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CompletedNCT05414552ECPforIRAEUpdated Aug 1, 2023

ECP for Immune-related Adverse Events After Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment

An observational study in Immune Related Adverse Events, Colitis and Hepatitis, sponsored by University of Freiburg. Completed at 1 site in Germany. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-08-01.

Sponsored by University of Freiburg · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Retrospective
Enrollment
11
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Preliminary data demonstrate that irAEs induced by immune checkpoint blockade can be successfully treated with ECP (Apostolova et al. NEJM 2020). Therefore this retrospective analysis is launched to validate the finding made with the individual patient in a larger patient cohort. The analysis will include the evaluation of safety of ECP treatment in patients with irAEs and collect data on the efficacy of ECP as a treatment for immune-related adverse events and its effect on tumor progression.

Read the detailed description

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have improved the long-term survival of patients with metastatic tumors. However, approximately 50% of the patients treated with ICI develop serious immune-related adverse events (irAE). A recent study reported that grade 3 or higher irAE occurred in 49 of 124 patients (39.5%) who received nivolumab/ipilimumab and in 41 of 123 patients (33.3%) who received nivolumab alone. Other studies report an overall frequency of grade 3-5 irAE in 24% - 59% of patients treated with nivolumab 1 mg/kg body weight and ipilimumab 3 mg/kg body weight. An incidence of 33.3% was reported when patients were treated with nivolumab 3 mg/kg body weight and ipilimumab 1 mg/kg body weight. The most common events reported during combined ICI treatment are diarrhea, rash, pruritus, hepatitis, hypothyroidism, neurological disease and pneumonitis. These numbers show that irAE are a particularly frequent complication of ICI and limit their use.

This retrospective analysis is launched to validate the finding made with the individual patient in a larger patient cohort. The analysis will include the evaluation of safety of ECP treatment in patients with irAEs and collect data on the efficacy of ECP as a treatment for immune-related adverse events and its effect on tumor progression.

02

Conditions studied

  • Immune Related Adverse Events
  • Colitis
  • Hepatitis
  • Dermatitis

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Keywords

  • extracorporeal photoperesis
  • immune modulation
  • immune checkpoint inhibitor
03

In context

Dermatitis

1,435 studies on the registry are indexed under Dermatitis; 131 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 11 is below the median of 100 across 232 observational studies indexed under Dermatitis.

Browse Dermatitis studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Freiburg is the lead sponsor of 27 studies on the registry; 5 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
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Patients that had develped irAEs after ICI and were treated with ECP outside of a clinical trial.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Male and female patients aged ≥18 years
  2. Written informed consent:

    • Subjects must have signed and dated an IRB/IEC approved written informed consent form in accordance with regulatory and institutional guidelines.
    • Subjects must be able to understand and willing to comply with scheduled visits, treatment schedule, laboratory tests and mandatory collection of blood, and other requirements of the study.
    • Subject Re-enrollment: This trial permits the re-enrollment of a subject that has discontinued the study as a screening failure. If re-enrolled, the subject must be re-consented.
  3. Target population

    • Patients who have received treatment with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1 or an anti-CTLA-4 antibody or any combination of these for any type of malignancy in the last 24 months before screening.
    • Patients should have clinical and/or histological evidence of immune-related adverse events as follows:

      • Colitis Diarrhea with increase of ≥4 stools over baseline No improvement after 72h treatment with at least 1 mg/kg BW/day prednisolone equivalent
      • Hepatitis Alanine aminotransferase and/or aspartate aminotransferase ≥3x ULN if baseline was normal; or ≥3x baseline if baseline was abnormal No improvement after 72h treatment with at least 1 mg/kg BW/day prednisolone equivalent
      • Pneumonitis Radiographic changes and new symptoms such as cough, dyspnea or chest pain No improvement after 72h treatment with 1 mg/kg BW/day prednisolone equivalent Dermatitis Skin erythema, maculopapular or pustulopapular rash covering ≥30% of the body surface area No improvement after 72h treatment with at least 1 mg/kg BW/day prednisolone equivalent
  4. Maximum of one additional (second line) therapy after Steroid treatment before ECP starts (e.g. infliximab for colitis)
  5. Women of childbearing potential must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test (minimum sensitivity 25 IU/L or equivalent units of HCG) within 1 week prior to the start of study drug.
  6. Women must not be breastfeeding.
  7. ECOG performance status 0, 1, or 2

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Active treatment in a clinical study of any investigational agent within 14 days prior day 0 or within 5 half-lives of the study treatment, whichever is greater.
  2. Positive result for HIV.
  3. Prior allogeneic bone marrow transplantation or prior solid organ transplantation.
  4. Mechanical ventilation or patients who have resting O2 saturation \<90% by pulse-oximetry.
  5. Patients who require vasopressors, and/or have NYHA class III or IV heart failure.
  6. Uncontrolled hypertension or ventricular arrhythmias.
  7. Previous or concurrent malignancies within the last 3 years of enrollment other than the disease for which checkpoint-inhibitor blockade was applied. Exceptions are adequately treated basal or squamous cell skin cancer, or any other cancer from which the subject has been disease-free for more than 3 years.
  8. Any condition that would, in the investigator's judgment, interfere with full participation in the study, including administration of study drug and attending required study visits; pose a significant risk to the subject; or interfere with interpretation of study data
  9. Known allergies, hypersensitivity, or intolerance of methoxypsoralen, excipients, or similar compounds, heparin or similar compounds
  10. Aphakia
  11. Female patients of child-bearing potential who are not willing to use highly effective methods of contraception during the trial and at least 5 months after the ECP procedure (see also 10.9)
  12. Inability to tolerate extracorporeal volume loss
  13. Previous splenectomy
  14. Pregnancy and lactation
05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Retrospective
Enrollment
11 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • ECP treatment arm

    ECP treatment per prtocol

    Drug: ECP

Interventions

  • DrugECP

    Treatment with ECP for irAEs with 2 cycles performed on two consecutive days, for the first 4 weeks repeated every week, and from week 5 to 12 repeated every two weeks

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Safety - treatment-related adverse events (AEs) and severe adverse events (SAEs)

    To evaluate the rate of treatment-related adverse events (AEs) and severe adverse events (SAEs) in patients treated with ECP for immune-checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis, pneumonitis, hepatitis or dermatitis.

    Time frame: 12 months after end of ECP

Secondary outcomes

  1. objective response rate

    objective response rate (ORR) to treatment after 6 weeks of ECP therapy

    Time frame: After 6 weeks of ECP therapy

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Medical Center - University of Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg Department of Medicine I
    Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg 79106, Germany
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Apostolova P, Unger S, von Bubnoff D, Meiss F, Becher B, Zeiser R. Extracorporeal Photopheresis for Colitis Induced by Checkpoint-Inhibitor Therapy. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jan 16;382(3):294-296. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1912274. No abstract available. PubMed 31940706 ↗
  • Zeiser R, Polverelli N, Ram R, Hashmi SK, Chakraverty R, Middeke JM, Musso M, Giebel S, Uzay A, Langmuir P, Hollaender N, Gowda M, Stefanelli T, Lee SJ, Teshima T, Locatelli F; REACH3 Investigators. Ruxolitinib for Glucocorticoid-Refractory Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease. N Engl J Med. 2021 Jul 15;385(3):228-238. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2033122. PubMed 34260836 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — All information and data of this retrospective analysis will be made avaible to the public.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Sap, Icf, Csr, Analytic code

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 1, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05414552
Lead sponsor
University of Freiburg
Responsible party
Robert Zeiser (Professor, University of Freiburg) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jun 10, 2022
Start date
Jun 1, 2021
Primary completion
Dec 30, 2022
Completion
Dec 30, 2022
Last update
Aug 1, 2023

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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