The purpose of this study is to find out if the drug AZD6244 can improve the radioactive iodine uptake by the patient's metastatic thyroid cancer. The investigator will also be testing the tumor specimen taken at the time of your surgery for specific genetic changes to see if one of them in particular (the BRAF oncogene) makes your cancer more likely to become sensitive to radioactive iodine after treatment with the drug. The investigators want to find out if AZD6244 helps to increase the entry of radioactive iodine into thyroid cancer cells that have spread and are resistant to radioactive iodine therapy, especially if they have the BRAF mutation. To measure how much iodine can enter your cancer, the investigators will use iodine-124, a different form of radioactive iodine. Iodine-124 allows the investigators to measure precisely how much radioactivity can enter the cancer cells, whereas iodine-131 does not. The process of scanning with iodine-124 is called "lesional dosimetry". Iodine-124 is an investigational agent approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for use in this research study.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
24
Within 1 week of starting the study: Low iodine diet The patient will receive three bottles of capsules containing the drug AZD6244. Each capsule contains 25 milligrams of AZD6244. They will take 3 capsules orally, by mouth twice a day for 4 weeks. AZD6244 should be taken on an empty stomach (either one hour before or 2 hours after meals). AZD6244 capsules should be taken with water only. Lesional dosimetry with iodine-124 PET will be done twice, at the beginning and at the end of the study. This is done the same way that a radioactive iodine scan is done and is spread out over 5 days. It requires injection with human recombinant TSH (Thyrogen) on day 1 and 2, as well as blood tests on day 1 and day 5. On day 3, you will receive the iodine-124 in form of an oral drink, and the PET scan will be obtained on day 5. You will need to follow a low iodine diet starting 5 days before and throughout the process.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York, United States
Number of Patients Whose Tumor(s) Acquire an Increased Propensity for Iodine Uptake as Detected on Iodine-124 Positron Emission Tomography Scan
Time frame: 2 years
Tumor Response Defined as Either a Complete Response or Partial Response
as defined by the RECIST v1.1 criteria Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize the data.
Time frame: 6 months
Change From Baseline in Serum Thyroglobulin Levels After Treatment With 131I
Will perform a Wilcoxon signed rank test for paired samples to compare the serum thyroglobulin level before and after 131I treatment in the subset of patients treated with 131I following AZD6244.
Time frame: At 2 months and 6 months after Radioiodine administration
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