RATIONALE: Gefitinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin and irinotecan, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving gefitinib together with chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects of gefitinib when given together with cisplatin, irinotecan, and radiation therapy before surgery and to see how well they work in treating patients with esophageal cancer or gastroesophageal junction cancer that can be removed by surgery.
OBJECTIVES: Primary * Evaluate the pathologic response (complete and partial) in patients with resectable esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer treated with neoadjuvant gefitinib, cisplatin, irinotecan hydrochloride, and radiotherapy followed by surgical resection. Secondary * Assess the safety and toxicity of this regimen in these patients. * Evaluate objective tumor response in patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the rate of complete resection in patients treated with this regimen. * Determine surgical morbidity and mortality in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: This is an open-label study. * Induction phase: Patients receive oral gefitinib once daily on days 1-14. Patients with stable or responding disease proceed to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. * Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy: Patients receive gefitinib as in the induction phase beginning in week 4 and continuing through the last day of radiotherapy. Patients also receive cisplatin IV over 1 hour and irinotecan hydrochloride IV over 30 minutes on days 22, 29, 43, and 50 and undergo radiotherapy once daily, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks (total of 25 doses). * Surgery: Within 4-8 weeks after completion of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, patients with stable or responding disease undergo an esophagectomy and lymph node dissection. Patients with a progressive or unresectable disease are removed from the study. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 20 patients will be accrued for this study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
6
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
San Francisco, California, United States
Pathological response (complete and partial) post-operatively
Safety and toxicity post-operatively
Response rate 2 weeks into treatment, pre-operatively, and post-operatively
Completeness of resection post-operatively
Surgical morbidity and mortality post-operatively
Compare the effects of gefitinib on biomarkers that effect EGF signaling and genomic composition of tumor samples before and after treatment
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