Active clinical trials for "Glioblastoma"

The purpose of this pilot study will be to conduct a clinical trial using a time-of-flight PET scanner and MRI scanner to test an improved method for differentiating tumor recurrence from radiation necrosis in glioblastoma patients. We will attempt to do so by performing a static and dynamic FDG-PET scan, a static and dynamic FDOPA-PET scan, and a multiparametric MRI scan - then comparing the results with surgical pathology and static FDG-PET scans. We hypothesize that the new quantitative kinetic analytical methods using FDOPA in combination with FDG will provide crucial functional information to distinguish recurrent tumors from treatment-induced radiation changes in patients with treated brain neoplasms. This is important for improving patient outcomes by allowing treating physicians to more accurately tailor treatments. Furthermore, dynamic FDG and FDOPA PET will be combined with high resolution anatomic and physiologic MRI in order to develop a multimodal multiparametric approach for differentiating tumor recurrence from treatment effect.

The goal of this study is to test whether a new device developed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) can decrease the error in calculating blood flow of a brain tumor, leading to better prognosis. UAB radiological research team has been studying a cutting-edge imaging technique named dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) , or DCE-MRI, over 10 years. This technique has been globally used to calculate blood flow of various tissues including tumors. Blood flow often serves as a critical indicator showing a disease status. For example, a brain tumor has typically high blood flow, so the magnitude of blood flow can be used as an indicator to identify the presence and aggressiveness of a brain tumor. In addition, an effective therapy can result in the alteration of the blood flow in a brain tumor. Therefore, the investigators may be able to determine whether the undergoing therapy is effective or not by measuring the blood flow in the brain tumor, and decide whether they need to continue the therapy or try a different one. However, unfortunately, the measurement of blood flow using DCE-MRI is often inaccurate. MRI scanners may use different hardware and software thus the measurement may be different across scanners. The measurement may also be different over time due to hardware instability. Therefore, the investigators propose to use an artificial tissue, named "phantom", together with a patient. The phantom has a constant blood flow thus it can serve as a standard. Errors, if it occurs, will affect the images of both the patient and the phantom. Therefore, the investigators will be able to correct the errors in the patient image using the phantom image. UAB radiological research team invented a new device for this purpose named point-of-care portable perfusion phantom, or shortly P4. The team recently demonstrated the utility of the P4 phantom for accurate measurement of blood flow in pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. In this study, they will test whether the P4 phantom will improve the measurement accuracy in brain cancer.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common brain tumor in adults. The strikingly poor survival for patients with GBM (average survival 14-16 months following diagnosis) is due in part to limited early detection methods and an absence of effective therapeutic options. The study proposed would establish important evidence for the use of Health Canada approved drugs such as amantadine as a safe, effective and affordable way to monitor GBM. The method is based on the overproduction of a key enzyme in GBM cells called spermine/ spermidine n-acetyl transferase (SSAT1). The increased SSAT1 expression in GBM results in increased metabolism of the drug which is detected in the blood or urine of patients with GBM. The levels of acetyl-amantadine captured will be correlated with the tumor burden as seen on the MRIs of these patients. Thus, the study aims to determine the usefulness of amantadine as a diagnostic biomarker for GBM.

This pilot study will assess the safety and feasibility of using an implantable microdevice to measure local intratumor response to chemotherapy and other clinically relevant drugs in malignant brain tumors. The device involved in this study is called a microdevice. The drugs used in this study will only include drugs already used systemically for the treatment of gliomas.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether new metabolic imaging will be useful to physicians and patients with glioblastoma for making treatment decisions and seeing how well various types of treatment work. The goal is to improve the way patient care is managed in the future. If you chose to be in this study, you will be receiving novel magnetic resonance (MR) metabolic imaging with standard MR imaging. The research component includes an injection of an investigational agent, called hyperpolarized 13C pyruvate, to obtain dynamic metabolic imaging.

Progastrin is a pro-hormone that, in physiological conditions, is maturated in gastrin in G cells of the stomach. The role of the gastrin is to stimulate the secretion of gastric acids during digestion. It is also important for the regulation of cell growth of the gastric mucosal. In a healthy person, progastrin is not detectable in the peripheral blood. However, progastrin is abnormally released in the blood of patients with different cancers (colorectal, gastric, ovarian, breast, cervix uterus, melanoma…) The gene GAST coding for progastrin is a direct target gene of the WNT/ß-catenin oncogenic pathway. The activation of this oncogenic pathway is an early event in cancer development. Chronic activation of the WNT/ß-catenin oncogenic pathway occurs in almost all human solid tumors and is a central mechanism in cancer biology that induces cellular proliferation, blocking of differentiation leading to primary tumor growth and metastasis formation. Progastrin measured in the peripheral blood of patients on treatments, could be a new powerful marker for diagnosis and prognosis at different stages.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of targeted blood brain barrier disruption with Exablate Model 4000 Type 2.0/2.1 for liquid biopsy in subjects with suspected Glioblastoma brain tumors

The MIRROR study is a prospective, single center phase I feasibility and dose finding study in patients with high-grade glioma, to establish the safety, feasibility, and optimal dosage of Cetuximab-IRDye800CW for fluorescence guided surgery, in comparison to the standard of care (SOC), 5-ALA fluorescent imaging agent. The main research objectives of this study are: To determine the optimal dosage of Cetuximab-IRDye800CW for fluorescence guided surgery To assess the safety and tolerability To correlate fluorescent signals measured by in vivo multispectral imaging with Cetuximab-IRDye800CW and 5-ALA with those measured by ex vivo imaging The study population will consist of patients, aged ≥18 years, diagnosed with high-grade glioma and scheduled for surgery.

In Dutch centers performing neurosurgery on and/or treating GBM, all recurrent GBM patients are discussed in local tumor boards and this setup will be used to effectively identify possible GLOW study candidates. 160 patients that will undergo re-resection in the GLOW study will be presented with WGS results leading to added treatment options.

This clinical trial studies advanced MR imaging techniques in measuring early response of standard treatment may become predictors of long-term treatment response in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastomas.