ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05263700FAPI-CUPUpdated Mar 31, 2023

FAPI-CUP- Evaluating FAPI as a Novel Radiopharmaceutical for Cancer of Unknown Primary

An interventional study of 68Ga-FAPi-46 and PET/CT imaging in Cancer of Unknown Primary Site, sponsored by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia. Recruiting at 3 sites in Australia. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-03-31.

Sponsored by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Feb 2024, 2 years 8 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Started Feb 2022; still recruiting 4 years 8 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
150
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a prospective single arm cohort study designed to evaluate the diagnostic ability of 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT scan in determining likely tissue of origin in Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) patients not identified by standard of care. Patients with CUP will be either treatment naïve or starting second-line treatment.

Read the detailed description

Cancers of unknown primary (CUP) account for 3-5% of all malignancies. The prognosis of patients diagnosed with CUP is poor, with a median overall survival of 9-12 months. Despite improvements in conventional diagnostic processes, the tissue of origin (ToO) is identified in \<30% of CUP patients. PET/CT is increasingly used to determine the ToO, with the most commonly used PET radiotracer being the glucose analogue fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). Although PET/CT can change CUP patient management and identify primary sites, FDG has limited sensitivity for detecting some cancers, such as CUP. It has been reported that fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is highly expressed in some tumours, including CUP. 68Ga-FAPI (experimental drug) is a radiotracer that can specifically bind to FAP, and may enable the primary cancer site to be viewed using PET imaging. It is hypothesised that the use of 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT will increase likely ToO diagnosis from 30% with current standard of care to 60%.

02

Conditions studied

  • Cancer of Unknown Primary Site

Keywords

  • FAPI
  • PET/CT
  • CUP
  • FAPI-46
03

In context

Neoplasms, Unknown Primary

101 studies on the registry are indexed under Neoplasms, Unknown Primary; 19 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 150 is above the median of 52 across 63 interventional studies indexed under Neoplasms, Unknown Primary.

Browse Neoplasms, Unknown Primary studies →

Lead sponsor

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia is the lead sponsor of 82 studies on the registry; 25 are open to participants now.

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

  1. Participant has provided written
  2. Participants aged 18 years or over at screening
  3. Diagnosed with CUP based on a diagnostic work-up, including, but not limited to; a detailed clinical assessment; a CT scan of the chest/abdomen, and pelvis; pathological review of tumour tissue; and other appropriate tests as per the Cancer Council Optimal Care Pathway guidelines
  4. Has not commenced current
  5. performance status 0 - 2
  6. greater than 3 months
  7. Adequate hematologic and organ function to commence systemic treatment, defined by the following laboratory results:

    1. ≥ 90g/L
    2. ≥1.5 x 109/L
    3. count ≥ 100 x 109/L
    4. ≥ 30mL/min
    5. Serum ≤ 1.5 x (ULN); patients with known Gilbert's disease may have a bilirubin ≥ 3.0 x ULN
    6. (AST) or alanine transaminase (ALT) ≤2 x ULN (or ≤ 5 x ULN in the presence of liver )
  8. Willing and able to comply with all study requirements, including all treatment and required assessments including follow-up procedures, in the investigator's judgment

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Uncontrolled medical or psychological conditions that may prevent commencement of systemic treatment.
  2. Major surgical procedure within 6 weeks prior to study registration or active infection requiring systemic treatment

    a. Placement of vascular access devices is not considered major surgery.

  3. Concurrent illness, including severe infection that may jeopardise the ability of the participant to undergo procedures outlined in this protocol with reasonable safety
  4. Prior cancer diagnosis with the exception of:

    1. treated with curative intent and with no known active disease ≥ 3years and of low potential risk of recurrence
    2. Adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin carcinoma or non-invasive melanoma
    3. Adequately treated non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (Tis, Ta and low grade T1 tumours)
    4. Adequately treated carcinoma in situ without evidence of disease
    5. Cancer subjects with incidental histologic findings of prostate cancer that, in the opinion of the Investigator, is not deemed to require active therapy (e.g., incidental prostate cancer identified following cystoprostatectomy that is tumour/node/ stage ≤ pT2N0)
  5. Greater than one
  6. Known allergy or reaction to 18F or 68Ga tracer
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(13)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

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).

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.

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.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

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.

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.

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.

Metastases

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

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Diagnostic
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
150 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT

    Patients receive 68Ga-FAPI IV then undergo PET/CT.

    Drug: 68Ga-FAPi-46 · Procedure: PET/CT imaging

Interventions

  • FAPI-46 is a small molecular radiopharmaceutical that binds to the fibroblast activated protein on cancer associated fibroblasts. Gallium-68 (68Ga) is a positron-emitting isotope with a half-life of 68 minutes.

  • ProcedurePET/CT imaging

    PET with the investigational tracer 68Ga-FAPI-46 with accompanying low-dose CT for anatomical localisation

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The proportion of patients in which a likely tissue of origin is identified using 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT

    The proportion of patients in which 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT identifies a likely Tissue of Origin (ToO) beyond that identified by standard of care (SoC) testing.

    Time frame: 12 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Maximum Standard Uptake Value measured on 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT

    The average SUVmax of the 5 most intense lesions measured on 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT based on the best overall response rate assessed via RECIST after commencement of systemic therapy.

    Time frame: 12 months

  2. The proportion of patients in which the choice of treatment is changed after the 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT

    The change in patient management/treatment pre- and post- 68Ga-FAPI-PET/CT.

    Time frame: 12 months

07

Study locations

2 of 3 sites recruiting
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 Mar 31, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05263700
Lead sponsor
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 3, 2022
Start date
Feb 23, 2022
Primary completion
Feb 22, 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Feb 22, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 31, 2023

Study contacts

Linda Mileshkin
Contact
NMResearch@petermac.org
+61 3 85595000
Research Manager
Contact
NMResearch@petermac.org

Oversight

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

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Studies of the drug tested here: FAPI-46

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