Active clinical trials for "Brain Neoplasms"

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety of this new treatment offered in this study. PCNSL can be cured in less than half of patients with standard treatment, a combination of chemotherapy and brain radiation. Also, the combination of chemotherapy and brain radiation may result in serious lasting side effects. Most patients older than age 60 develop memory problems, difficulty walking or inability to control their bladder. Some patients younger than age 60 also develop these side effects.

Combidex (ferumoxtran-10) is an ultra-small iron oxide particle covered with a sugar coating. It has been evaluated as an MRI contrast agent for use in imaging well perfused organs such as the liver and spleen and for imaging lymph nodes. In this study, Combidex is being used to compare the standard imaging agent, Gadolinium, in imaging brain tumors and the area adjacent to the tumor location. Combidex may provide the ability to better see brain tumors and inflammatory lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Combidex may be useful in its ability to cross blood vessels into brain tumors, and because of its size and ability to get into the area next to brain tumors, could assist in the treatment of brain tumors with other drugs in the future.

Meningiomas account for 20% of primary adult brain tumors, occurring at an annual incidence of 6 per 100,000 (Louis, Scheithauer et al. 2000). Complete surgical resection is the treatment of choice but may not possible when the tumor invades critical structures (e.g., skull base, sagittal sinus) (Mirimanoff, Dosoretz et al. 1985; al-Rodhan and Laws 1990; Al-Rodhan and Laws 1991; Newman 1994; De Monte 1995; Levine, Buchanan et al. 1999; Barnett, Suh et al. 2000; Ragel and Jensen 2003). Up to 20% of meningiomas exhibit a more aggressive phenotype that does not respond to standard therapies (Kyritsis 1996). Adjuvant therapies are critical for patients with this subset of meningiomas. Radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery are good adjuvant therapies but are limited by radiation neurotoxicity, tumor size constraints, and injury to adjacent vascular structures or cranial nerves (Goldsmith, Wara et al. 1994; Barnett, Suh et al. 2000; Goldsmith and Larson 2000). Standard chemotherapeutic treatments have been disappointing (Kyritsis 1996). Even drugs like temozolomide that have shown efficacy against malignant brain tumors have failed to inhibit the growth of refractory meningiomas in a phase II study (Chamberlain, Tsao-Wei et al. 2004).

This is a single center Phase I study to determine the safety and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of autologous dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with allogeneic brain tumor stem cells administered as a vaccination in children and adults with recurrent brain tumors. Once the MTD has been determined, we will conduct a phase II study to determine efficacy. Clinical trials that utilize DCs for immunotherapy have demonstrated significant survival benefit for patients who exhibit robust immune responses against tumor cells. Unfortunately, at the present time the majority of tumor patients are unable to mount an adequate immune response and thus succumb to their tumors. We postulate that the inability to generate an appropriate immune response in these patients is due to a lack of sufficient numbers of appropriate T cells due to an inadequate source of tumor antigens.

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of 2B3-101 both as single agent and in combination with trastuzumab. Furthermore, the study will explore the preliminary antitumor activity of 2B3-101 as single agent in patients with with solid tumors and brain metastases or recurrent malignant glioma as well as in patients with various forms of breast cancer with and in combination with trastuzumab in HER2+ breast cancer patients with brain metastases.

This open-label, single-arm, multicenter study will evaluate the efficacy and safety in participants with metastatic melanoma who developed brain metastases. Participants may or may not have received prior systemic treatment for metastatic melanoma [except treatment with v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B (BRAF) or mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitors]. Participants will receive oral doses of 960 mg vemurafenib twice daily until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or consent withdrawal.

This was an open-label, multicenter, single-arm, Phase II trial of bevacizumab combined with first- or second-line therapy in patients with metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with previously treated central nervous system (CNS) metastases. A total of 115 patients enrolled in the study.

This study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of SU011248 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastases.

RATIONALE: Lapatinib ditosylate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as capecitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving lapatinib ditosylate together with capecitabine may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving lapatinib ditosylate together with capecitabine works in treating patients with stage IV breast cancer and brain metastases.

The purpose of this research study is to determine how well the combination of bevacizumab and carboplatin works in treating breast cancer that has spread to the brain. Bevacizumab is an antibody (a protein that attacks a foreign substance in the body) that is made in the laboratory. Bevacizumab works differently from the way chemotherapy drugs work. Usually chemotherapy drugs attack fast growing cancer cells in the body. Bevacizumab works to slow or stop the growth of cells in cancer tumors by decreasing the blood supply to the tumors. When the blood supply is decreased, the tumors don't get the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow. Carboplatin is in a class of drugs known as platinum-containing compounds and has been approved for use in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Information from other research studies suggests that the combination of bevacizumab with carboplatin may be effective in treating breast cancer.