Active clinical trials for "Brain Neoplasms"

Background: - An important new area of brain tumor research is the development of tumor and brain stem cell lines. Successful growth of these cell lines requires obtaining large volumes of fresh tumor and brain tissue, which is best accomplished by harvesting whole brains from recently deceased patients. These cell lines will help researchers understand how these tumors develop and will also help identify new targets for treatment. Researchers are interested in conducting a pilot study of planned inpatient hospice care with timely brain tumor tissue harvest at the time of death. Objectives: To provide high-quality end of life inpatient hospice care for patients with untreatable brain tumors. To procure brain and tumor tissue shortly after time of death in order to derive viable tumor and neural stem cell lines for research purposes. Eligibility: Individuals at least 18 years of age who have an untreatable primary brain or central nervous system tumor, are able to give informed consent (either their own or through a designated power of attorney), and have agreed to a Do Not Resuscitate order and Consent for Autopsy as part of the end-of-life care plan. HIV-positive individuals or those suspected of having infectious cerebritis are not eligible because of the potential for contamination of brain tissue. Design: Participants will be enrolled in inpatient hospice admission to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center either from home or from an outside hospital once a study investigator estimates an expected survival of less than 2 weeks. Participants will receive palliative care at the Clinical Center. Care will be tailored to each participant depending on the information provided in the individual's end-of-life care plan. Supportive medications such as antiseizure medications and pain relievers will be administered as appropriate. At the time of death, researchers will follow standard procedures for notifying next of kin and will collect brain tissue and tumor samples from the deceased. Following tissue collection, the deceased will be released for autopsy and funeral procedures.

The purpose of this study is to monitor the amino acid uptake of brain tumors, before and during radiotherapy, with positron emission tomography.

This phase II trial studies ferumoxytol in the magnetic resonance imaging of pediatric patients with brain tumors. Magnetic resonance imaging using ferumoxytol may help in viewing a brain tumor and blood vessels in and around the tumor in a different way than the standard gadolinium-based contrast agent. Imaging with this experimental contrast agent may give doctors more information about tumor blood supply and the extent of the tumor itself.

The purpose of this study is the development of noninvasive (having no direct contact) detector and electronic system that will directly measure tumor blood flow rate.

This pilot clinical trial studies how well voxel based diffusion tensor imaging in predicting response in patients with brain metastases undergoing whole-brain radiation therapy or stereotactic radiosurgery. Voxel based diffusion tensor imaging (VB-DTI) may allow doctors to measure response to whole brain radiation therapy or stereotactic radiosurgery earlier than is possible with a standard magnetic resonance imaging. The earlier ability to measure response may allow for consideration of alternative therapies at an earlier stage.

This study will compare the use of two contrast agents to analyze blood flow characteristics of brain tumors.

This study aims to evaluate anatomical and functional changes during RT for patients receiving fractionated RT for brain tumors. Anatomical changes during RT will be registered and analyzed and if needed the radiotherapy plan will be modified for the individual patient. This means that the "to be irradiated volume" will be modified according to the shape changes of the tumor. The functional MRI sequences will be used to evaluate what parameters, and at which time point, are important for radiotherapy outcome.

Refractory epilepsy, meaning epilepsy that no longer responds to medication, is a common neurosurgical indication in children. In such cases, surgery is the treatment of choice. Complete resection of affected brain tissue is associated with highest probability of seizure freedom. However, epileptogenic brain tissue is visually identical to normal brain tissue, complicating complete resection. Modern investigative methods are of limited use. An important subjective assessment during surgery is that affected brain tissue feels stiffer, however there is presently no way to determine this without committing to resecting the affected area. It is hypothesized that intra-operative use of a tonometer (Diaton) will identify abnormal brain tissue stiffness in affected brain relative to normal brain. This will help identify stiffer brain regions without having to resect them. The objective is to determine if intra-operative use of a tonometer to measure brain tissue stiffness will offer additional precision in identifying epileptogenic lesions. In participants with refractory epilepsy, various locations on the cerebral cortex will be identified using standard pre-operative investigations like magnetic resonance imagin (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). These are areas of presumed normal and abnormal brain where the tonometer will be used during surgery to measure brain tissue stiffness. Brain tissue stiffness measurements will then be compared with results of routine pre-operative and intra-operative tests. Such comparisons will help determine if and to what extent intra-operative brain tissue stiffness measurements correlate with other tests and help identify epileptogenic brain tissue. 24 participants have already undergone intra-operative brain tonometry. Results in these participants are encouraging: abnormally high brain tissue stiffness measurements have consistently been identified and significantly associated with abnormal brain tissue. If the tonometer adequately identifies epileptogenic brain tissue through brain tissue stiffness measurements, it is possible that resection of identified tissue could lead to better post-operative outcomes, lowering seizure recurrences and neurological deficits.

The primary objective of this study is to detect and quantify tumor cells of high grade malignant gliomas and metastatic brain lesions both before and after initial surgical resection in a cohort of newly diagnosed patients.

This pilot clinical trial studies gallium Ga 68-edotreotide (68Ga-DOTATOC) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in finding brain tumors in younger patients. Diagnostic procedures, such as gallium Ga 68-edotreotide PET/CT imaging, may help find and diagnose brain tumors.