Purpose: For patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma that has grown despite treatment with standard chemotherapy, no treatment has yet proven beneficial. The purpose of this study is to find out what effects, both good and bad, that everolimus has on the cancer. Everolimus works by blocking a protein that helps the cancer grow. The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if the study drug everolimus can shrink or slow the growth of mesothelioma. The safety of this drug will also be studied. The patients’ physical state, changes in the size of the tumor, and laboratory findings taken during the study will help us decide if everolimus is safe and effective.
- Arms: Pts getting everolimus: Experimental
- This is a single institution, open label, phase II study of everolimus as a second or third line therapy for the treatment of advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma, which will also evaluate Merlin/NF2 loss as a biomarker to predict sensitivity to everolimus. Patients who have disease progression after one or two prior chemotherapy regimens will be eligible. In the first stage of this design, 19 patients will be accrued. If 6 or less patients among the first 19 patients show clinical benefit, then the study will be terminated and declared negative. If 7 or more patients show clinical benefit, than an additional 20 patients will be accrued to the second stage. At the end of the study, if 17 or more patients show clinical benefit out of a total of 39 patients enrolled, the regimen will be considered worthy of further investigation.
- Drug: everolimus. Everolimus will be administered at a dose of 10mg orally once daily continuously. Dose reduction may be required depending on the type and severity of toxicity encountered. One cycle will be considered 28 days. Patients will have CT scans to evaluate for response after cycle 1 and cycle 2, and then every two cycles thereafter.