Active clinical trials for "Carcinoma"

Current treatments for limited stage small cell lung cancer have poor cure rates. The addition of chest radiation to chemotherapy improves cure rates, but these cancers still come back in the chest 30-50% of the time. Two factors which can improve control and cure rates for this cancer are increasing the chest radiation dose and minimizing the overall time it takes to complete radiation treatments. One method to achieve both of these goals is to give more radiation each day. This study is meant to study how tolerable and effective it would be to increase the intensity of chest radiation for small cell lung cancer patients by increasing the daily radiation dose. We aim to find the highest dose of chest radiotherapy that can be safely given with chemotherapy using this strategy. Patients in this trial will be monitored before, during and after their radiation and chemotherapy treatments for treatment side-effects, how effective treatments are at controlling their cancer and quality of life changes. Results from this trial will help to define more effective radiotherapy doses which are tolerable for this type of lung cancer and the quality of life changes patients experience when they undergo these treatments.

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of photodynamic therapy using HPPH in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for primary or recurrent head and neck cancer. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses a drug, such as HPPH, that becomes active when it is exposed to a certain kind of light. When the drug is active, tumor cells are killed. Giving photodynamic therapy after surgery may kill any tumor cells that remain after surgery.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is the selective destruction of abnormal cells through light activation of a photosensitiser in the presence of oxygen. These cells accumulate more photosensitiser than normal cells. The photosensitiser generates reactive oxygen species upon illumination. For skin diseases, there has been an increasing interest in using precursors of the endogenous photosensitiser protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). The most commonly used precursors have been 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and its derivatives. The present test drug, Metvix, contains the methyl ester of ALA, which penetrates the lesions well and shows high lesion selectivity. In vitro studies of animal and human tissues have shown significant intracellular formation of photoactive porphyrins after addition of Metvix. The increased photoactive porphyrins levels induced cytotoxic effects in tumour cells after photoactivation. The primary objective is to compare PDT with Metvix cream to PDT with placebo cream in terms of patient complete response rates based on histologically verified disappearance of the lesions at 6 months after last treatment cycle. Secondary objectives are to compare the two treatments in terms of histological and clinical mean patient response weighted by the number of lesions within a patient, lesion response rates across patients, clinical complete patient response, cosmetic outcome and adverse events.

The addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy (chemoradiation) has improved outcomes for patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck but additional improvements to treatment regimens are needed. The study is investigating if the addition of a targeted therapy (panitumumab) can improve the efficacy of chemoradiation without adding unmanageable toxicity.

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if the combination of 3 drugs (gemcitabine, capecitabine, and bevacizumab) can help to control metastatic or unresectable renal cell carcinoma. The safety of this drug combination will also be tested.

Primary Objectives: To determine the effect of a single dose of Herceptin (trastuzumab) on the proliferation rate of Her-2/neu over-expressing ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) To evaluate the effect of a single dose of Herceptin on the apoptotic index of Her-2/neu over-expressing DCIS

The goal of this clinical research is to learn acceptable dosages of paclitaxel, oxaliplatin, and Avastin (bevacizumab) that can be given in combination to patients with advanced peritoneal carcinomatosis. The safety of this drug combination will also be studied.

Combined the chemoembolization and Radiofrequency ablation for the hepatocellular carcinoma greater than 3 cm,the ablation volume of coagulation necrosis can be significantly increased,which may be enable effective treatment of patients with HCC greater than 3 cm.

This phase II trial is studying how well giving gemcitabine, paclitaxel, and doxorubicin together with pegfilgrastim works in treating patients with metastatic or unresectable bladder cancer or urinary tract cancer and kidney dysfunction. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine, paclitaxel, and doxorubicin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Colony stimulating factors, such as pegfilgrastim, may increase the number of immune cells found in bone marrow or peripheral blood and may help the immune system recover from the side effects of chemotherapy. Giving combination chemotherapy together with pegfilgrastim may kill more tumor cells. Chemotherapy drugs may have different effects in patients who have changes in their kidney function.

The purpose of this study is to see if preoperative administration of Sorafenib reduces the size of the primary kidney tumour in patients with metastatic disease undergoing cytoreductive surgery. The study will also assess the safety of preoperative Sorafenib. The study drug, Sorafenib, will be given to patients preoperatively for 12 weeks. After a 1 week washout period the patient will then have their nephrectomy (kidney removed). Approximately 6 weeks following their nephrectomy, patients will resume on study drug until disease progression.