Active clinical trials for "Retinoblastoma"

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of high-dose thiotepa plus peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating patients with refractory solid tumors.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate different sutures for orbital implants in retinoblastoma patients.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of arsenic trioxide in treating children who have advanced neuroblastoma or other solid tumors.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the safety of delivering intrathecal busulfan in children and adolescents who have refractory CNS cancer and to estimate the maximum tolerated dose of this treatment regimen.

Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of rebeccamycin analogue in treating children who have solid tumors or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die.

RATIONALE: Monoclonal antibodies can locate tumor cells and either kill them or deliver tumor-killing substances to them without harming normal cells. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody therapy in treating patients who have leptomeningeal metastases.

This pilot clinical trial studies whether unilateral group D retinoblastoma, or retinoblastoma affecting one eye that has spread to the inner jelly like part of the eye, can be treated with a new technique for delivering chemotherapy directly into the blood vessel that supplies the affected eye. This new technique is called intra-arterial injection. Giving melphalan via intra-arterial injection may make it less likely that children will need surgery to remove the eye and may reduce the amount of treatment side effects.

This study will be carried out in children with diagnosis of cancer with tumors known to express N-glycolylated gangliosides. The disease must be resistant to conventional therapy. The acute toxicity and immune response will be evaluated. The expression of N-glycolylated gangliosides in tumors has previously been investigated in the tumor sample bank at this Hospital. The expression of N-glycolyl GM3 was shown in neuroblastoma, Ewing's sarcoma, Wilm's tumor and retinoblastoma. Gliomas and the aforementioned tumor types have a very bad prognosis when conventional treatment is ineffective. New therapeutic strategies have thus been examined, and several immunotherapeutic approaches, including dendritic cell vaccines, peptide vaccines and anti-idiotype vaccines are currently being assessed. Racotumomab is an anti-idiotype antibody capable of inducing anti-N-glycolyl GM3 antibodies in patients with melanoma, breast cancer and lung cancer. Dose escalation studies have shown the safety of racotumomab in the 0.5 to 2 mg dose range. The 1 mg dose level was selected for the ensuing clinical studies. This clinical trial in children involves three dose levels: 0.15 mg, 0.25 mg and 0.4 mg, owing to the difference in body surface between an adult (1.73 sq. m in average) and the candidate population for this study (0.55 to 0.7 sq. m).

Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common intraocular tumor of childhood. Recurrent or refractory disease following therapy most often occurs due to persistence of vitreous disease and/or retinal reactivation of the main tumor mass. With this treatment protocol, investigators seek to identify a less invasive method of local drug delivery that does not disrupt the eye's integrity. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To determine the safety and toxicity profile associated with intravitreal carboplatin for the treatment of recurrent or progressive intraocular retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: To estimate the ocular salvage rate after treatment with intravitreal carboplatin in patients with recurrent or progressive intraocular retinoblastoma with vitreous seeding. To evaluate the effects of intravitreal carboplatin therapy on the histopathology of eyes enucleated for progressive or recalcitrant disease while on therapy.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Bone marrow transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy followed by bone marrow transplantation in treating patients who have retinoblastoma.