Phase II Study of NGR-hTNF Versus Placebo as Maintenance Treatment in Patients With Advanced MPM

First-line treatment of advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is based on six cycles of a pemetrexed-based chemotherapy, with a median progression-free survival (PFS) of approximately 6 months.However, the median time from completion of first-line treatment to initiation of second-line therapy is approximately 3 months. Recent experiences in non-small cell lung cancer patients have shown that a maintenance treatment given immediately after first-line treatment regimens can improve PFS and survival. Considering the toxicity profile of NGR-hTNF characterized by mild-to-moderate constitutional symptoms registered in a phase II trial in previously treated MPM patients, as well as the disease control observed in about half of the patients and maintained for more than four months and more than nine months in the triweekly and weekly cohorts, respectively, seems justified to compare in a randomized phase II trial the time-related efficacy of NGR-hTNF against placebo in advanced MPM patients who did not progress after six cycles of a standard pemetrexed-based treatment.