Active clinical trials for "Neoplasms"

In this project the main focus is on assessing sexual functioning and the quality of sexual life after the treatment of colorectal cancer in patients and their partners. Patients and their partners complete questionnaires concerning sexual functioning, quality of life, body image, fatigue, anxiety, depressive symptoms, personality factors, and demographic factors. Questionnaires are completed before surgical treatment, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after diagnosis. The results of this prospective study will give insight in 1) the incidence of sexual problems and the extent patients with colorectal cancer and their partners are bothered by these problems across time, 2) the effect of different treatment modalities on sexual functioning, 3) the relation between sexual problems and quality of life, 4) the determinants of sexual problems and the quality of sexual life adopting the biopsychosocial approach of patients with colorectal cancer who have been treated with surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy, and more specifically to the role of personality and patient factors and sexual functioning/the quality of sexual life.

Lung cancer remains the most common cause of cancer-related death in the world. The major advances in treatment of lung cancer have brought only minor improvements in survival therefore novel systemic treatment methods are urgently needed. Protein levels are regulated by the protein homeostasis network that generates and protects the protein fold (ER and Golgi included). The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is an essential molecular chaperon involved in the posttranslational folding and stability of proteins. Hsp90 inhibition leads to accumulation of unfolded proteins and ER stress. The therapeutic efficacy of such inhibition may be augmented by co-administering it with other drugs that disrupt ER-Golgi homeostasis like histone deacetylase (HDAC) or proteasome inhibitors. ER-Golgi homeostasis disruption affects a wide network of proteins and pathways as such affords a systemic target. Thus, the investigators aimed to examine the effect of combined treatment of Hsp90 antagonist with proteasome or HDAC inhibitors on human lung cancer cell lines and primary cells.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in southern China and Southeast Asia. While infection with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is believed to be necessary for the development of NPC, non-viral environmental factors have also been implicated to increase the risk of NPC including consumption of salted fish and other nitrosamine containing preserved foods, formaldehyde and wood dust exposure, and cigarette smoking. In addition to environmental factors, it is widely accepted that genetic susceptibility also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of NPC. Polymorphisms in genes involved in nitrosamine metabolism and DNA repair have been suggested to be associated with NPC risk, and various chromosomal regions linked to NPC development have been reported. These associations highlight the role of both environmental and genomic components in the etiology of NPC. There is a longstanding history of international collaborative studies to elucidate the role of environmental and genetic factors associated with NPC between investigators in Taiwan and the USA. A case-control study (375 cases; 327 controls) was conducted in the early 1990s, and a large multiplex family study that was completed in 2006 (358 families; 3,216 individuals). Results from these studies have provided some of the most comprehensive epidemiological evidence regarding factors linked to NPC development to date. As a next logical step, the opportunity now exists to undertake a genome-wide association study of NPC in Taiwan with carefully collected environmental exposure data to systematically examine environmental and genetic factors associated with NPC, and to evaluate gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. The investigators propose a case-control study of 2000 NPC cases (both retrospective [n=800] and prospective [n=1,200]) and 2,000 age-gender-matched hospital controls in northern Taiwan. The study objectives are to: 1) evaluate putative environmental exposures and NPC; 2) assess the effect of genetic factors, including both single nucleotide polymorphism and copy number variation through analysis of both main effect and gene-gene interaction; 3) investigate gene-environment interactions by testing for interactions between significant genome-wide genetic variations and EBV and other identified environmental risk factors; and 4) examine the natural history of EBV infection.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a relatively new modality for the treatment of superficial gastrointestinal neoplasia and especially in the diagnosis and treatment of submucosal tumors. ESD has become a minimal invasive alternative to surgery but requires a high degree of endoscopic skills to be performed safely, it is time consuming, and less safe than endoscopic mucosa resection. New endoscopic instruments have been developed to increase the efficacy and safety of ESD, and a combined endoscopic instrument (HybridKnife) has been developed and evaluated with promising results in animal studies. This HybridKnife allows high-pressure water-jet (submucosal) dissection, as well as cutting and coagulation and makes ESD possible without changing instrument. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and safety of using HybridKnife for ESD in humans.

RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of tumor tissue, blood, bone marrow, and other body fluids from patients to test in the laboratory and collecting information about the patient's health and treatment may help doctors learn more about cancer and help the study of cancer in the future. Studying these samples in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. It may also help doctors predict how patients will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This research study is collecting and looking at blood and tissue samples in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Asparaginase is an important drug i the treatment of childhood leukaemia. The aim of this project is to study the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and antibody development and hypersensitivity reactions during prolonged PEG-asparaginase treatment. Study part 1) Asparaginase pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics during prolonged PEG-asparaginase treatment: A NOPHO ALL-2008 study Study part 2) Asparagine depletion in cerebrospinal fluid: A NOPHO ALL-2008 study Study part 3) A characterization of PEG-asparaginase hypersensitivity in children treated according to the NOPHO ALL 2008 protocol Perspectives: New knowledge about PEG-asparaginase treatment regarding dosing, dosing interval, adverse effects and EFS, which may lead to improved future therapy Patients: Children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the Nordic Countries

The purpose of this study is to provide educational material to promote screening for second primary cancer for the intervention group, or educational material to instruct appropriate use of dietary supplement for the control group.

In suspecting pancreatic cancer, dynamic phase pancreatic CT is the most effective tool in diagnosis and staging. In addition, magnetic resolution image, endoscopic ultrasonography, endoscopic retrograde pancreatography, angiography can be performed. After introduction of functional image, PET has been suggested in the role of diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, recently fused images of PET and CT were available. In this study, the researchers evaluate the role of integrated PET-CT in patients with pancreatic cancer and analysis the cost-effectiveness of the integrated PET-CT.

RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of sputum and tissue to study in the laboratory may help doctors identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is looking samples of sputum and tissue from lung cancer patients, participants at high risk for developing lung cancer, and from healthy volunteers (both smokers and non-smokers).

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood and tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and help doctors understand how patients respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is examining genes that affect disease outcome in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.