Active clinical trials for "Mycoses"

This phase I trial studies the side effects and the best dose of sunitinib malate in treating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients with cancer receiving antiretroviral therapy. Sunitinib malate may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor.

This study is designed to determine the recommended dose, safety, pharmacokinetics, and early efficacy of the combination of pralatrexate plus oral bexarotene in patients with relapsed or refractory CTCL.

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn the amount of posaconazole that is in the body at different time points when given to patients with leukemia. The safety of this drug will also be studied. Objectives: Primary: To study the plasma pharmacokinetics of posaconazole in patients with newly diagnosed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS) undergoing induction chemotherapy or relapsed or refractory patients who will receive salvage chemotherapy. Secondary: To evaluate the safety of posaconazole given as prophylaxis.

Due to the poor outcome of patients with invasive fungal infections (IFI), a more effective prevention of these infections in such patients is wanted. These experiences in intensively treated elderly patients with acute leukemia are especially worrying. This pilot study is designed to collect information on the safety (and efficacy) of an antifungal preventative therapy with an AmBisome® loading dose regimen of 7 mg/kg/week, in four weekly administrations, during the aplastic phase following the start of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in elderly patients, which is a high risk period for severe fungal infections.

This is an open-label study of MK0991 in children between 3 to 24 months of age with new onset fever and neutropenia. The purpose of the study is to investigate plasma drug levels of caspofungin.

This phase I/II trial studies whether stopping cyclosporine before mycophenolate mofetil is better at reducing the risk of life-threatening graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) than the previous approach where mycophenolate mofetil was stopped before cyclosporine. The other reason this study is being done because at the present time there are no curative therapies known outside of stem cell transplantation for these types of cancer. Because of age or underlying health status, patients may have a higher likelihood of experiencing harm from a conventional blood stem cell transplant. This study tests whether this new blood stem cell transplant method can be made safer by changing the order and length of time that immune suppressing drugs are given after transplant.

Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of combining MS-275 with isotretinoin in treating patients who have metastatic or advanced solid tumors or lymphomas. MS-275 may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for their growth. Isotretinoin may help cancer cells develop into normal cells. MS-275 may increase the effectiveness of isotretinoin by making cancer cells more sensitive to the drug. MS-275 and isotretinoin may also stop the growth of solid tumors or lymphomas by stopping blood flow to the cancer. Combining MS-275 with isotretinoin may kill more cancer cells

This phase II trial studies how well tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil works in preventing graft-versus-host disease in patients who have undergone total-body irradiation (TBI) with or without fludarabine phosphate followed by donor peripheral blood stem cell transplant for hematologic cancer. Giving low doses of chemotherapy, such as fludarabine phosphate, and TBI before a donor peripheral blood stem cell transplant helps stop the growth of cancer cells. It also stops the patient's immune system from rejecting the donor's stem cells. The donated stem cells may replace the patient's immune system and help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can also make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil after the transplant may stop this from happening.

A well-known side-effect of cytostatics (drugs against malignancies) is a decrease in the number of white blood cells, especially of the so-called neutrophil granulocytes, which are very important for the defense against infections. Hence their decrease (called "neutropenia") leads to a predisposition to infections. Since infections during neutropenia can be very dangerous, the patients are treated with antibiotics from the very first signs of such an infection (usually fever). If the antibiotics (drugs against bacteria) do not lead to a normalization of the body temperature within four days, a drug against fungi is added. In the IDEA study, one half of the patients receive the antifungal drug voriconazole (as usual) only in case the antibiotics alone do not lead to a normalization of the body temperature (current standard of care). The other half of the patients receive voriconazole immediately after onset of fever (concomitantly with the antibiotics). The research question is, whether in the "early-treatment" group fewer manifest fungal infections will be observed than in the "late-treatment" group.

Therapeutic options for serious fungal infections are limited by intrinsic and acquired resistance to existing antifungal agents. For example, zygomycetes (such as Mucor spp.) are intrinsically resistant to voriconazole and caspofungin. Yet, the only available therapeutic option, amphotericin, is associated with significant renal toxicity, even in lipid formulations. Posaconazole is a new antifungal drug, not yet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, but which has excellent in vitro activity against some intrinsically resistant fungi such as the zygomycetes. The intent of this trial is to provide access to posaconazole to patients with serious fungal infections which are refractory to standard antifungal therapies or invasive fungal infections for which there are currently no effective therapies. Secondly, the drug will also be made available to patients with invasive fungal infections who: have experienced serious or severe toxicities while receiving standard antifungal therapies; have pre-existing renal dysfunction which precludes use of standard antifungal therapies; or are chronically immunosuppressed with a history of invasive fungal infections previously treated with posaconazole in other clinical trials, and who require oral antifungal suppressive therapy as maintenance treatment to prevent recurrence. This is a multicenter, open-label, non-comparative experimental treatment use protocol. The experimental treatment use protocol will provide the investigational medication posaconazole where no other drug is commercially available. Posaconazole is given as an orally or enterally administered suspension. The duration of therapy is at the discretion of the investigator. Safety assessments will include an electrocardiogram [ECG] (to ensure no QTc interval prolongation) performed at baseline and serum/urine pregnancy testing performed at baseline and every three months after initiation of therapy. Plasma concentrations will be obtained if there is evidence of clinical failure. No other tests will be performed specifically for the experimental treatment use protocol.