Active clinical trials for "Carcinoma"

The goal of this behavioral research study is to learn if certain sexual behaviors increase the risk for developing head and neck cancers associated with a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV-16). Knowing this information could help doctors better teach patients about avoiding certain risk factors, which may help to prevent the disease.

To diagnose hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to determine the extent of the disease, a triphasic CT scan or a magnetic resonance imaging are required. The characterization of hepatic nodules is more difficult when the HCC lesions have a diameter of less than 2 cm. Since accuracy in the assessment of the number and the size of HCC nodules, as well as of the invasion of blood vessels is crucial to determine outcome after liver transplantation due to tumour recurrence, there is a need for techniques with a higher definition potential. As a consequence, to improve outcome and to optimize organ allocation, patients on the liver transplantation waiting list might benefit from intravascular ultrasound as an additional examination to complete the pre-transplant tumour staging process.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been the leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. About 6000-8000 people died of this cancer every year in Taiwan. Though regular sonographic examination can early detect small HCC and there are many therapeutic modalities for HCC, the therapeutic results remains unsatisfactory. Though Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) are used as the tumor markers for diagnosis of HCCs, these two markers are not good enough for the early detection of small HCCs. To improve the survival, further investigations of the early diagnostic markers are still needed. In this current project, we applied the proteomic method to identify the HCC biomarkers.

Due to providing valuable clinical information while being minimally invasive, blood-based testing will most likely be a prerequisite for future large-scale screening of high-risk populations. As a variety of pathological processes, including carcinogenesis, may cause changes in both the concentration and the structure and spatial arrangement of body biomolecules, the spectroscopic analysis of blood-based derivatives appears to be an appropriate tool for the early detection thereof. The differences observed in the spectral response of healthy individuals and patients may also be specific to a particular type/stage of the disease and, thus, may serve as a reliable diagnostic marker. In order to find sufficiently specific and sensitive biomarkers of early stages of degenerative and cancerous diseases, the co-applicant group at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (UCT Prague), developed a unique approach for the spectroscopic analysis of blood plasma. Using the highly specialized, structure-sensitive methods of chiroptical spectroscopy (electronic circular dichroism - ECD, Raman optical activity - ROA) combined with conventional infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopy, the first pilot studies yielded promising results with respect to the identification of spectral markers for pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and type 1 diabetes mellitus. In addition, metabolomics appears to be a very progressive approach to finding potentially suitable molecules to distinguish between healthy and cancer-affected individuals. Therefore, the investigators believes that this multimodal approach will allow for the identification of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In our research, the focus will be on the identification of novel biomarkers in blood plasma that would exhibit sufficient sensitivity and specificity to detect early and potentially curable HCC stages, and that would be potentially useful for routine screening of this disease in well-defined at-risk groups.

Detection of distribution of clinico-pathological features of squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder and their relation to treatment outcome.

The purpose of this study is to establish a standardized process for obtaining digital pathological image information of ocular tumors; use modern pathological techniques to obtain the co-expression information of multiple biomarkers in the pathological tissues of ocular tumors, and finally construct standardized digital ocular tumors with biomarkers Pathology image database.

In the last decades, thyroid cancer incidence has continuously increased all over the world, almost exclusively due to a sharp rise in the incidence of the papillary histologic subtype, which has the highest incidence of multifocality. Furthermore, Black Sea and Eastern European regions are both endemic and known to have been under the influence of Chernobyl nuclear explosion. Although overscreening might have a role in certain parts of the world, the predictors of malignancy such as family history, genetical disorders, previous radiation exposure, low iodine intake, diabetes and obesity, should also be taken into consideration in determining the extent of surgery.

Objective of Study: This study will evaluate the heterogeneity and evolution pathway between primary HCC and tumor relapse after liver transplant. According to the "Seed-Soil" theory, the primary hypothesis of this study is that HCC patients with different molecular-subtype experience altered different pattern of post-transplant recurrence, thus may have altered postoperative Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS). Because the donors' liver construct different microenvironment for CTC(circulating tumor cells) colonization. The investigators design this translational study to ①explore potential high recurrent risk HCC molecular-subtypes which might benefit from neoadjuvant systematic therapy or early adjuvant systematic therapy;②identify the molecular subtype heterogeneity of primary and recurrent HCC to guide the precision medicine.

The IRECT trial is a non-interventional, prospective clinical trial using modern immune monitoring techniques over the course of the standard of care for HNSCC. The dynamics of host/tumor immune interactions during the conventional standard treatment will be analyzed to find the most promising target antigen and to develop a strategy how and when specific immunotherapy should be added to the current treatment schedule. The results from this trial will help to understand how state of the art treatment can be complemented using cancer-testis antigen specific vaccines and immune-modulating drugs to improve the outcome of head and neck cancer patients.

The investigators will collect plasma samples at baseline, during treatment, and at progression.