Active clinical trials for "Melanoma"

This study aims to validate the use of laser in vivo confocal microscopy as an early diagnostic and differentiation tool of pigmented conjunctival lesions, evaluate the efficacy of in vivo confocal microscopy for follow-up (as a visualizing tool) after tumor resection for early detection of tumor recurrence, and to evaluate the use of in vivo confocal microscopy in evaluation of response to treatment. The modified technique with Heidelberg Retina Tomography (HRT) confocal microscopy and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (OCT) are non-invasive, no-touch, imaging techniques that may help in differentiation of benign lesions like nevi or racial melanosis, from malignant lesions like primary acquired melanosis and malignant melanomas. The OCT will potentially allow to estimate tumor depth in vivo as preliminary studies have shown.

Title: Vaccination with autologous dendritic cells loaded with autologous tumor lysate or homogenate combined with immunomodulating radiotherapy and/or preleukapheresis IFN-alfa in patients with metastatic melanoma: a randomized "proof-of-principle" phase II study. Study Design: Randomized selection design, proof of principle study Study Duration: 36 months Number of Subjects: 24 evaluable patients Diagnosis and Main Inclusion Criteria: Patients with non resectable stage III or stage IV malignant melanoma carrying at least 2 measurable lesions, any line after 1st line Vemurafenib in patients carrying BRAF mutation-positive melanoma and/or ≥ 2nd line Ipilimumab. Study Product, Dose, Route, Regimen and duration of administration: Intradermal Autologous Dendritic Cell vaccine loaded with autologous tumor lysate or homogenate on weeks 1, 4 6 and 8 during induction phase, and every 4 weeks during maintenance phase up to a maximum of 14 vaccine doses (each dose followed by IL-2 3 MU day 2-6) COMBINED OR NOT WITH IFN-alfa 3 MU daily for 7 days before leukapheresis AND/OR Three daily doses of 8 Gy up to 12 Gy delivered to one metastatic field between vaccine doses 1 and 2 (optional to one additional field between doses 7 and 8) utilizing IMRT-IMAT techniques.

The purpose of this study is to determine if magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can be used to help doctors determine how much oxygen a tumor is getting. Hypoxyprobe will be used to determine the levels of oxygen post-surgery in the current study. If the study is successful, then imaging can be used to determine a tumor's oxygen status even in patients who are not getting surgery. Investigators want to find out how much oxygen is in the participants tumor based on how much pimo is present, and correlate this with the results of their MRI and 18F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) PET scan. This study is also testing the investigational radioactive substance known as FMISO. FMISO is used during PET scans to help doctors see how much oxygen a tumor is getting. Participants might be asked to participate in an optional PET scan using FMISO.

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intra-ocular malignancy in adults with an incidence of 0.6 - 0.7 per 100,000 per year. Prognosis of metastatic uveal melanoma is poor. In retrospective analyses a median survival time after detection of metastases of 5 months (Flaherty et al, 1998) and 7 months (Kath et al, 1993) was reported. For patients receiving no treatment reported median survival was 2.0 months compared with 5.2 months for those receiving treatment for metastases (Gragoudas et al, 1991). Up to now there is no established treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma. Some therapeutic approaches with locoregional treatment or systemic chemotherapy have been undertaken: In case of metastatic disease which is confined to the liver in about 85% of patients with uveal melanoma surgical resection led to a median survival of 14 months (Mariani et al, 2009) or 19 months and a 5-year survival rate of 22% in a selected patient population (Adam et al, 2006). As locoregional treatment option treatment with fotemustine via direct intra-arterial hepatic infusion was investigated and led to a median survival of 15 months (Peters et al, 2006). This was not a randomized trial, but a report on 101 consecutive treated patients. Additional debulking surgery was performed whenever feasible. A randomized phase III trial comparing intra-arterial hepatic fotemustine administration with intravenous systemic fotemustine and overall survival as primary endpoint is still ongoing (EORTC 18021). Thus, no systemic chemotherapy is approved for metastatic uveal melanoma. Although no specific genes have been linked to the pathogenesis of uveal melanoma, preclinical studies suggest potential benefit of inhibitors of Bcl-2, ubiquitin-proteasome, histone deactylase, mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-AKT pathways, and receptor tyrosine kinases. Thus, sorafenib as inhibitor of b-Raf and Raf-1 (c-Raf or c-Raf-1), pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) may potentially lead to a benefit for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma in terms of disease control and prolongation of survival.

The purpose of this study is to compare the relapse free survival and overall survival of Imatinib (Gleevec) or high dose Interferon (Intron) in treating melanoma which has primary tumor and regional lymphonode (if have) removed in patients whose disease carries a c-kit mutation. It is assumed that Gleevec may be more effective on relapse free survival as the adjuvant treatment compared with Interferon.

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety of giving subjects with advanced, recurrent or refractory melanoma the HyperAcute® Melanoma vaccine with a variant of a drug, called Interferon (PEG-Intron®) that is specially formulated to be given on a weekly basis (instead of daily). The study vaccine (HyperAcute®-Melanoma) is made from three types of human melanoma cell lines (grown in the laboratory) in which the genes have been slightly changed. This clinical study will try to discover the safety of the study vaccine combined with PEG-Intron®, its side effects and the potential benefits, if any.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement of visual acuity after treatment using either Lucentis® or Triamcinolone® compared to no treatment, in patients with radiation retinopathy.

A phase I trial to evaluate the safety and tolerability of ALS-357 when administered for four weeks as a topical ointment, in escalating doses, to patients with cutaneous metastatic melanoma and to evaluate the effect of escalating doses of topically applied ALS-357 on histological remission of cutaneous metastatic melanoma and induction of apoptotic biomarkers.

This phase III trial is aimed to investigate the efficacy of an individualized, sensitivity-directed combination chemotherapy in comparison to the standard regimen DTIC. Two question are aimed to be answered by this study: Is the individual chemosensitivity index (BICSI) a prognostic / predictive biomarker for chemotherapy ? Is an individualized, sensitivity-directed combination chemotherapy superior to the standard regimen DTIC in terms of survival and response ?

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a patient's dendritic cells may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether combining vaccine therapy with either gp100 antigen or the patient's tumor cells will cause a stronger immune response and kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is studying vaccine therapy and gp100 antigen to see how well they work compared to vaccine therapy and patient's tumor cells in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma.