Dose Escalation Study of Oral Treatment With BIBW 2992 in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors

Inclusion Criteria: * Male or female patients with confirmed diagnosis of advanced, non resectable and / or metastatic solid tumors, of types historically known to express EGFR and/or HER2, who have failed conventional treatment, or for whom no therapy of proven efficacy exists, or who are not amenable to established forms of treatment * Age 18 years or older * Life expectancy of at least three (3) months * Written informed consent given that is consistent with International Conference on Harmonization - Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) guidelines * Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score 0, 1, or 2 * Patients must have resolution of prior chemo-, hormone, immuno-, or radiotherapy-related toxicities to CTC Grade \< 1 * Patients have to be recovered from previous surgery * Paraffin-embedded tumor material must be accessible for analysis of EGFR and HER2-status. * The additional 12 patients that were to be recruited at the MTD also had to fulfill the following criterion: Measurable tumor deposits (RECIST: Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) by one or more techniques (X-ray, CT, MRI) Exclusion Criteria: * Active infectious disease * Gastrointestinal disorders that might interfere with the absorption of the study drug or chronic diarrhea * Serious illness or concomitant non-oncological disease considered by the investigator to be incompatible with the protocol * Brain metastases requiring therapy as based on clinical symptoms * Impaired cardiac left ventricular function with resting ejection fraction CTC Grade ≥ 1 * Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) less than 1500 / mm3 * Platelet count less than 100 000 / mm3 * Bilirubin greater than 1.5 mg / dl (\> 26 μmol / L, SI unit equivalent) * Aspartate amino transferase (AST) and / or alanine amino transferase (ALT) greater than three times the upper limit of normal (if related to liver metastases greater than five times the upper limit of normal) * Serum creatinine greater than 1.5 mg / dl (\> 132 μmol / L, SI (Systeme International) unit equivalent) * Women and men who are sexually active and unwilling to use a medically acceptable method of contraception * Pregnancy or breast-feeding * Treatment with other investigational drugs; chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy (excluding LHRH agonists, other hormones taken for breast cancer, or bisphosphonates) or participation in another clinical study within the past four weeks before start of therapy or concomitantly with this study * Patients unable to comply with the protocol * Active alcohol or drug abuse RETREATMENT CRITERIA The patient may be eligible for re-treatment after the previous course finished. The patient will not be eligible if the following criteria are met. * Patients with clinical signs of disease progression or if an X-ray, CT or MRI was done and the test showed progressive disease * Cardiac left ventricular function CTC Grade ≥ 2 at any time during the previous course * Patients fulfilling any of the Exclusion Criteria as mentioned under exclusion criteria on Day 29 of the previous course * Patients not recovered from any dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) 14 days after the last administration of BIBW 2992 in the previous course. Recovery is defined as a return to baseline level or CTC Grade 1, whichever is higher