Active clinical trials for "Carcinoma, Squamous Cell"

This laboratory study is collecting tumor tissue and blood samples from patients with gynecologic tumors. Collecting and storing samples of tumor tissue and blood from patients with cancer to study in the laboratory may help in the study of cancer.

Patients with HNSCC represent a high-risk group for the development of SESCC. Thus, esophagogastrofibroscopy should be performed to detect possible synchronous esophageal carcinomas in these patients. Although only two patients with synchronous primary carcinomas were found among the patients with newly diagnosed HNSCC in this study, esophagoscopy and better some of advanced endoscopic methods should be recommended after detection of HNSCC to exclude secondary esophageal carcinoma or dysplasia. Staining of the esophagus with Lugol's solution is an easy and inexpensive option and can be done in most of gastroenterology offices.

Hypoxia imaging has not been studied extensively by combining PET and MRI data. Few studies performed the double imaging and none associated anatomopathology with it . This study will use a rigorous methodology through the production of PET/MRI images at the same time by transferring the patient directly from PET to MRI. In addition, the population, unlike other studies, will include preoperative patients with 24-hour surgery for hypoxia imaging by obtaining additional data through specific immunohistochemical analysis of hypoxia.

The rationale for this study proposal is derived from previous case series demonstrating that up to 60% of patients with HNSCC, especially in the oropharynx are associated with high risk HPV infection. In this study, we will characterize the association between HPV infection and HNSCC in Israel and establish a program for its diagnosis and management based on HPV as a biomarker. The rationale for the proposed research is that once it is known which types of HPV are associated with HNSCC, this information can be used to direct diagnosis and screening effort to high risk population. Our approach is based on establishing a multicenter consortium of leading researchers that will establish a joint database of demographic, clinical and biological data from various regions in Israel. For this we have assembled a multidisciplinary research team with the scope and breath (surgical oncology, pathology, virology and molecular biology) needed to complete all phases of the research successfully. The research will be coordinated and performed at the Applied Cancer Research Laboratory, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The patients will be recruited from 7 tertiary medical centers in Israel: Ichilov, Bellinson, Hadassa, Rambam, Soroka, Sheba and Nazeret..

Head and neck cancer (HNC) continues to be a significant health care problem in Taiwan and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the common subtype. With the concern of organ preservation in recent years, concurrent chemoradiation is the major treatment modality for oropharyngeal SCC. Endoscopy with biopsy serve as the main diagnostic tools in patients with oropharyngeal SCC. While computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are commonly used to evaluate the tumor extent of HNC, MRI is more preferred in the oropharyngeal area by virtue of its high contrast resolution. With the advance of MRI technology, whole body MRI is now possible, and functional techniques become more feasible in the head and neck region, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) which comprises of monoexponential DWI, IVIM (intravoxel incoherent motion) model and Kurtosis (biexponential or non-Gaussian fitting), and perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) become feasible. Therefore, MRI can evaluate distant site status of HNC in the single examination session and provide biologic information of tumors, such as cellularity, angiogenesis and permeability, and so forth. Positron emission tomography/CT (PET/CT) is another common imaging modality to evaluate HNC, because of its ability to provide whole-body anatomic and metabolic information. Integrated PET/MRI is a novel imaging technology that combines PET and MRI in one single scanner. It can acquire both PET and MRI information simultaneously. Initial data convey that PET/MRI performed favorably in diagnostic evaluation of HNC. However, the predictive value of PET/MRI in treatment outcome of HNC has not been reported. A prospective study of integrated PET/MRI in a large cohort of patients with specific tumor origin and uniform treatment protocol is needed to fully validate the clinical usefulness of this novel integrated system. In this 3-year prospective study, the investigators will take the advantages of integrated PET/MRI scanner with diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion weighted MRI (DCE-PWI) to evaluate our 160 patients with oropharyngeal SCC subjected to chemoradiation. Non-contrast chest CT will also be performed on the same day. The investigators aim to (1) determine whole-body staging/restaging accurately, (2) predict treatment response and prognosis, and (3) to determine necessity of noncontrast chest CT. The investigators expect that this project will offer the validation of usefulness of integrated PET/MRI in tumor staging/restaging of oropharyngeal SCC and resultant clinical impact. The role of noncontrast chest in the workup with our PET/MRI protocol can be defined. It will also provide evidence about how and to what extent the various simultaneously acquired MRI and PET functional parameters can help prediction of treatment response and prognosis, which are important in timely modification of treatment regimen.

The goal of this study is to determine the optical spectroscopy characteristics of tumor in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). HNSCC constitutes over 90% of all head and neck cancers. These spectroscopy measurements will be compared with pathological diagnosis of tissue biopsies from the same site. These readings will be performed in the operating room during routine endoscopy with biopsy and tumor mapping of patients who have a suspected squamous cell carcinoma of the head and/or neck. Furthermore, a built in pressure sensor will be used to compare biopsy sites with their benign counterparts. If successful, the optical measurements could be used to survey for and delineate the extent of malignancies in a noninvasive manner. This would be especially helpful for clinic visits where suspicious lesions are seen and would otherwise require biopsy for diagnosis. Immediate benefits would include patients with unknown primaries in which numerous directed biopsies are obtained from multiple head and neck sites.

The study's aim is to determinate the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome after treatment by combined chemoradiotherapy in a locally advanced stages treated population of oropharyngeal cancer. Indeed, the level of knowledge about the consequences of oropharyngeal cancer treatment on sleep quality remains poor but the few studies published on the subject suggest an increased risk of development of OSAHS for these patients.

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the seventh most frequently diagnosed cancers and the sixth leading causes of cancer death worldwide . It is one of the most common malignancy in China, with the third highest morbidity and mortality rate. More than 90% of patients with EC in China have esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) followed by surgery is currently widely used strategy for locally advanced surgical EC. At present, conventional imaging methods have certain defects (focus only on the volume change) in the evaluation of the efficacy of nCRT. Whereas functional imaging can more comprehensively reflect the biological and microstructural characterization of tumors. The changes of these aspects of tumors can be observed earlier than volumetric changes of tumors. The normal metabolism of the body is the basis for ensuring life activities. Due to the increased energy demand and proliferation of tumor tissue in patients with cancer, the metabolism of patients is different from that of normal person. Thus, the metabolic alterations seen in cancer cells have emerged as one of the hallmarks of cancer. Previous metabolomic studies have demonstrated various metabolic alterations in patients with ESCC. Many metabolites have been found to be promising diagnostic, staging or prognostic biomarkers for ESCC. However, there are few studies on metabolic markers on the chemoradiation sensitivity of esophageal cancer. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the value of functional imaging parameters and metabolic markers in assessing and predicting pathological response in patients who underwent nCRT for ESCC.

Translocator protein (TSPO) is a intracellular protein that is found primarily in the outer membrane of the mitochondria that is encoded by the TSPO gene. It has been found that TSPO expression in the skin correlates with cell proliferation and differentiation. Many studies have shown that TSPO overexpression in solid malignancies such as in ovarian cancer, colon cancer, and others, was also found to correlate with more aggressive cancer behavior. Working Hypothesis and Aims: Previous studies described an aberrant expression of TSPO levels in solid malignancies as compared to normal tissues. It is assumed that this aberration can be found in cuntaneous malignancies as well. The occurrence of this aberration may lead to the understanding of the mechanism of TSPO involment in the cutaneous malignancy, and in malignancies in general. Methods: The study will be carried out on surgically resected skin lesions suspected to SCC or BCC, which will be removed as part of the surgical routine treatment. The excision will be made in elliptic shape including the lesion and a part of normal skin surrounding it. A sample will be taken from the central part of the lesion and from the external extremity of the normal tissue. Western Blot will be conducted to detect the expression of TSPO. Binding activity with the TSPO specific ligandwill also be determined. Expected Results: We expect to observe either (a) a higher level of TSPO expression and a lower binding activity in malignant tissue compared with healthy control tissue or (b) a higher level of TSPO expression and a lower binding activity in malignant tissue compared with healthy control tissue. Importance: Until today, only a very small number of studies have examined TSPO in cutaneous malignancies, and these only examined TSPO expression. Our study will also measure the binding activity of TSPO in cutaneous malignant tissues compared to normal tissues

Known risk factors inducing squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck are tabacco and alcohol intake. However, the incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) related oropharyngeal carcinomas is increasing. It is known that HPV+ and HPV- tumors have a different reaction to (chemo)radiotherapy. The exact mechanisms underlying these differences is not yet known but might be caused by changes in vascularity. Therefore the vasculature is imaged with the help of a study specific Gallium-68-DOTA-(RGD)2 PET/CT scan and a CT perfusion scan.