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Fecal Microbial Transplantation in Combination With Immunotherapy in Melanoma Patients (MIMic)

NCT03772899 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 20

Last updated 2025-03-28

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Immunotherapy has helped many cancer patients in the last 5 years by enhancing a patient's immune system to fight cancer. Anti-Programmed Death (PD-1) immunotherapy drugs such as pembrolizumab and nivolumab remove the breaks from cancer-fighting immune cells and have been effective in treating some melanoma patients. Despite the major breakthrough of immunotherapy in oncology treatment, many patients do not respond to this new class of anti-cancer drugs. Recently, evidence suggests that the microorganisms living in a patient's intestines play a major role in modifying the response to anti-PD-1drugs. Patients who respond to these drugs have a unique and healthy group of microorganisms in their gut. Therefore, positive modification of a cancer patient's gut microorganisms to create a more diverse and healthy microbiome may improve the response to immunotherapy. One method of modifying the microbiome is Fecal Microbial Transplantation (FMT) that is already being successfully used in the clinic to treat non-cancer patients with persistent bacterial infections.

In this study, the investigators will combine FMT with the approved immunotherapy drugs pembrolizumab or nivolumab that are the standard of care for the treatment of advanced melanoma. The purpose of this study is to examine the safety of combining these two therapies in melanoma patients. The investigator will use fecal material from a healthy donor selected via our stringent protocol that is Health Canada approved. In addition to assessing the safety of the combination, the investigator will also study the effect of FMT on the immune system and microbial ecosystem of the gut.

Conditions

Interventions

DRUG

Fecal Microbial Transplantation

All patients in this trial will receive FMT at least one week prior to treatment with approved immunotherapy (either pembrolizumab or nivolumab). Samples for FMT are sourced at and by the microbiology group under the supervision of Dr. Silverman at St Joseph's Hospital. Donor screening procedures are described in appendix 4. Transplant will be from one single donor for all participants unless Dr. Silverman's lab considers the need for more than one donor based on availability of donors. There will be no "mixture" of donor samples. Donor samples are manufactured into capsules according to Kao et al, 2017.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • John Lenehan, MD · London Regional Cancer Program

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
19 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-03-27
Primary Completion
2021-09-14
Completion
2026-08-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03772899 on ClinicalTrials.gov