Active clinical trials for "Esophageal Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as irinotecan and cisplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Celecoxib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Giving chemotherapy and radiation therapy together with celecoxib may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving irinotecan and cisplatin together with radiation therapy with or without celecoxib works in treating patients with stage II, stage III, or stage IV esophageal cancer.

There is a need for more effective therapy for patients following surgery for esophageal carcinoma. Docetaxel and Irinotecan, independent of each other, have demonstrated activity in this disease. There is interest in the combination of these two active agents plus radiotherapy.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Giving combination chemotherapy with radiation therapy before surgery may shrink the tumor so it can be removed during surgery. It is not yet known if surgery is more effective with or without radiation therapy and chemotherapy in treating esophageal cancer. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of surgery with or without radiation therapy and chemotherapy in treating patients who have esophageal cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study of the effectiveness of combining docetaxel with capecitabine in treating patients who have metastatic cancer of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tezacitabine when given alone or in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to subjects who have advanced esophageal or gastric adenocarcinoma.

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the safety and feasibility of giving TNFerade™ with 5-FU, Cisplatin and radiation therapy to patients with locally advanced, esophageal cancer prior to surgical resection. TNFerade™ is a replication deficient (E1, E3 and E4 deleted) adenovirus vector containing the gene for TNF-alpha controlled by a radiation inducible promoter. This allows the expression of TNF-alpha to be greatest in the area receiving radiation. TNF-alpha is a potent cytokine that has been shown to have potent anti-cancer activities but, due to systemic toxicity, could not be delivered at effective doses. TNFerade™ is a novel way of selective delivery of TNF-alpha to tumor cells. TNFerade™ will be delivered once a week for five weeks by direct intratumoral injection by using endoscopy or Endoscopic Ultrasound. 5-FU (1000 mg/m2/day) will be delivered via continuous infusion for 96 hours during weeks 1 and 4. Cisplatin (75 mg/m2) will be delivered on Day 1 and Day 29 intravenously. The dose of radiation delivered will be 45 Gy in 1.8 Gy fractions for 5 weeks.

RATIONALE: Gefitinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well gefitinib works in treating patients with recurrent or metastatic esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as docetaxel, carboplatin, and capecitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more tumor cells. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Capecitabine may also make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Giving combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of docetaxel when given together with carboplatin and capecitabine followed by chemoradiotherapy in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for locally advanced esophageal cancer.

This study is being done to find out what effects a drug named/called bevacizumab has on patients and patients' tumors when given together with standard chemotherapy drugs. Making new blood vessels seems to be important for many tumors to grow. Bevacizumab is a new type of treatment for cancer that blocks the growth of new tumor blood vessels. In this study, the researchers will combine bevacizumab with chemotherapy drugs that are standard for the patient's disease and include cisplatin, docetaxel, fluorouracil, and leucovorin. The way the original combination of cisplatin, docetaxel, and fluorouracil was given caused many side effects including gastrointestinal symptoms, weakness, and a drop in the blood count of infection fighting cells. For this study, the researchers have modified this combination to give lower doses of the medicines more often, to reduce side effects from the chemotherapy. Patients will receive bevacizumab with this modified combination of docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil. This study is called a phase II study. In this study, everyone will have similar tumors and receive the same treatment.

This is a phase II study of taxotere, cisplatin and irinotecan (CPT-11) used in combination to treat metastatic esophageal and gastric cancer in an effort to see what effects (good and bad) the combination may have on the patients cancer.