsor

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. is the lead sponsor of 46 studies on the registry; 4 are open to participants now.

Of its 10 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 1 (10%) have results posted.

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

  • or cytologically confirmed advanced cancer
  • Targeted pain area of involvement that is at or below the lower thoracic or chest level down to lower extremities, attributed to the cancer
  • If pain is present in other areas, able to differentiate pain in the target area is the primary source of pain
  • Intractable pain that has not responded to standard therapies
  • Be opioid tolerant, defined as an average daily opioid consumption > 30 mg oral morphine equivalent dose during the screening and which has been stable for the month prior to screening
  • Have a Performance Scale score ≥ 50 at Screening
  • In the Investigator's opinion, a reasonable expectation that the subject will be able to complete the study
  • Able to comply with the study procedures and give
  • Willing to follow guidelines

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Be undergoing or have plans to undergo changes to current cancer treatment from D-7 through M3
  • Had an implantation of intrathecal pump or spinal cord stimulator less than 6 weeks prior to D1 or planning to undergo such a placement during the study prior to M3
  • Have in the lumbar area
  • Unless approachable via the caudal route, have the level of intended epidural injection within site of prior lumbar spine surgical procedures that could disrupt the epidural space or otherwise impair ability of the injection to reach nerves
  • Has evidence of a non-correctable coagulopathy or hemostasis problem including a low count, , abnormal PT or PTT, or on anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapies before and during product (IP) administration
  • Have evidence or history of bleeding disorder or disseminated intravascular coagulation, any recent hemorrhage or bleeding event within 4 weeks prior to D1
  • Have abnormal neutrophil or serum creatinine
  • Is febrile or has other evidence of infection within 24 hours of D1
  • Has recently been diagnosed as COVID-19 positive or evidence of active infection. The subject may participate if full recovery has occurred with a negative RT-PCR test (any EUA cleared test) at least 1 week prior to D1
  • Has an allergy or to TRPV1 agonists, bupivacaine, radiographic contrast agents, fentanyl, hydromorphone, or morphine
  • Pregnant at Screening or planning on becoming pregnant or currently breastfeeding
  • Has an intrathecal shunt, increased intracranial pressure or evidence of brain pathology as determined by symptoms, history, physical examination, and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
  • Is unable or distinguish the target pain from any additional loci of pain at screening
  • Non-study related minor surgical procedure ≤ 2 days or major surgical procedure ≤ 7 days prior to screening and must be sufficiently recovered and stable prior to D1
  • Has not recovered from toxicities from previous cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy or bisphosphonates. Participants are not eligible if they have received such therapy within the month prior to D1
  • Non-study related minor surgical procedure ≤ 5 days or major surgical procedure ≤ 21 days prior to enrollment. In all cases, subjects must be sufficiently recovered and stable prior to IP administration on D1
  • Arterial thrombi, myocardial infarction, admission for unstable angina, within 3 months prior to screening
  • abnormalities
  • Have any medical condition that could adversely impact subject's participation or safety or interfere with pain assessments
  • Participation in another investigational trial during the study
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(11)

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.

Karnofsky performance status (KPS)

A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.

Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.

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.

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.

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.

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.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

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.

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.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

ECG (electrocardiogram)

A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
120 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Resiniferatoxin

    15 mcg, 20 mcg, or 25 mcg in 2mL injected once into the epidural space

    Drug: Resiniferatoxin

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    2mL injected once into the epidural space

    Drug: Placebo

  • No intervention
    Concurrent Control

    No intervention

Interventions

  • Resiniferatoxin is a compound purified from natural sources

    Also known as: RTX

  • DrugPlacebo

    Vehicle solution

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Assess the incidence of any treatment-emergent adverse events of epidural Resiniferatoxin (RTX) [safety and tolerability]

    To assess the safety of epidural RTX including incidence and severity of any short-term and long-term treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) criteria

    Time frame: Baseline through study completion at up to approximately 12 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Assess efficacy of RTX on pain associated with advanced cancer

    To assess efficacy of each epidural RTX dose in comparison to control groups on the subject's intractable pain due to advanced cancer using the Brief Pain Inventory, Short Form (BPI-SF) score (1-10, with 10 associated with worse pain)

    Time frame: Baseline through study completion at up to approximately 12 months

  2. Assess RTX effect on quality of life

    To assess the efficacy of each epidural RTX dose in comparison to control groups on the quality of life using Treatment Helpfulness Questionnaire score (graded 1-7, with 7 being most helpful)

    Time frame: Baseline through study completion at up to approximately 12 months

  3. Assess RTX effect on opioid consumption

    To assess the effect of each epidural RTX dose on opioid consumption, measuring the average reduction compared to baseline of daily opioid consumption, calculated as an oral morphine equivalent dose

    Time frame: Baseline through study completion at up to approximately 12 months

07

Study locations

4 sites
  • Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI)
    La Jolla, California 92037, United States
  • University of Florida
    Gainesville, Florida 32610, United States
  • Oregon Health & Science University
    Portland, Oregon 97239, United States
  • HD Research
    Bellaire, Texas 77401, United States
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Sep 2025; primary completion for Jun 2027, 21 months later.

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

Registered
Sep 17, 2021
First posted
Oct 5, 2021
StartEst.
Sep 2025
Primary completionEst.
Jun 2027
CompletionEst.
Dec 2027
Last update
Mar 18, 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 Mar 18, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05067257
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 5, 2021
Start date
Sep 2025 (estimated)
Primary completion
Jun 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 18, 2024

Study contacts

Mike Royal, MD
study director · Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is suspended, as verified in Mar 2024. 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: Resiniferatoxin

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