Active clinical trials for "Glioblastoma"

RATIONALE: Everolimus may stop the growth of tumor cells by stopping blood flow to the tumor. Gefitinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for their growth. Combining everolimus with gefitinib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and best dose of everolimus when given together with gefitinib and to see how well they work in treating patients with progressive glioblastoma multiforme or (progressive metastatic prostate cancer closed to accrual 10/19/06).

Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining tipifarnib with radiation therapy in treating patients who have newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme. Tipifarnib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for tumor cell growth. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining tipifarnib with radiation therapy may make the tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy and may kill more tumor cells.

RATIONALE: Internal radiation uses radioactive material placed directly into or near a tumor to kill tumor cells. External-beam radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Combining internal radiation with external-beam radiation therapy may kill any remaining tumor cells following surgery. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of combining internal radiation therapy with external-beam radiation therapy in treating patients who have undergone surgery for glioblastoma multiforme.

Brain tumours are the leading cause of cancer deaths in children, men under the age of 45 and women under the age of 25. Glioblastoma is the most common and most malignant primary tumour. The predominant treatment is surgical removal of the tumour followed by radiotherapy. Sadly the majority of patients given this treatment develop recurrent and progressive disease. Better understanding of the invasive margin might improve outcomes by facilitating more complete surgical resection beyond the traditional contrast enhancing margins. Diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) is an imaging technique which may be able to predict the site of tumour recurrence. DTI has previously been shown to identify regions, which have been confirmed with biopsies, to be areas of invasive tumours and are present before progression is seen with an MRI. The primary aim of this study is to qualify an imaging biomarker that can be applied at initial presentation, that can accurately predict the site of where glioblastomas will progress after treatment and allow personalisation of both radiotherapy and surgical targets.

Fluorescence guidance is a safe and efficient tool for glioblastomas resection. The most widely used technique is based on 5-aminolevulinic acid (5ala), which stains glioblastoma cells through a metabolic abnormality and thus helps in defining tumoral edges through a modified microscope. A multicentric, randomized study comparing 5ala guided surgery with conventional procedures showed that this technique doubles the rate of complete removal on post-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and increases the 6 months progression-free survival. More recently, fluorescein appeared as an interesting alternative fluorophore for glioblastomas, with a highly reduced cost (2.5 euros versus 1000 euros per dose). However its use remains scarcely studied and its clinical benefit unsure. In that context, the investigators propose a randomized trial comparing conventional " white light " surgery with fluorescein-guided resection of glioblastomas, in order to assess the relevance of this technique in glioblastomas removal.

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the ability of a substance called arginine to improve the functioning of the immune system in people with a certain type of brain tumor. This could lead to improvements in a type of treatment for brain tumors called immunotherapy. The immune system includes organs, cells, and substances in the body that fight infection and disease. Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that uses the immune system as a tool to seek out and destroy abnormal cells. Immunotherapy requires that the immune system be working properly. Arginine is a normal component of protein (an amino acid) that we all consume in foods such as red meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products and that our bodies can make. Arginine helps the immune system function normally. Recent research has shown that certain types of brain tumors decrease the amount of arginine in the body leading to impaired immune system function. This may interfere with the ability of immunotherapy to fight abnormal cells. We would like to see if giving people with brain tumors arginine in powder form will make their immune systems work better.

The primary goal of this study is to determine if a stem cell transplant in patients with newly diagnosed high risk CNS tumors (glioblastoma multiforme [GBM], high grade astrocytoma, pineoblastoma, rhabdoid tumor, supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor [PNET]) increases overall survival.

IL13-PE38QQR is an oncology drug product consisting of IL13 (interleukin-13) and PE38QQR (a bacteria toxin). IL3-PE38QQR is a protein that exhibits cell killing activity against a variety of IL13 receptor-positive tumor cell lines indicating that it may show a therapeutic benefit. In reciprocal competition experiments, the interaction between IL13-PE38QQR and the IL13 receptors was shown to be highly specific for human glioma cells. IL13-PE38QQR will be infused in two courses of 96 hours each, eight weeks apart, directly into the malignant brain tumors of patients to determine the dose of drug these patients can tolerate. After that, the selected dose will be studied to give an estimate of the response rate, response duration, time to response, and survival after infusing that dose of IL13-PE38QQR into the recurrent malignant glioma.

The overall aim of this study is to prospectively characterize social health disparities in a cross-sectional cohort of glioma patients with attention to exploring and thematically categorizing the patient-specific and community-level factors. This will be conducted in two parts.

To determine if FDOPA-PET/MRI imaging can predict response to treatment of bevacizumab.