Trial Information

A Phase I Study of Suberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid (Vorinostat) (NSC 701852) in Combination With Docetaxel in Patients With Advanced and Relapsed Solid Malignancies

Vorinostat (also known as Suberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid) is a new investigational drug
that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This drug has shown promising
activity against a number of cancers. We want to determine if treatment with vorinostat in
combination with a standard type of chemotherapy (docetaxel [Taxotere™]) is safe and
possibly better than treatment with docetaxel alone. We also want to find out more about
how patients and the cancer will react to the drugs, what happens to vorinostat in the human
body (how your body reacts to this drug and breaks it down) and about its side effects when
used in combination with chemotherapy (docetaxel).

The purpose of this study is to:

- Test the safety of the research study drug, vorinostat

- To determine if any toxicities or severe side effects occur when combining vorinostat
with docetaxel (a standard chemotherapy treatment)

- To study how your body takes in, breaks down and responds to vorinostat

- To obtain more evidence of the ability of vorinostat to react against cancer, such as
the kind that you have.

The use of vorinostat in combination with chemotherapy such as docetaxel may result in
improved response of the cancer to treatment. Indeed, vorinostat may have an added benefit
with docetaxel by promoting cancer cell death. This is because both drugs can interfere
with the ability of the cancer to grow, although the way vorinostat does this is not clearly
defined. Vorinostat and docetaxel both can disrupt the cancer's ability to produce daughter
cancer cells and therefore, the administration of vorinostat before docetaxel is hoped to be
better then either drug alone.