Active clinical trials for "Brain Neoplasms"

Patients suffering from malignancies in advanced stages often develop brain metastases, which limit both the life span and the quality of life. Therapy options for multiple brain metastases may vary and range from stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT), chemotherapy, immunotherapy to palliative best supportive care. Especially the efficacy and toxicity of SRS compared to WBRT in patients with extensive brain metastases (>4) is not yet clear but of incremental relevance in this seriously ill cohort with a limited life span. These health-impaired patients might especially profit from a less toxic treatment that is also time sparing with 1 or few sessions in SRS versus 10 sessions in WBRT. On the other hand, no compromises in efficacy want to be done.

Background. During the clinical course of patients with locoregionally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) who have undergone aggressive treatment, brain metastasis (BM) is a frequent seen pattern of disease relapse, which cannot be ignored. It still remains unresolved whether prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) via whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) should be recommended for NSCLC patients with stage III or pathologically nodal positive disease. Actually, PCI would significantly decrease the incidence of BM; however, potential WBRT-related neurocognitive function (NCF) sequelae are indeed a concern, which has made PCI seldom applied in clinical practice. In terms of the time course of WBRT-induced NCF decline, it might vary considerably according to the specific domains which are selected to be measured. Early neurocognitive decline principally involve impairments of episodic memory, which has been significantly associated with functions of the hippocampus. This study thus aims to explore the impact of PCI on the subsequent risk of developing BM and the multi-domain neurobehavioral functions in our eligible patients. Methods. Potentially eligible subjects are postoperative NSCLC patients with a status of pathologically nodal metastasis (pN+). Patients randomly assigned to the PCI arm will undergo the course of hippocampal-sparing PCI after they complete the fourth course of adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy. Radiotherapy dose will be 3000 cGy in 15 fractions during three weeks. Except for the administration of hippocampal-sparing PCI, patients assigned to the observation arm should receive the same baseline and follow-up brain imaging examinations and neurocognitive assessments as those in PCI arm. Accordingly, a battery of neuropsychological measures, which includes 7 standardized neuropsychological tests (e.g., executive functions, verbal & non-verbal memory, working memory, and psychomotor speed), is used to evaluate neurobehavioral functions for our registered patients. Expected results. This randomized controlled study aims to verify that the incidence of BM still can significantly be reduced by hippocampal-sparing PCI; additionally, NCF preservation regarding neurobehavioral assessments might also be achieved by hippocampal-sparing PCI as compared with the observation arm without PCI. No matter what the final results present, it is believed that this randomized controlled trial (RCT) will provide us solid evidence concerning the exact value of hippocampal-sparing PCI in our patient setting.

This research study is evaluating an investigational drug, an oncolytic virus called rQNestin34.5v.2. This research study is a Phase I clinical trial, which tests the safety of an investigational drug and also tries to define the appropriate dose of the investigational drug as a possible treatment for this diagnosis of recurrent or progressive brain tumor.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of administering the medication capecitabine along with temozolomide when you start your monthly regimen of oral temozolomide for the treatment of your newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Capecitabine is an oral chemotherapy that is given to patients with other types of cancer. The study will evaluate whether the dosage of 1500 mg/m2 of capecitabine is tolerable after radiation, when taken along with temozolomide. It will also try to determine if the medication capecitabine helps patients respond to treatment for a longer period of time compared to just temozolomide alone, which is the standard of care.

The goal of this clinical research study is to establish the safety of simultaneous infusions of methotrexate and etoposide into the fourth ventricle of the brain or resection cavity in patients with recurrent malignant posterior fossa brain tumors. These tumors include medulloblastoma, ependymoma, atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor or other malignant brain tumor with recurrence or progression involving anywhere in the brain and/or spine. Patients' disease must have originated in the posterior fossa of the brain.

This research study is studying two different types of radiation as treatment for brain metastases (tumors in the brain that spread from a cancer that originated elsewhere in the body)

This prospective 2-stage, non-randomized Phase 2 trial evaluates the safety and efficacy of FSRT for the management of hemorrhagic brain metastases

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a commonly used treatment for brain tumors. It is a one-day (or in some cases two day), out-patient procedure during which a high dose of radiation is delivered to small spots in the brain while excluding the surrounding normal brain. Whole brain radiation therapy with hippocampal avoidance (HA-WBRT) is when radiation therapy is given to the whole brain, while trying to decrease the amount of radiation that is delivered to the area of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a brain structure that is important for memory. Memantine is a drug that is given to help relieve symptoms that can be caused by WBRT, including problems with memory and other mental symptoms. Health Canada, the regulatory body that oversees the use of drugs in Canada, has not approved the sale or use of memantine in combination with WBRT to treat this kind of cancer, although they have allowed its use in this study.

This protocol is for a lead-in safety study of 5 patients followed by a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial of BMX-001, a new class of pharmaceutical, in 64 patients with multiple brain metastases (MBM) undergoing whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). Preliminary studies have demonstrated that BMX-001 provides protection of normal tissues from radiation-induced injury and augments tumor growth inhibition.

The trial is designed as a multicenter randomized controlled study. 246 patients with presumed Glioblastoma Multiforme in eloquent areas on diagnostic MRI will be selected by the neurosurgeons according the eligibility criteria (see under). After written informed consent is obtained, the patient will be randomized for an awake craniotomy (AC) (+/-123 patients) or craniotomy under general anesthesia (GA) (+/-123 patients), with 1:1 allocation ratio. Under GA the amount of resection of the tumour has to be performed within safe margins as judged by the surgeon during surgery. The second group will be operated with an awake craniotomy procedure where the resection boundaries for motor or language functions will be identified by direct cortical and subcortical stimulation. After surgery, the diagnosis of GBM will have to be histologically confirmed. If GBM is not histologically confirmed, patients will be considered off-study and withdrawn from the study. These patients will be followed-up according to standard practice. Thereafter, patients will receive the standard treatment with concomitant Temozolomide and radiation therapy and standard follow up. Total duration of the study is 5 years. Patient inclusion is expected to take 4 years. Follow-up is 1 year after surgery. Statistical analysis, cost benefit analysis and article writing will take 3 months.