A Phase 2 interventional study of Doxorubicin in Sarcoma, sponsored by University of Colorado, Denver. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 65 Years to 100 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-02-05.
Sponsored by University of Colorado, Denver · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
The overall goal of this Phase 2 study is to determine the efficacy of a lower dose weekly schedule of doxorubicin in patients with unresectable leiomyosarcomas aged 65-100 years old. While doxorubicin is the standard of care therapy for sarcomas not removable by surgery, older or more frail patients may struggle to tolerate side effects of the treatment including immune cell suppression. Previous studies have suggested that similar anti-tumor activity can be obtained using a lower dose, weekly administration schedule of doxorubicin. In this study, the investigators will determine progression-free survival rate at 12 weeks, with secondary endpoints including quality of life and adverse events in this population. Importantly, doxorubicin can also induce immune stimulatory effects when administered at lower doses, based on animal data. Thus, correlative samples including blood and tumor biopsies will also explore the effects of immune cells and foreignness of the tumor prior to and during treatment in study patients.
The study is an open-label, single-arm, investigator-initiated Phase 2 trial enrolling up to 30 patients to obtain 20 evaluable patients with advanced/metastatic leiomyosarcomas. The study will utilize a time-to-event Bayesian optimal Phase 2 design. The design includes one interim futility look after 10 patients are evaluable for progression-free survival rate at 12 weeks. The outcomes will be compared to historical PFS 12 week rate calculated as the mean from two large randomized Phase 3 studies. The treatment will be deemed promising if the number of patients who are stable at 12 weeks is 65%. Early stopping rules for toxicity are included in addition to futility.
The primary endpoint of the study is the PFS rate at 12 weeks with secondary endpoints including PFS at 6 months, response rate by RECIST 1.1, duration of response, overall survival, adverse events, and quality of life scores. Correlative studies will include analysis of serial blood samples and baseline and on-treatment tumor biopsies for immune markers including analysis of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, tumor immune pathways, analysis of circulating immune cells, and plasma cytokines.
Following informed consent and screening, patients will receive doxorubicin 25 mg/m2 administered by bolus with dexrazoxane pre-treatment on days 1 and 8 every 21 days for up to 8 cycles. Patients will receive pegfilgrastim growth factor on day 9. Scans for response imaging will be obtained every 6 weeks during the treatment portion of the study, then every 12 weeks after completing treatment up to 1 year. Patients will have routine safety labs, assessment of adverse events, quality of life questionnaires with treatment visits, and echocardiogram to assess for cardiac toxicity will be performed at cycle 4 of doxorubicin and at the completion of study therapy.
177 studies on the registry are indexed under Leiomyosarcoma; 35 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 54 across 151 interventional studies indexed under Leiomyosarcoma.
Browse Leiomyosarcoma studies →University of Colorado, Denver is the lead sponsor of 1,543 studies on the registry; 317 are open to participants now.
Of its 147 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 92 (63%) have results posted.
Compared within Leiomyosarcoma, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Sarcoma. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
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:
Patient has had prior chemotherapy, targeted small molecule therapy, or radiation therapy within 21 days prior to Cycle 1, Day 1 or has not recovered (i.e., ≤ Grade 1 or at baseline) from adverse events due to agents administered more than 21 days earlier. Subjects with ≤ Grade 2 neuropathy or alopecia are an exception to this criterion and may qualify for the study.
Note: If a subject received major surgery, they must have recovered adequately from the toxicity and/or complications from the intervention prior to starting therapy.
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.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
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.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
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.
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.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
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.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
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.
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
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.
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.
RECIST
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
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.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Doxorubicin will be administered on days 1 and 8 every 21 days for a maximum of 8 cycles (Cycles 1-8) with appropriate premedications and pegfilgrastim growth factor support. Doxorubicin will be administered as a bolus infusion on day 1 and day 8 with dexrazoxane cardioprotection. Patients must have central line access for this protocol, including pheresis or trifusion catheter, PICC line, or port.
Drug: Doxorubicin
Doxorubicin is an antibiotic derived from the Streptomyces peucetius bacterium. It has widespread use as a chemotherapeutic agent since the 1960s. Doxorubicin is part of the anthracycline group of chemotherapeutic agents. Doxorubicin may be used to treat soft tissue and bone sarcomas and cancers of the breast, ovary, bladder, and thyroid. It is also used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, and small cell lung cancer.
Also known as: Lipodox, Lipodox 50, Doxil
Determine the efficacy of treatment measured by Progression Free Survival (PFS) rate at 12 weeks
weekly doxorubicin chemotherapy in anthracycline-naïve patients measured through PFS at 12 weeks by RECIST 1.1
Time frame: 12 weeks
Progression Free Survival rate at 6 months
Rate of patients that are progression-free at the 6 month timepoint by RECIST 1.1
Time frame: 6 month
Quality of Life (QoL) by EORTC-QLQ-30
Patients will complete questionnaires to assess clinical benefit. The assessment will be based on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree.
Time frame: 6 months
Quality of Life by QLQ-ELD14
Patients will complete questionnaires to assess clinical benefit. The assessment will be based on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree.
Time frame: 6 months
Response rate measured by RECIST 1.1
Response rate by RECIST 1.1. Scans will be obtained every 6 weeks while on study therapy.
Time frame: 18 months
Duration of Response
Time that patients achieve a partial or complete response until progression by RECIST 1.1.
Time frame: 18 months
Overall Survival
Length of time from study enrollment to death by any cause.
Time frame: 18 months
Proportion of Doxorubicin Doses administered.
Evaluable patients will receive at least one dose of doxorubicin. We will determine the proportion of doses administered according to the study protocol, that are not omitted due to toxicity.
Time frame: 6 months
Toxicity Assessed by Adverse Events
Adverse events will be assessed using CTCAE version 5.0.
Time frame: 6 months
Plan to share: No
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Studies of the drug tested here: Doxorubicin
University of Colorado, Denver →