Small Bowel Cancer

Clinical Trials

Below is a list of Small Bowel Cancer clinical trials from the clinical trials database at Mayo Clinic.

This list includes only trials about which Mayo researchers choose to publish information. Mayo Clinic may be conducting other trials which are not in this database. Mayo's clinical trials include experimental treatments, often unavailable elsewhere, which frequently lead to improved patient care for people worldwide. Patients should ask their doctor at Mayo about clinical trials appropriate for their situation.

A Phase 2 Trial of Irinotecan (Camptostar, CPT-11), Oxaliplatin, and Capecitabine (Xeloda) as First-Line Treatment for Advanced Small Intestine Cancer
Adenocarcinoma of the small bowel is a rare form of cancer. At this time, there is no standard treatment known to make it better. A small study was done and that study showed that combining the drugs irinotecan, oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and leucovorin made tumors get smaller in some patients whose cancer had spread to other parts of their body. In another study, though, this treatment caused some bad side effects. This new study has included a change of the 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin to a similar oral medication called capecitabine. It also tests one of the patient's genes to determine the dose of chemotherapy to be used. The investigators made these changes to try to make the drug combination safer for use in patients.
The main purpose of this research study is to see if small bowel cancer tumors get smaller when treated with irinotecan, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine (a newer, oral form of 5-fluorouracil) based on the dose of the medications determined by a gene called UGT1A1. The researchers will also look at what the side effects of the chemotherapy drugs are.


The gene UGT1A1 makes a protein that affects how the chemotherapy drugs, especially the irinotecan, affect a patient's body. People with certain type of the UGT1A1 are more likely to get the side effects from one of the drugs, irinotecan. In this research study, the researchers will test a sample of the patient's blood to find out what type of UGT1A1 they have and that will help the researchers decide what dose of the chemotherapy drugs to give the patient. People with different UGT1A1 types will get different doses of this chemotherapy.

Part of the purpose of this research study is to try two different ways to help patients have fewer side effects when irinotecan, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine are used together.
- The researchers will look to see if giving different doses of this chemotherapy to patients with different UGT1A1 types will cause fewer side effects. The dose may affect how bad the side effects are.
- The researchers will use the newer version of 5-fluorouracil called capecitabine. Capecitabine is a tablet that will be taken by mouth instead being injected into a vein.
Also, the research staff want to find out if this chemotherapy works better in some types of small bowel tumors than others. Tumor types may be different, for example, because of where in the small intestine the tumor started or because of errors in the DNA. The researchers will look to see if patients with small bowel cancer also have another disease called celiac disease (also called sprue) and how that affects treatment. The research staff will look at patients blood samples and tissue samples to find out what type of small bowel tumor the patient has and whether or not they also have celiac disease.
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