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A Pilot Study of Ketogenic Diet and Metformin in Glioblastoma: Feasibility and Metabolic Imaging

Study Purpose

This clinical trial is for men and women with high-grade gliomas. Glucose (sugar) is thought to be a contributor to tumor growth. The ketogenic diet (a high fat, low carbohydrate diet) and metformin (a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes) are both known to lower blood glucose levels. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the tolerability of a ketogenic diet in conjunction with metformin and whether maintaining and the diet with metformin will have any effect on participants. Participants will prepare their own meals with the help of a nutritionist. Participants will continue on treatment as long as they are responding to therapy and not experiencing unacceptable side effects

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms

No
Study Type

An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes.


An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.


Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.

Interventional
Eligible Ages 18 Years and Over
Gender All
More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Patients must have histologically confirmed high-grade glioma (e.g. glioblastoma, gliosarcoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, anaplastic oligodendroglioma, anaplastic mixed glioma or other anaplastic gliomas). 2. Patients must have an MRI performed within 21 days prior to beginning the study diet and on a fixed dose of steroids for at least 5 days. If the steroid dose is increased between the date of imaging and registration, a new baseline MR/CT is required. 3. Patients must not have been exposed to bevacizumab. 4. Patients cannot be taking insulin or other oral hypoglycemic. Must be at least 6 weeks from last oral hypoglycemic or insulin. 5. Must not have known type 1 or type 2 diabetes and expected to need either insulin and/or an oral hypoglycemic agents within the next 6 months. 6. Patients must be >18 years old. 7. Karnofsky performance status >60%. 8. Life expectancy of greater than 12 weeks. 9. Patients must have normal organ and marrow function as defined below:
  • - Leukocytes >3,000/mcL.
  • - Absolute neutrophil count >1,000/mcL.
  • - Platelets >100,000/mcL.
  • - Total bilirubin <2.0 X institutional upper limit of normal (unless known to have Gilbert's Disease) - AST (SGOT)/ALT(SGPT) <2.5 X institutional upper limit of normal.
  • - Serum Glucose: < 200 mg/dL.
  • - Creatinine < 1.5 mg/dL (for males), < 1.4 mg/dL (for females), or within normal lab limits OR.
  • - Creatinine clearance >60 mL/min/1.73 m2 for patients with creatinine levels above institutional normal.
10. Patients must not have any significant medical illnesses that, in the investigator's opinion, cannot be adequately controlled with appropriate therapy or would compromise the patients' ability to tolerate this therapy. 11. Patients having undergone recent resection or progressive tumor will be eligible as long as all of the following conditions apply: 1. They have recovered from the effects of surgery. 2. On a steroid dosage that has been stable for at least 5 days. 3. Residual disease following resection of recurrent tumor is not mandated for eligibility into the study. To best assess the extent of residual disease postoperatively, a MRI should be done:
  • - No later than 96 hours in the immediate post-operative period or.
  • - At least 4 weeks post-operatively, and.
  • - Within 14 days of registration, and.
  • - If the 96-hour scan is more than 21 days before registration, the scan needs to be repeated.
If the steroid dose is increased between the date of imaging and registration, a new baseline MRI is required on a stable steroid dosage for at least 5 days. 12. Patients must have the ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patients who are receiving any other investigational agents. 2. Patients who have had prior therapy with bevacizumab and/or other VEGF inhibitors. 3. Patients who are taking insulin or other oral hypoglycemic. Must be at least 6 weeks from last oral hypoglycemic or insulin. 4. History of allergic reactions attributed to metformin. 5. Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, diabetes requiring oral hypoglycemic drugs and/or insulin, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements. 6. Patients known to have a malignancy that has required treatment in the last 12 months and/or is expected to require treatment in the next 12 months (except nonmelanoma skin cancer or carcinoma in-situ in the cervix). 7. The effects of a Ketogenic diet or metformin on the developing human fetus are unknown. For this reason, women of childbearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation. Should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she or her partner is participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately. 8. Patients with current alcoholism.

Trial Details

Trial ID:

This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.

NCT04691960
Phase

Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans.

Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data.

Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs.

Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.

Phase 2
Lead Sponsor

The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.

Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Principal Investigator

The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.

Howard Fine, MD
Principal Investigator Affiliation Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Agency Class

Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.

Other
Overall Status Recruiting
Countries United States
Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.

Glioblastoma
Arms & Interventions

Arms

Experimental: Ketogenic Diet

Interventions

Other: - Ketogenic Diet

Ketogenic diet is high-fat, low carbohydrate diet. Ketogenic diet will be maintained on a continuous basis. The diet will begin at an approximately 3:1 fat to carbohydrate + protein ratio for 5 days. If the patient does not show urine ketosis (1.5 mmol/L or 27.0 mg/dL), the ketosis diet will be advanced to approximately 4:1 ratio for 5 days. If the patient still does not attain ketosis a 24 hour fast will be done to promote ketosis. The diet will encourage at least 30 ml per day of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil to enhance ketosis.

Drug: - Metformin

Metformin will be administered as a single 850 mg dose P.O. at Week 8, then titrated up to 850 mg P.O. BID at Week 10, and then 850 mg T.I.D. at Week 12, as tolerated.

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.

Columbia University, New York, New York

Status

Recruiting

Address

Columbia University

New York, New York, 10032

Site Contact

Andrew B Lassman, MD

seh4006@med.cornell.edu

212-746-2225

Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York

Status

Recruiting

Address

Weill Cornell Medicine

New York, New York, 10065

Site Contact

Howard F Fine, MD

haf9016@med.cornell.edu

646-962-2185