Active clinical trials for "Melanoma"

Coxsackie A21 (CVA21) virus is to be administered by IV infusion to patients with Stage 4 melanoma, prostate and breast cancer. This is a dose escalation, safety study.

High-dose IL-2 treatment for metastatic melanoma has been approved by the FDA in 1998. Studies of GM-CSF plus IL-2 have not addressed the approved dose and schedule. This protocol will study the combination of HD-IL2 and GM-CSF given the potential synergistic interactions discussed above.

A dose comparison of a multi-component active immunotherapy designed to stimulate an immune reaction to specific tumor associated antigens which are highly expressed on melanomas.

Patients with uveal melanoma metastatic to the liver will be treated with embolization of the hepatic artery every 4 weeks. GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony simulating factor) or normal saline will be injected into one of the liver arteries with an oily contrast dye, Ethiodol. This is followed by blockage of the artery with small pieces of gelatin sponge (embolization). It is hoped with this novel approach that: tumor cells will die due to a loss of their blood supply, local inflammatory reactions induced by GM-CSF will kill remaining tumor cells, and a systemic immune response against tumor cells may develop.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how effective Sunitinib works in treating acral lentiginous and mucosal melanoma which has spread beyond the local region. Suninitib is a protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor and acts as a c-kit inhibitor drug. It is believed to work by blocking signals on certain cancer cells which allow the malignant cells to multiply and spread due to a change in the genetic make up of the cancer cell.

Dendritic cells (DC) are the professional antigen presenting cells of the immune system. Multiple distinct DC lineage's exist and it is now well appreciated that the DC subset and the maturation stage of the DC determines the type of immune response, ranging from a TH1 or TH2 response to immune tolerance. The extremely potent capacity of mature DC to initiate immune responses can be exploited to fight infectious diseases and cancer. Others and we are currently using tumor antigen loaded mature DC in clinical vaccination studies against cancer, and clinical as well as immunological responses have been observed. Exciting new insights accompany the revival of suppressor T cells, now referred to as regulatory T cells (Treg), and implicate that also Treg play a key role in the control of immunity. Treg constitute a sub-population of CD4+ T cells constitutively expressing the IL-2R alpha-chain (CD25). Treg show remarkably suppressive activities on different components of the immune system, including T lymphocytes and dendritic cells, suggesting they act both at the initiation phase (DC) and at the effector phase (activated T cells) of the immune response. Interestingly, temporal depletion of Treg has been shown to enhance anti-tumor immune responses and in case of prolonged absence of Treg even autoimmunity. Furthermore, data in mouse tumor models indicate that temporal depletion of Treg also results in improved vaccine efficiency in the therapeutic setting, e.g. in mice with a pre-existing tumor. These data imply that in tumor bearing patients depletion of Treg prior to vaccination will improve vaccine efficacy. In this study we investigate the effect of regulatory T cell (Treg) depletion on the efficacy of DC-based anti-tumor vaccines in a clinical study using melanoma associated antigens tyrosinase and gp100-loaded DC and a depleting anti-CD25 mononuclear antibody (Daclizumab). Our primary objective in this study is the induction of an effective anti-tumor immune response. Our secondary objective is the induction of a clinical response.

The goal of this clinical research is to find the highest tolerable dose of Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel) when given directly to the area where the cancer is located. The safety of this drug will also be studied.

The main purpose of this research study is to compare the safety, tolerability, and anti tumor activity of an investigational drug, ABI-007 versus Dacarbazine in patients with metastatic melanoma who have not previously received chemotherapy. ABI-007 is a new preparation of the active drug paclitaxel. It contains the same medication as the prescription chemotherapy drug Abraxane®. Abraxane® is approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer after failure of combination chemotherapy for metastatic disease or relapse within 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy. Dacarbazine is approved by the FDA for the treatment of melanoma. In this study, ABI-007 and Dacarbazine will be tested as therapy for people who have not yet had any cancer treatment for the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma.

This phase II trial is studying how well MEK inhibitor AZD6244 works in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma. MEK inhibitor AZD6244 may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth.

The clinical objective of this clinical trial is to examine the clinical activity in terms of tumor response and time to treatment failure of the immunotherapeutic product GSK2132231A when given to patients with unresectable and progressive metastatic cutaneous melanoma. The safety of the treatment will also be assessed just as its immunogenicity in terms of the humoral and cellular immune response induced by the GSK2132231A immunotherapeutic. Translational research objectives are to assess the effects of the study treatment in terms of various biological variables.