A Safety and Efficacy Trial of Docetaxel With or Without XH1 in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world and has become the No. 1 cause of death from malignant tumors in China. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) includes squamous cell carcinomas, adenocarcinomas, and large cell carcinomas and accounts for about 80-85% of all lung cancers. NSCLC cancer cells divide slowly in a diffusive manner and metastasize at a relatively late stage compared to small cell carcinomas. A majority of patients with NSCLC are already in advanced stages and have a low 5-year survival rate.

Treatments for advanced NSCLC include chemotherapy and targeted therapies. Platinum is currently used in the first-line treatment combination with Pemetrexed / gemcitabine / docetaxel / paclitaxel / vinorelbine and etc. For EGFR mutation negative patients, chemotherapy remains to be the preferred treatment of choice. Selection of chemotherapy regimes should take full account of patient's condition, including patient's physical condition. Assessments regarding patient's possible benefits from chemotherapy should include timely evaluation of efficacies, close observation of adverse events and effective control of adverse reactions. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has in recent years become an important adjunct for lung cancer treatment. TCM has been shown to be effective in stabilizing the tumor, prolonging patient survival, increasing immune function, improving clinical symptoms, improving quality of life and reducing the adverse events of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

With the advent of new technologies, TCM has been shown to have a variety of therapeutic effects towards multiple tumor-associated genes. However, it remains a major obstacle as to how to effectively screen and select TCM remedies that are effective against lung cancer and meet the efficacy standards of contemporary cancer care.

Under the premises described above, investigators developed a novel drug screening and selection model (Alphacait) in tumor microenvironment using Synthetic Lethal and accelerated RNA Speedup PDX aided by artificial intelligence calculation. This model could provide new treatment options for patients with EGFR negative late-stage lung cancer through conducting synthetic lethal analysis in vitro and in vivo using patient's own cancer cells and selecting the most effective combination therapies for these patients. As this approach aims at selecting individualized medications for a specific patient using patient's own cancer cells, it enables rapid exclusion of false positives and accurate determination of potentially effective treatment regimens for each individual patient.

The Alphacait model thus involves acquisition of patient's cancer cells through biopsy, combinatorial chemistry techniques, cancer cell culture in vitro, and cancer cell transplantation and growth in vivo in a microenvironment similar to that in a living human body. Using this model, investigators will be able to screen thousands of different TCM combinations in a matter of days. The inhibitory curves of the Synthetic Lethal RNA expression for each drug combination specific to a patient's cancer cells could be obtained within 72 hours to determine the most promising anticancer drug combinations. The cancer cells will thereafter be transplanted into immune deficient rats for further testing and validation in vivo in a living microenvironment. Investigators expect to complete the screening experiments in vitro and validation experiments in vivo within 6 weeks of biopsy and select the most effective drug combinations. This information is then conveyed to the clinicians to guide the selection of therapeutic regimes involving TCM in conjunction with patient's preferences and clinician's experiences.

Investigators have screened a total of 250,000 drug combinations using the Alphacait model and determined that approximately 100 drugs may be useful against NSCLC cancer cells. Preliminary testing of the model in about 200 patients in China found that the TCM combination XH1 plus docetaxel were effective in a subgroup of patients with end-stage NSCLC. The aim of the present study is to further confirm the efficacy of this combination in a randomized and controlled clinical trial.