Active clinical trials for "Brain Neoplasms"

During gamma scalpel treatment of brain tumors and metastases, a follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is performed. The radiologist who reviews the MRI assesses whether there is an increase in signal at the tumor site. This increase potentially indicates that the treatment was not effective. However, in 25% of cases (one in four people), this signal enhancement is not due to ineffective treatment, but to inflammation (swelling/damage) and tissue death around the tumor. This is why when an increase in signal is detected, additional follow-up is essential. The standard additional follow-up has an accuracy of about 83%. This is an observational study on patients with brain metastatis comparing MRI alone or combined to PET-FET to improve accuracy of diagnosis of metastasis recurrence.

This trial is evaluating the anti-tumor activity and side effects of panobinostat in treating patients with osteosarcoma, malignant rhabdoid tumor/atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (MRT/ATRT), and neuroblastoma.

The purpose of this research study is to develop and test a new communication training to help caregivers communicate more effectively with their loved ones and healthcare professionals about advanced care planning.

Up to 50% of patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma will develop brain metastases during their lifetime. A possible treatment options for patients with brain metastases are surgery and radiotherapy but usually for lesions in the range of < 3 brain metastases. This study was performed to evaluate the addition of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with stage IV melanoma with > 3 symptomatic brain metastases, who are not eligible for surgery or radiosurgery.

This phase II study will evaluate the safety of combining intermediate frequency electric field (TT Field) with immunotherapy in melanoma patients with brain metastasis. The data of this study will also inform whether this combination will offer advantage in progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival.

All patients will complete best standard of care radiation, temozolomide and bevacizumab (6 weeks). Within two weeks of completion of this initial treatment period, study patients will be fitted with the NovoTTF-100A System and treated continuously. They will be treated with TTFields for 12 months for an average of 18 hours per day. The patient may elect to take a treatment break for a total of 3 days per month, for each month and still be in compliance. This will consist of wearing four electrically insulated electrode arrays on the head. The patients will also continue with maintenance temozolomide/ bevacizumab.

This protocol is designed to generate and provide preliminary data to determine the safety and activity of combination therapy using tumor treating fields (TTFields; Optune(NovoTTF-100A); Novocure, Haifa, Israel), a novel FDA-approved therapy utilizing alternating electric fields to inhibit tumor cell growth, along with bevacizumab (Avastin; Genentech, San Francisco, CA), a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy, a highly-focal abbreviated course of brain irradiation, in the treatment of patients with bevacizumab-naive recurrent GBM. Each of these individual therapies, and also several combinations in doublets, has already demonstrated safety and efficacy but prospective clinical data for the concurrent combination of all three therapies are lacking.

This pilot phase II trial studies how well Novocure's Tumor Treating Electric Fields (NovoTTF) therapy works in treating patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. NovoTTF therapy uses a low intensity electric current to kill tumor cells. NovoTTF therapy may be effective treatment for brain cancer.

This study is being done to determine if an investigational cancer treatment called vorinostat combined with fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (FSRT) is effective in treating recurrent high grade gliomas. The main goal of this research study is to determine the highest dose of vorinostat that can be given to patients with recurrent tumors. The study will also determine the potential side effects and safety of these treatment combinations. Vorinostat is a small molecule inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC). HDAC inhibitors help unravel the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the cancer cells and make them more susceptible to the treatment with radiation.

Patients have a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme. Because most GBMs come back after standard therapy, patients are being asked to volunteer to take part in a research study using special immune cells. They may have already thought about being in this study. Some patients with GBM show evidence of infection with a virus called Cytomegalovirus before the time of their diagnosis. CMV is found in the cancer cells of some patients with GBM, suggesting that it may play a role in causing the disease. The cancer cells infected by CMV are able to hide from the body's immune system and escape destruction. We want to see if special white blood cells, called T cells, that have been trained to recognize and kill special parts of CMV infected cells can survive in the blood and affect the tumor. We have used this sort of therapy to treat different types of cancer that are positive for other viruses and have had variable results. Some patients have had responses others did not. It is not possible for us to predict if this treatment will work for GBM. The purpose of this study is to find the largest safe dose of CMV-T cells, to learn what the side effects are, and to see whether this therapy might help patients with GBM.