Not yet recruitingPhase 1 / Phase 2

A Phase 1b/2 Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of ConvitVax in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Who can join

As published by the study on ClinicalTrials.gov. "Not stated" means the study hasn't said — ask the study team.

Age
18 Years and older
Sex
Female only
Healthy volunteers
Not accepted
Compensation
Not stated

Other requirements are listed under Eligibility below. Only the study team can confirm whether you can join.

What to expect

No one can promise a trial will help you personally — that is what the research is trying to find out.

What participation involves

  • Procedures mentioned: Injections, Biopsies

Only what the study's summary and detailed description on ClinicalTrials.gov say. Time periods may describe the whole study or a part of it — ask the study team what applies to you.

Show the study's own words
  • "The primary aim is to determine the overall safety and tolerability of ConvitVax when administered via an intradermal (id) injection as monotherapy in female patients with MBC who have failed at least one line of therapy."
  • "Luis Razetti") (IOLR) who meet the eligibility criteria will be consented and asked to have a biopsy of the primary tumor."
  • "ConvitVax will be applied via id injection with a 2-week interval between each dose."
Compensation
Not stated
  • Study-related exams and procedures are typically provided at no cost. This is how many trials work in general — confirm the details for this study with the study team.
  • Participants are monitored closely by the research team throughout the study.
  • Some participants may receive access to an investigational treatment, which is still being studied.
  • Your participation helps researchers learn whether this approach could help future patients.

About this study

In plain language

This study tests the safety of ConvitVax and whether it helps treat breast cancer that has spread. ConvitVax is a vaccine made partly from a patient's own tumor tissue and given as four shots into the skin. The study is for adult women whose cancer grew or returned after usual treatment, or who refused or cannot receive usual treatment.

This is a proof-of-concept, single-center, non-randomized, open-label, phase 1b/2 study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ConvitVax, a simple, low cost (of manufacture), personalized, potentially safe and effective breast cancer vaccine made of three components: autologous tumor cells homogenate obtained from 0.3 g of tumor tissue, 0.0625 mg of bacillus Calmette-Guérin Danish strain 1331 (BCG D1331), and 0.02% of formalin, for patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) except for brain metastases, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, and/or spinal cord compression. The primary aim is to determine the overall safety and tolerability of ConvitVax when administered via an intradermal (id) injection as monotherapy in female patients with MBC who have failed at least one line of therapy. This study will give access to an immunotherapy, to underprivileged women with MBC, particularly in poor developing countries where patients may not have the opportunity to be treated with modern therapies or, in many cases, standard of care treatments. Breast cancer patients at Instituto de Oncología "Dr. Luis Razetti" (Oncological Institute "Dr. Luis Razetti") (IOLR) who meet the eligibility criteria will be consented and asked to have a biopsy of the primary tumor. This fragment will be divided for the preparation of each dose of the vaccine. A total of 40 patients with confirmed MBC will be treated with ConvitVax. The final volume per dose of the vaccine is 0.5 ml, with a total of 4 doses. ConvitVax will be applied via id injection with a 2-week interval between each dose. Patients will be monitored for disease recurrence and survival, for a period of 1 year after initiating the treatment.

Compensation is read from the study's own description and may be missing — always confirm with the study team.

Eligibility

Who can join

  • Women age 18 or older.
  • Breast cancer confirmed by testing tissue or cells.
  • Cancer has spread, cannot be removed by surgery, or cannot be cured with surgery or radiation. Usual treatment did not work, was refused, or is not an option.
  • At least one cancer area measures 1 cm by 1 cm or larger.
  • A PPD skin test, used to check for tuberculosis exposure, causes a firm bump no wider than 10 mm.
  • If you agree to biopsies before and during treatment, a stored tissue sample may be used before treatment. Fresh samples are preferred.
  • Not pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning pregnancy during the study. If able to become pregnant, you must follow the study's birth control rules.
  • Able to understand the study and willing to sign a consent form.

Who can't join

  • Not fully active in daily life, or expected to live less than 3 months.
  • Cancer in the brain or the tissue around the brain and spinal cord, or pressure on the spinal cord. Fully treated brain cancer spread may be allowed if it has not grown or returned for 4 weeks.
  • Ongoing side effects from past treatment that are more than mild, except hair loss; major surgery in the past 4 weeks; or not enough time since other cancer treatment or a live vaccine.
  • Blood counts, liver, kidney, or blood-clotting tests outside the study's limits. Most blood-thinning medicines are not allowed, but certain low doses of aspirin or heparin are allowed.
  • Certain infections, including HIV needing treatment, active hepatitis, current or recent COVID-19, or infections needing antibiotics. Recent fever or antibiotic use may also prevent joining.
  • An immune system disorder, an autoimmune disease needing medicines that weaken the immune system, certain steroid doses, a past organ transplant, or removal of the spleen.
  • A severe past vaccine reaction, or a known or suspected reason that BCG or formalin, ingredients in ConvitVax, would be unsafe.
  • Another cancer unless a listed exception applies; another serious or uncontrolled health condition; or inability to follow study steps. People in another trial, previously enrolled in this study, legally confined, or study staff members or their relatives cannot join.

Simplified for readability. The official criteria below are what the study team uses.

Official eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria: * Female patients who are ≥18 years of age at the time of signing the informed consent forms (ICFs). * Histologically- or cytologically-confirmed diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the breast. * Female patients with evidence of either locally advanced (not amenable to radiation therapy or surgery in a curative intent), inoperable, and/or metastatic disease who have either progressed, recurred after standard of care treatment, have refused, or are otherwise ineligible for standard of care treatment. * Measurable disease with bidimensional measurements of at least 1 × 1 cm. * Patients with a ≤10 mm diameter PPD response of skin induration. * For patients who consent to paired biopsies (before treatment and during treatment): for baseline samples, a formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) archived biopsy sample can be used, but fresh biopsies from primary or recurrence or metastasis are preferred. * Female patients must not be pregnant, breastfeeding, nor be planning a pregnancy during their participation in the study. The use of an effective contraceptive method is mandatory in patients capable of having children. It is known that avoiding sexual activity (true abstinence) is the only secure method to prevent pregnancy; however, when patients choose to be sexually active, the participant must agree to use an appropriate "double-barrier" contraceptive method (such as the use of a diaphragm, intrauterine device \[IUD\], or contraceptive sponge, as well as the use of condom) or pills, injections or implants prescribed for birth control. * Ability to understand and willingness to sign written ICFs. Exclusion Criteria: * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) of ≥1. * Life expectancy \<3 months. * Patients with known brain metastases, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, and/or spinal cord compression. Participants with brain metastases that have been previously totally resected or irradiated are eligible provided no progression or relapse is observed within 4-weeks of the last treatment. * Non-resolution of any prior treatment-related toxicity to Grade \<2, except for alopecia according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v5.0. * Major surgery within 4-weeks before first study treatment administration. * Washout period of at least 3-weeks or 5 times the half-life, whichever is shorter, of any cancer therapy (including anticancer therapy, vaccination, or any investigational agent). For patients who received immunotherapy (including anti-programmed death-1 \[anti-PD-1\] therapy) a washout of at least a 4-week recovery period is required. * Immunosuppressive corticosteroid doses (prednisone \>7.5 mg daily orally \[PO\] or intravenously \[IV\], or equivalent) within 2-weeks before the first dose of ConvitVax and maintenance therapy with prednisolone \>7.5 mg/day PO or equivalent during the study. * Inadequate hematological function including neutrophils \<1.5 × 109/L; hemoglobin ˂9 gr/dL, and platelet count \<100 × 109/L. * Inadequate liver function test with total bilirubin ˃1.5 × upper limit of normal (ULN), unless Gilbert's syndrome (in which case, total bilirubin ˃2.5 × ULN or alanine aminotransferase \[ALT\], aspartate aminotransferase \[AST\], or alkaline phosphatase \[ALP\] ˃2.5 × ULN in the absence of hepatic metastases). In the presence of hepatic metastases, total bilirubin ˂3 × ULN and ALT (or AST) ˂5 × ULN are acceptable. ALP ˂5 × ULN would be acceptable only if related to the presence of bone metastases, as judged by the investigator. * Inadequate renal function with serum creatinine ≥1.5 × ULN or between 1.0 and 1.5 × ULN with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) \<60 mL/min/1.73 m2 as estimated using the abbreviated Modification of Diet in Renal Disease formula. * Inadequate coagulation test: prothrombin time (PT) or international normalized ratio (INR) value ˃1.5 × ULN. Patients with anticoagulant therapy are excluded. Patients with low dose aspirin (˂100 mg) and prophylactic low dose heparin are allowed. * Patients with any other cancer. However, adequately treated basal, squamous carcinoma of the skin or in situ cervical cancer, or any other cancer from which the patient has been disease free for \>3 years are allowed. * Patient is deemed unsuitable for participation, whatever the reason, as judged by the investigator, including medical or clinical conditions, or participants potentially at risk of noncompliance to the study procedures (e.g., unwilling and unable to comply with scheduled visits, drug administration plan, laboratory tests, other study procedures, and study restriction). * Known or suspected contraindication to BCG and/or formalin. * History of known acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) related illnesses or known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease requiring antiretroviral treatment, or active hepatitis A, B (defined as either positive HBsAg or negative HBsAg with positive HBc antibody), or C (defined as a known positive hepatitis C antibody result and known quantitative HCV RNA results greater than the lower limits of detection of the assay) infection. * Patients positive for Covid-19 or those who had the disease within a month before their inclusion in the study. * Patients with previous or current active autoimmune disease requiring immunosuppressive treatment (e.g., inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, systemic vasculitis, scleroderma, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus \[IDDM\] or infant- juvenile diabetes, vasculitis syndrome, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, hemolytic anemia, immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome, sarcoidosis or other rheumatic diseases or any other related medical disorder.) * Active infection that requires the continuous use of antibiotic therapy. * Current pregnancy or breastfeeding. * Known or proven adverse reaction to vaccines, such as anaphylaxis or other severe reaction. * Any prior organ transplant. * Prior treatment with live, attenuated vaccines within 4-weeks before initiation of study intervention and during treatment. * Patients who had a splenectomy. * Patients with known or suspected congenital immunodeficiency. * Current participation in another clinical trial. * Individuals accommodated in an institution because of regulatory or legal order; prisoners or subjects who are legally institutionalized. * Active infections, including unexplained fever (temperature \>38.1°C), or antibiotics therapy within 1-week before enrollment. * Presence of any significant and uncontrolled medical, psychiatric, chronic condition, or laboratory abnormalities that may denote a risk associated with the patient's participation in the study, or that may interfere with the interpretation of the results, as judged by the investigator. * Previous enrollment in this study. * The patient is on the staff (or relative thereof) directly involved in the conduct of the protocol.

Study sites (1)

FL