Active clinical trials for "Esophageal Neoplasms"

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of combined administration of different LBH589 dosages with radiotherapy in order to establish the dosage to be evaluated in future studies.

This multicenter open labeled phase 2 trial examines the efficacy of a combination of Gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 (30 min), Cisplatin 30 mg/m2 (90 min), Folinic Acid 200 mg/m2 (30 min) and 5-FU 750 mg/m2 (24h CI) all given day 1,8 q D22 in patients with inoperable esophageal cancer. The combination was considered to be suitable for further evaluation with a freedom of progression rate (PR+CR+SD) of more than 60% and not be be of further interest with a rate of less than 40%. Given an alpha error of 5% and an beta error of 10% at least 66 evaluable patients were needed based on a 2-Stage Simon design with a first evaluation after 25 evaluable patients.

RATIONALE: 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. Sunitinib malate 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. It is not yet known whether capecitabine is more effective when given alone or together with sunitinib malate in treating patients with metastatic esophageal cancer or gastroesophageal junction cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying how well capecitabine works compared with capecitabine given together with sunitinib malate as first-line therapy in treating patients with metastatic cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as oxaliplatin, floxuridine, docetaxel, and leucovorin, 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. Giving chemotherapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well combination chemotherapy works in treating patients with previously untreated stage II or stage III esophageal cancer that can be removed by surgery.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as cetuximab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Giving more than one chemotherapy drug (combination chemotherapy) together with cetuximab may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying three different combination chemotherapy regimens to compare how well they work when given together with cetuximab in treating patients with metastatic esophageal cancer or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

The investigators propose to treat patients with metastatic esophageal cancers and dysphagia with two fractions of brachytherapy followed by pembrolizumab. The brachytherapy is hypofractionated and will provide a radiation dose of sufficient intensity to induce the release of tumor-derived antigens and trigger an antitumor immune response. The simplicity of the design should maximize the chance to examine the hypothesis that radiotherapy can induce an immune response, which can then be augmented by pembrolizumab treatment. Success in this study would provide the impetus to conduct further trials aimed at developing this unique strategy as a more broadly applicable therapeutic option in the treatment of patients suffering from these deadly cancers, and will provide important mechanistic insights into the relationship between radiation treatment and immune therapy augmentation. Taken together, these data indicate that targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in esophageal cancers in combination with radiation therapy may be a rational treatment strategy for these cancers.

Regulation of tissue oxygen homeostasis is critical for cell function, proliferation and survival. Evidence for this continues to accumulate along with our understanding of the complex oxygen-sensing pathways present within cells. Several pathophysiological disorders are associated with a loss in oxygen homeostasis, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The microenvironment of tumors in particular is very oxygen heterogeneous, with hypoxic areas which may explain our difficulty treating cancer effectively. Prostate carcinomas are known to be hypoxic. Increasing levels of hypoxia within prostatic tissue is related to increasing clinical stage, patient age and a more aggressive prostate cancer. Several researches indicated that hypoxia might also play a role in esophageal cancer. In glial brain tumors, hypoxia is correlated with more rapid tumor recurrence and the hypoxic burden in newly diagnosed glioblastomas is linked to the biological aggressiveness. In brain metastases CA-IX expression (a marker for hypoxia) is correlated to the primary non-small cell lung carcinomas. Hypoxia enhances proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis, chemoresistance and radioresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma. The hypoxic markers HIF-1α, VEGF, CA-IX and GLUT-1 were all over expressed in colorectal cancer and its liver metastases. Based on literature, hypoxia in tumors originating or disseminated to prostate, esophagus, brain and rectum cancer will be studied in this trial.

Vascular endothelial growth factor is expressed in gastric cancer, and expression has been associated with more aggressive clinical disease. Vascular endothelial growth factor expression has been noted in 51% of gastric cancer specimens in one series (versus no expression in normal epithelium or superficial gastritis). Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in resected gastric cancer is associated with tumor recurrence and shorter survival. Maeda et al. studied 95 gastric cancer patients following resection with curative intent, and noted a significantly shorter survival in 34 patients whose tumor endothelium expressed VEGF (as detected via immunohistochemistry) versus 61 patients without endothelial VEGF expression (p<0.05). Yoshikawa and colleagues observed similar survival differences in resected gastric cancer patients based on levels of circulating (plasma) VEGF at time of resection. Circulating VEGF is significantly higher in gastric cancer patients versus those without neoplasia. Elevated circulating VEGF was also associated with shorter survival in a European cohort undergoing gastric cancer resection; there was no survival beyond 30 months in 24 patients with serum VEGF >533 pg/mL versus a 30-month survival rate >35% for 34 patients with VEGF levels below this threshold (p<0.0001, log-rank test). Recently, Jüttner and colleagues noted reduced survival following R0 resection in gastric cancer patients whose tumors expressed VEGF-C or VEGF-D, with the most robust association between expression and reduced survival for patients whose tumors expressed both VEGF-C and VEGF-D. Investigational inhibition of VEGF Receptor 2 in gastric cancer xenografts (TMK-1 cell line) is associated with reduced tumor growth. DC101 therapy in this model is associated with significant reductions in tumor vascularity (as measured by CD-31 expression) and increases in endothelial and tumor apoptosis. The results of the REGARD and RAINBOW studies are consistent with the idea that tumor- related angiogenesis contributes to the pathophysiology of gastric cancer and demonstrate the ability of ramucirumab to represent an improvement in the care of patients with gastric cancer whose disease has progressed after prior chemotherapy.

This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of icotinib in treating advanced carcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction and esophagus with EGFR overexpression (IHC 3+) or positive FISH, the primary endpoint is objective response rates.

Stage I：preoperative therapy Capecitabine plus oxaliplatin with concurrent radiotherapy is superior to surgery alone ; Stage II: Perioperative therapy Perioperative Capecitabine plus oxaliplatin with Concurrent radiotherapy is superior to adjuvant Capecitabine plus oxaliplatin alone; A regimen of Capecitabine plus oxaliplatin(XELOX) improves survival among patients with incurable locally advanced or metastatic adenocarcinoma of stomach and gastroesophageal cancer . The investigators assessed whether the addition of a perioperative regimen of XELOX regimen with concurrent radiotherapy to adjuvant alone improves R0 resection rate and survival among patients with curable locally advanced adenocarcinoma of stomach and gastroesophageal cancer