Clinical Research Directory

DETERMINE Trial Treatment Arm 07: Dabrafenib in Combination With Trametinib in Adult, Paediatric and Teenage/Young Adult Patients With BRAF V600 Mutation-Positive Cancers.

This clinical trial is looking at two drugs called dabrafenib and trametinib. Dabrafenib and trametinib are approved as standard of care treatment for adult patients with melanoma (a type of skin cancer) or lung cancer and in children with glioma (a type of brain tumour). This means they have gone through clinical trials and been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK. Dabrafenib and trametinib work in patients with a particular mutation in their cancer known as BRAF V600. Investigators now wish to find out if they will be useful in treating patients with other cancer types which have the same mutation. If the results are positive, the study team will work with the NHS and the Cancer Drugs Fund to see if these drugs can be routinely accessed for patients in the future. This trial is part of a trial programme called DETERMINE. The programme will also look at other anti-cancer drugs in the same way, through matching the drug to rare cancer types or ones with specific mutations.

Modified LCH-III Regimen With or Without Luvometinib for Multisystem Pediatric Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is the most common histiocytic disorder in children, caused by excessive proliferation and accumulation of Langerhans cells (a type of immune cell) in various body tissues. The annual incidence is about 2.6-8.9 cases per million children.Clinical presentation varies widely. Mild (low-risk) cases may resolve spontaneously or cause minimal issues with excellent outcomes. Severe multisystem LCH involves multiple organs, particularly high-risk sites such as liver, spleen, or bone marrow, leading to poorer prognosis and potential life-threatening complications without appropriate treatment.Standard first-line therapy for many children is prednisone (a corticosteroid) plus vinblastine (chemotherapy). Trials like LCH-III show near-100% survival in low-risk disease, but long-term survival drops to \~80% in high-risk cases. Reactivation occurs in \~37% of low-risk patients post-treatment, and \~50% of children eventually develop resistance, resulting in progression or relapse. Treatment failure heightens risks of long-term sequelae, including growth retardation, endocrine dysfunction, and neurological damage, severely impacting quality of life. More than half of LCH cases harbor the BRAF V600E mutation, activating the MAPK pathway abnormally. This has driven development of targeted MAPK inhibitors (e.g., vemurafenib, dabrafenib, trametinib), which demonstrate strong efficacy and acceptable safety (mainly manageable skin rash) in relapsed/refractory pediatric cases, with no reported secondary malignancies to date. These agents provide rapid symptom relief and durable control, though monotherapy often fails to eradicate abnormal cells in multisystem disease, leading to relapse after discontinuation. No MAPK inhibitors were previously approved specifically for LCH. In 2025, luvometinib (developed by Fosun Pharma, China; a selective MEK1/2 inhibitor) received approval in China for adult LCH and histiocytic neoplasms. Adult studies showed \~83% objective response rate and \~74% progression-free at ≥12 months, with mostly mild side effects (skin issues, hypertriglyceridemia) and no discontinuations due to serious toxicity. Laboratory evidence indicates MAPK overactivation confers apoptosis resistance to LCH cells; combining MAPK inhibitors with chemotherapy may enhance cell killing and leverage chemotherapy-induced immune microenvironment changes for better clearance. Small studies and real-world data in refractory LCH support this: combination regimens yielded low relapse rates (especially with prolonged therapy), 100% responses in some pediatric cohorts with sustained remission and no added severe toxicity, and notably lower relapse (20% vs 75% with inhibitor alone) in our center's early experience with LCH-III backbone plus MAPK inhibitor. This multicenter randomized trial will enroll children with multisystem LCH, assigning them to modified standard LCH-III chemotherapy alone or the same regimen combined with luvometinib, to evaluate whether adding this targeted agent improves outcomes.

Luvometinib in Pediatric SS-LCH With Special-site Single/Multifocal Bone Lesions

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is the most common type of histiocytic disorder in children, affecting about 2.6 to 8.9 out of every million kids each year. It can look very different from one child to another-some cases get better on their own-but when it affects special bones (like the base of the skull, temporal bone, eye socket, or spine) or when there are multiple bone lesions in one system, children often face a higher risk of long-term complications and the disease coming back.Current guidelines in China and around the world recommend treating these children with whole-body therapy, usually a chemotherapy combination of vinblastine and prednisone. However, even with longer treatment courses, about 27.6% of children with multiple bone lesions still have the disease return, and less than 70% stay free of events after 5 years. Some even develop lasting nerve system problems. In recent years, researchers discovered that nearly all children with LCH have overactive MAPK signaling pathways in their cells. This discovery opened the door to using MAPK inhibitors as a new treatment. Studies have shown that these drugs work well and are safe for children with relapsed or hard-to-treat LCH. Even better, in some kids with single-system bone disease, the disease did not come back after stopping the drug-suggesting it might even cure certain cases. Luvometinib (also called FCN-159), a new MAPK inhibitor developed by Fosun Pharma in Shanghai, was approved in 2025 for treating adult LCH. A Phase II clinical study showed very encouraging results: 82.8% of patients saw their disease improve or disappear, and 74.4% stayed free of progression after 12 months. The drug was well tolerated, with side effects that were mild and manageable-no serious problems forced anyone to stop treatment.Compared to traditional chemotherapy, luvometinib has fewer and milder side effects, does not weaken the immune system, and lets children continue normal daily life and school. It is a simple oral pill taken once a day, so there's no need for intravenous lines or hospital stays, making treatment much easier and improving quality of life for both the child and the family.

Lenalidomide for Adult Histiocyte Disorders

This research study is studying a chemotherapy drug Lenalidomide as a possible treatment for one of three histiocyte disorders: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD), or histiocytic sarcoma (HS).

Efficacy and Safety of XTD Regimen (Selinexor, Thalidomide and Dexamethasone) in Adult Patients With Relapsed/Refractory LCH

In adult patients with relapsed/refractory Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), a treatment regimen of XTD regimen (Selinexor, Thalidomide and Dexamethasone) is planned to be used.

Mirdametinib in Histiocytic Disorders

The purpose of this study is to see if treatment with mirdametinib in patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) or other histiocytic disorders will be better than current treatments and with fewer side effects.

CD34+ (Non-Malignant) Stem Cell Selection for Patients Receiving Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

This study's goal is to determine the frequency and severity of acute graft versus host disease, to evaluate incidence of primary and secondary graft rejection, to assess event free survival and overall survival, to determine the time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment, to determine the time to immune reconstitution (including normalization of T, B and natural killer (NK) cell repertoire and Immunoglobulin G production), and to establish the incidence of infectious complications including bacterial, viral, fungal and atypical mycobacterial and other infections following CD34+ selection in children, adolescents and young adults receiving an allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplant from a family member or unrelated adult donor for a non-malignant disease.

Real-world Study of Darafenib or Trametinib and Clofarabine for High-risk/Recurrent/Refractory Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis in Children

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is the most common histiocytosis in children, with an incidence of 2.6-8.9 per million. It is an inflammatory myeloid tumor with varied symptoms. Mild cases often resolve spontaneously, while severe cases can affect multiple organs and be life-threatening. LCH affecting the liver, spleen, or hematopoietic system has a poor prognosis and is high-risk group. The LCH-III study showed that low-risk children respond well to prednisone and vinblastine, with nearly 100% survival, but high-risk children's survival is about 80%, with a 30% reactivation rate.Long-term studies reveal that about 50% of patients are resistant to prednisone and vinblastine, leading to progression and recurrence. Except combination of prednisone and vinblastine, cladribine (introduced in 1998) and MAPK inhibitors (introduced in 2014), have lowered the mortality rate of LCH in children. Cladribine, a nucleoside analogue, is used for treating recurrent acute myeloid leukemia in children by disrupting DNA synthesis. In the LCH-98-S regimen, low-risk children with LCH responded well to moderate doses of cladribine, but 44% of high-risk children still faced disease progression. Later studies showed that high-dose cladribine with medium-dose cytarabine increased survival in refractory LCH from 30% to 85%, but also raised chemotherapy toxicity, with some cases experiencing severe hematological toxicity and half of the deaths resulting from chemotherapy complications. Clofarabine, a nucleoside analogue, inhibits ribonucleotide reductase and DNA polymerase, offering stronger anti-tumor effects and fewer side effects than cladribine and fludarabine in treating refractory leukemia. Case reports show that LCH patients unresponsive to cladribine improve with clofarabine treatment at moderate doses (25mg/m2/day). A retrospective study of 58 LCH patients using clofarabine (25mg/m2/day) showed an 87% progression-free survival rate after one year. While the main side effect was grade 3 or higher hematological toxicity, 98.3% of patients tolerated it and completed treatment. Further prospective studies are needed to determine the optimal dose, duration, long-term efficacy, and complications of clofarabine in children with LCH. Research indicates that childhood LCH is often linked to mutations in MAPK pathway genes, with over half of cases involving BRAFV600E mutations. MAPK inhibitors, like vemurafenib, dabrafenib and trametinib, are effective for relapsed and refractory LCH, but they don't eliminate malignant clones, leading to disease reactivation after stopping treatment. Some BRAF-deficient mutation LCH patients resist vemurafenib and dabrafenib, but trametinib can manage the disease in these cases. Activation of the MAPK pathway increases BCL2L1 expression in LCH cells, and rapamycin fails to induce apoptosis in BRAFV600E+ LCH cells, enhancing resistance to cell death. MAPK inhibitors combined with chemotherapy are theoretically more effective at inducing apoptosis in LCH cells and resetting the immune environment to eliminate malignant clones. Two clinical studies confirm their safety and efficacy in treating refractory recurrent LCH. In a follow-up of 10 LCH cases treated with nucleotide analogues and MAPK inhibitors, only 2 patients relapsed after a short treatment duration. Additionally, 19 children with BRAFV600E mutation LCH were treated with cladribine, cytarabine, and vemurafenib, achieving a 100% response rate. Nearly 80% completed treatment without recurrence, and no increase in side effects was observed. Since 2020, our center treated nearly 40 LCH patients with MAPK inhibitors, including 14 combined with LCH-III chemotherapy. Follow-ups show no severe toxic side effects, aligning with literature. However, most high-risk patients, especially those who stopped oral MAPK inhibitors, had disease reactivation. Two high-risk patients with liver involvement achieved complete liver lesion regression with cladribine. This clinical study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of dabrafenib or trametinib and clofarabine for high-risk/recurrent/refractory LCH in children.