Inolitazone Dihydrochloride and Paclitaxel in Treating Patients With Advanced Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

This phase II trial studies how well inolitazone dihydrochloride (efatutazone dihydrochloride) and paclitaxel work in treating patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer that has spread to other places in the body and usually cannot be cured or controlled with treatment (advanced). Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as efatutazone dihydrochloride and paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine if the combination of paclitaxel and efatutazone (efatutazone dihydrochloride) improves the confirmed response rate in patients with advanced anaplastic thyroid cancer. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To estimate the overall survival (OS), duration of response, progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse event rates for the combination of paclitaxel and efatutazone. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. The association of biomarkers with clinical outcome data will be assessed in an exploratory translational analysis. OUTLINE: Patients receive paclitaxel intravenously (IV) over 3 hours on day 1 and efatutazone dihydrochloride orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days 1-21. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up within 28 days, every 8 weeks until disease progression, and then every 6 months for 5 years.