Multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, exploratory study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HAD-B1 for dose-finding in EGFR positive and locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC subjects who need Afatinib therapy: Study protocol clinical trial (SPIRIT Compliant).

BACKGROUND: In recent studies, afatinib, a second-generation inhibitor, showed superior outcomes, when compared to the first-generation of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as erlotinib and gefitinib, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Patients who receive TKIs with a significant initial efficacy, inevitably experience an acquired resistance (AR) within 9 to 13 months. Traditional Korean medicine may have synergistic effects when combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The purpose of this trial is to assess whether afatinib plus HAD-B1 improves disease control rates (DCRs) compared with afatinib alone and to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HAD-B1 for finding the proper dose. METHODS: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center, therapeutic, exploratory clinical trial. This trial is designed to determine whether HAD-B1 combined with afatinib results in better DCRs with less toxicity than afatinib alone. A total of 66 NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations will be randomly assigned to treatment group 1 (afatinib 40 mg/day plus HAD-B1 972 mg), treatment group 2 (afatinib 40 mg/day plus HAD-B1 1944 mg) and a control group (afatinib 40 mg/day). Afatinib combined with HAD-B1 or with a placebo will be administered to the participants for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint is a comparison of the DCRs among groups. Secondary endpoints are comparisons of the complete response (CR) and the partial response (PR) to the treatment, the stability of the disease (SD), progression free survival (PFS), time to progression (TTP), and tumor marker (CEA, NSE) and WBC differential count (LMR, NLR) and natural killer cell activity and quality of life (QOL) among groups. DISCUSSION: The results from this clinical trial will provide evidence of efficacy and safety of HAD-B1 in EGFR positive and locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC patients who need afatinib therapy.

The practice of Korean medicine: an overview of clinical trials in acupuncture.

Acupuncture, one of the Oriental medical therapeutic techniques that can be traced back at least 2500 years, is growing in popularity all over the world. Korea has continued to develop its own unique tradition of medicine throughout its long history, and has formed different types of acupuncture methods. The purpose of this review is to summarize clinical case studies in acupuncture and related therapies, such as acupressure, electric acupuncture, auricular acupuncture and moxibustion in Korea. A survey of Korean journals revealed that a total of 124 studies were published from 1983 to 2001. Results obtained from the survey showed that most clinical studies using acupuncture, electric acupuncture, moxibustion and other traditional therapies could alleviate a relatively broad range of medical problems. However, it should be emphasized that almost all clinical case studies published in various local journals did not follow the 'good clinical practice' with respect to regulatory aspects. Since they were not conducted using the randomized double-blinded controls with a large sample size, all the results should be considered as therapeutic indications. This review is an attempt to show the scope of acupuncture in our country and the kind of diseases, after many years of clinical experience, that were deemed valid targets for clinical trials.