A Phase 1 interventional study of Cytalux in Osteosarcoma, Pulmonary Metastasis and Fluorescence, sponsored by Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-05.
Sponsored by Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago · Phase 1, Interventional, and Diagnostic
Pediatric subjects aged 6-17 with biopsy confirmed cancer and imaging findings suspicious for pulmonary metastatic disease scheduled to undergo pulmonary metastasectomy via and open or minimally invasive approach.
Pulmonary metastasectomy, or surgery to remove cancer which has spread to the lungs, plays a key role in the treatment of children with metastatic solid tumors. Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) has been shown to be a promising technique to highlight cancer cells and enable real-time surgical guidance (Stummer 2006, Hernot 2019, Goldstein 2021). Current techniques for fluorescence-guided surgery rely on indocyanine green (ICG), a non-specific fluorescent molecular agent which tends to accumulate in cancer cells because of increased angiogenesis and decreased lymphatic clearance. Molecular agents targeted to tumor-specific receptors offer the hope of increased sensitivity and specificity for detecting even very small metastatic nodules, and thus enhancing surgical clearance of disease.
Many of the tumors which metastasize to the lung are known to express the folate receptor and may therefore benefit from utilizing the tumor imaging agent CYTALUX (pafolacianine). CYTALUX (Pafolacianine) as a diagnostic tool during cancer resection has already been investigated in adults (approved NDA 214907), and no age-specific differences are expected in the pediatric population. Findings from the ELUCIDATE trial in adults demonstrated that intraoperative molecular imaging with CYTALUX (pafolacianine) improves surgical outcomes by identifying occult tumors and close surgical margins and it therefore gained FDA approval for adults with cancer in the lung (both primary and metastatic) as an adjunct with near infrared (NIR) imaging for detection of disease during surgery. We anticipate that this agent will have similar safety and efficacy in children and to similarly demonstrate applicable for all types of metastatic tumors.
This is a pilot study in pediatric subjects aged 6-17 with biopsy confirmed cancer and imaging findings suspicious for pulmonary metastatic disease scheduled to undergo pulmonary metastasectomy via an open or minimally invasive approach.
In the proposed study, subjects and their parents or guardians will give informed consent prior to commencement of any study procedures. Subjects will be dosed with 0.025 mg/kg CYTALUX (pafolacianine) injection intravenously from 4 hours to up to 24 hours prior to surgery. Subjects will be considered evaluable if they are exposed to study drug and/or NIR fluorescent light imaging. During surgery, all subjects will first undergo evaluation by normal surgical techniques (white light, palpation, and/or other localization techniques) and all suspicious nodules and lesions identified under standard surgical approach will be recorded as such. Following standard surgical assessment, subjects will undergo assessment with NIR fluorescent light imaging prior to and after resection.
488 studies on the registry are indexed under Osteosarcoma; 124 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 10 is below the median of 40 across 354 interventional studies indexed under Osteosarcoma.
Browse Osteosarcoma studies →Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is the lead sponsor of 180 studies on the registry; 28 are open to participants now.
Of its 10 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 5 (50%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
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.
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.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
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.
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
All participants will receive Cytalux and undergo near infrared imaging.
Drug: Cytalux
Folate analog ligand conjugated with an indole cyanine-like green dye as a solution in vials containing 3 mL at 2 mg/mL
Also known as: Pafolacianine injection, OTL38 injection
Sensitivity of Near-infrared (NIR) imaging after pafolacianine injection for metastatic nodule identification
In children and adolescents with histologically-confirmed cancer undergoing pulmonary surgery for suspected metastases, each excised pulmonary lesion will be classified by the surgeon as positive or negative on NIR imaging after administration CYTALUX™ (PAFOLACIANINE) and then subjected to routine histologic examination. Sensitivity will be assessed as the fraction of histologically-confirmed metastatic nodules which demonstrated positive NIR fluorescence.
Time frame: 1 day
False-Positive Rate of Near-infrared (NIR) imaging after pafolacianine injection for metastatic nodule identification
In children and adolescents with histologically-confirmed cancer undergoing pulmonary surgery for suspected metastases, each excised pulmonary lesion will be classified by the surgeon as positive or negative on NIR imaging after administration CYTALUX™ (PAFOLACIANINE) and then subjected to routine histologic examination. The false positive rate will be assessed as the fraction of NIR-positive nodules that have no viable malignancy on histologic examination.
Time frame: 1 day
Detection of occult metastatic lesion(s) with Near-infrared (NIR) imaging after pafolacianine injection
The proportion of subjects with one or more NIR-positive lesion(s), not detected under normal light and/or palpation, and subsequently determined on histologic evaluation to contain viable metastatic tumor
Time frame: 1 day
Number of patients with treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs)
Adverse events (AEs) will be coded using MedDRA. An AE is any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or clinical study participant, temporally associated with the use of study intervention, whether or not considered related to the study intervention. A TEAE is defined as an AE observed after administration of the study intervention and up to the follow-up period. The number of TEAEs will be collected to asses the safety and tolerability of single intravenous infusions/injection of CYTALUX™ (PAFOLACIANINE) INJECTION in children and adolescents
Time frame: 30 days
Plan to share: No
Started Apr 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Aug 2026, 28 months after the start.
Of 49 phase 1 interventional studies under Osteosarcoma, half reached primary completion within 77 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 54 and three quarters within 134. This study's planned 28 months is below that.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Pafolacianine
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