Vitamin C Plus Cordyceps To Quality Of Life In Patients With Terminal Stage Pancreatic Cancer

Study Overview

Vitamin C Plus Cordyceps to Quality of Life in Patients With Terminal Stage Pancreatic Cancer

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin C plus herbal medicine in improving the quality of life for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who are resistant to chemotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a 5-year survival less than 10%. Approximately 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Chemotherapy is one of the major treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer. In 2011, the PRODIGE trial has shown that oxaliplatin, irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin (FOLFIRINOX) was associated with a survival advantage but had increased toxicity. In 2013, the MPACT trial has confirmed the efficacy of gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel as the first-line treatment to metastatic pancreatic cancer. However, the side-effects related to chemotherapy including anemia, hand/foot numbness, fatigue, nausea, and malnutrition have impaired the quality of life for patients. Vitamin C, also called ascorbate, is an essential nutrient for the human body. It modulates metabolism, immune reaction, collagen synthesis, and iron absorption. Some studies have shown that high-dose intravenous Vitamin C may be effective against various types of cancer. Meanwhile, medium or low dose of Vitamin C may increase iron absorption, improve anemia, alleviate pain and hand/foot numbness, and thus improve the quality of life for patients with terminal stage pancreatic cancer. In addition, numerous evidence has proved the efficacy of Reishi and Cordyceps in alleviating the side effects related to chemotherapy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin C plus herbal medicine on improving the quality of life for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who are resistant to two lines of systemic chemotherapy, including gemcitabine based, fluorouracil based, or other regimen. Fifty patients who have tumor progression after receiving two lines of chemotherapy will be recruited. These patients will receive Vitamin C plus herbal medicine. Quality of life, rate of hand/foot numbness, severity of pain, rate of anemia, and overall survival are measured.

Pancreatic Cancer

DRUG: VC plus herbal medicine

PTCA199-13

Study Record Dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates	Results Reporting Dates	Study Record Updates
First Submitted 2024-09-11	Results First Submitted N/A	Last Update Submitted that met QC Criteria 2024-11-22
First Submitted that Met QC Criteria 2024-09-13	Results First Submitted that Met QC Criteria N/A	Last Update Posted (ACTUAL) 2024-11-26
First Posted (ACTUAL) 2024-09-19	Results First Posted N/A	Last Verified 2024-09

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

Design Details

Primary Purpose:
Treatment

Allocation:
Na

Interventional Model:
Single Group

Masking:
None

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group/Arm	Intervention/Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: VC plus herbal medicine Vitamin C 300 mg/day, TID, PO. Reishi, 2 g/day, BID, PO. Cordyceps, 2 g/day, BID, PO.	DRUG: VC plus herbal medicine Vitamin C 300 mg/day, TID, PO. Reishi, 2 g/day, BID, PO. Cordyceps, 2 g/day, BID, PO.

Participant Group/Arm

Intervention/Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL: VC plus herbal medicine

Vitamin C 300 mg/day, TID, PO. Reishi, 2 g/day, BID, PO. Cordyceps, 2 g/day, BID, PO.

DRUG: VC plus herbal medicine

Vitamin C 300 mg/day, TID, PO. Reishi, 2 g/day, BID, PO. Cordyceps, 2 g/day, BID, PO.

Primary Outcome Measures	Measure Description	Time Frame
Quality of life (QOL) questionnaire	Change of QOL after every cycle of treatment using ORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3). Scale 1-7, higher scores mean a better outcome.	1 month

Secondary Outcome Measures	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of hand-foot skin reaction, HFSR	Rate of HFSR after every cycle of treatment	1 month
Rate of anemia	Rate of anemia after every cycle of treatment	1 month
Overall survival，OS	OS of subjects from recruiting to the time of death from any cause	1 month
Change of numeric rating scale (NRS)	Change of numeric rating scale (NRS) and the administration of analgesic drugs after every cycle of treatment. NRS scale 0-10. Higher scores mean a worse outcome.	1 month

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Name: Huanyu Xia, MD

Phone Number: 86 21 64031446

Email: xianhuanyu@fudanpci.org

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person’s general health condition or prior treatments.

Ages Eligible for Study:
ALL

Sexes Eligible for Study:
18 Years

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

• Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document.

Age ≥ 18 years and ≤ 80 years.
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-2.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed metastatic pancreas adenocarcinoma.
Tumor progression after two lines of treatments.
Adequate organ performance based on laboratory blood tests.
Presence of at least of one measurable lesion in agreement to RECIST criteria.
The expected survival ≥ 1 months.
Women of childbearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation.

• The diagnosis was confirmed by pathology as non-adenocarcinoma of pancreas.

Inflammation of the digestive tract, including pancreatitis, cholecystitis, cholangitis, etc.
Pregnant or nursing women.
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency.
Severe and uncontrollable accompanying diseases that may affect protocol compliance or interfere with the interpretation of results.
Renal insufficiency or dialysis
Other serious accompanying illnesses, which, in the researcher's opinion, could seriously adversely affect the safety of the treatment.
Patients who are unwilling or unable to comply with study procedures.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR: Guopei Luo, MD, Shanghai Cancer Center

Publications

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Das G, Shin HS, Leyva-Gomez G, Prado-Audelo MLD, Cortes H, Singh YD, Panda MK, Mishra AP, Nigam M, Saklani S, Chaturi PK, Martorell M, Cruz-Martins N, Sharma V, Garg N, Sharma R, Patra JK. Cordyceps spp.: A Review on Its Immune-Stimulatory and Other Biological Potentials. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Feb 8;11:602364. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.602364. eCollection 2020.
Wang X, Zhu X, Liu Y, Liu H, Xiao Z, Luo G. Efficacy of vitamin C on chemotherapy-related anemia in pancreatic cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2024 Jul 29;25(1):512. doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08345-w.
Sohretoglu D, Huang S. Ganoderma lucidum Polysaccharides as An Anti-cancer Agent. Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2018;18(5):667-674. doi: 10.2174/1871520617666171113121246.

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