Phase III Study of Gemcitabine and Cisplatin With or Without Aprinocarsen, a Protein Kinase C-Alpha Antisense Oligonucleotide, in Patients With Advanced-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Purpose To determine whether aprinocarsen, an antisense oligonucleotide directed against protein kinase C-alpha, when added to the chemotherapy regimen of gemcitabine and cisplatin improved survival in patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and Methods Patients with previously untreated stage IIIB/IV NSCLC and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, were randomly assigned to either a control arm of gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 and cisplatin 80 mg/m2 on day 1, or experimental arms consisting of the identical chemotherapy plus aprinocarsen 2 mg/kg/d as continuous infusion for 14 days, starting on either day 1 or 3 days before chemotherapy. Cycles were repeated every 21 days. Results A total of 670 patients were randomly assigned between the control (n = 328) and experimental arms (n = 342). Due to the results from another phase III study of aprinocarsen in NSCLC, further enrollment was stopped, and the study was terminated early. The median nu...