Active clinical trials for "Brain Neoplasms"

As treatments improve and patients live longer with cancer, even after it has spread to the brain, efforts to improve quality of life are growing. Neurocognitive function (thinking ability and memory) is an area of particular concern for patients with brain metastases (cancer that can spread to the brain). Although there are established tests to measure neurocognitive function, these require a face-to-face assessment and can take a long time to complete. As a result, efforts to use these tests to measure changes in neurocognitive function in patients following treatment for brain metastases have resulted in a large proportion of patients who do not return for follow-up. This has limited the ability to evaluate the impact of current treatments on neurocognitive function. This study aims to evaluate a shorter, telephone-based neurocognitive assessment tool, which would make it easier for patients to complete these tests in follow-up. If this new tool is found to reliably measure neurocognitive function, it could be used for future studies evaluating new interventions that prevent or treat neurocognitive deterioration following treatment of brain metastases. This is the first prospective study to evaluate the feasibility and reliability of a novel telephone-based brief neurocognitive assessment battery (Toronto BNB) compared with the same battery delivered face-to-face in this population. The investigators hypothesize that telephone administration of this brief neurocognitive battery will reliably evaluate neurocognitive function and improve patient ability to complete follow-up assessments.

One of the aim of the neurosurgical treatment of brain tumor is to offer the maximal resection with the minimal neurological risk. The presurgical mapping of eloquent areas with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is helpful to plan the surgery. BOLD fMRI is now the gold standard to map language areas. However, BOLD signal is diminished near the brain tumor. It is now possible to detect cortical activation with arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques, detecting variations of perfusion during an activation paradigm (fASL), fASL could be interesting to detect eloquent areas near a brain tumor.

The goal of this study is to create a comprehensive database of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and of pathology for patients with brain tumors. Both standard, advanced, and research MRI components may be included, these will be analyzed in comparison with pathology results if/when a biopsy is obtained, and also used to predict/evaluate responses to therapy. This study will create a database of de-identified MRI images which include these techniques so that brain tumors can be studied over time (longitudinally) in an organized manner.

The purpose of this study is to collect and store brain tissue samples and blood from children with brain cancer that will be tested in the laboratory. Collecting and storing samples of tumor tissue and blood from patients to test in the laboratory may help the study of cancer in the future.

There is ample evidence that children treated for a brain tumour (BT) often develop deficits in social and emotional functioning. The investigators wish to examine the cause of these deficits, i.e. the underlying neuropsychological deficit(s). The aim is to study impairment and developmental delay in social cognition (and related cognitive functions) caused by brain damage in patients treated for a BT in childhood as compared to a reference group of chronically ill children. If we can identify the specific deficits these patients experience, neuropsychological treatment and guidance can be developed to give patients the most optimal chances to live as normal as possible, to improve their quality of life (QoL) and to prevent them from developing depression and anxiety. Eventually, an intervention programme could be developed based on our results, to improve social, vocational and emotional QoL.

The primary objective is to evaluate and quantify the reproducibility of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) maps of the eloquent brain areas corresponding to specific neurological functions based on activation maps obtained with different thresholds in patients with benign and biopsy proven low-grade brain neoplasms. Another objective is to access the impairment in neurological function in image guided intracranial radiotherapy using neurocognitive assessment tools and to derive dose response curves relating the impairment in a particular neurological function to the FED received by the area of eloquent brain corresponding to it.

Increasing magnetic field is known to give improvements in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and spectral resolution. To investigate this, spectra from different subjects were examined using two clinical MR instruments operating at 1.5T and 3T respectively.

To investigate the effect of radiotherapy on peripheral blood immune cell composition and function in pediatric malignant brain tumor patients.

In general, brain metastases found after development of neurologic symptoms have poor prognosis. Therefore, the investigators aim to investigate whether regular brain MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) can detect early brain metastases and influence survival through early brain management in HER2-positive and triple negative breast cancer.

Aim of this study is to investigate the influence of social factors on participation and activity among children and adolescents aged 10-18 years with leukemia, brain tumors, and sarcomas. Furthermore personal and treatment-related factors and their impact on participation will be explored