Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

The purpose of the study is to see if a new group of imaging tests can help identify response to stage IV HER2+ breast cancer before treatment.

This study will use a PET/MRI scanner and an investigational radioactive drug called [F-18]DPA-714 that measures inflammation in the brain, also called neuroinflammation, before chemotherapy and after 3 to 6 cycles of chemotherapy given as part of your clinical care. In addition, this study will use a PET/MRI scanner with an investigational radioactive drug called [C-11]PiB that measures the amount of abnormal protein (called beta-amyloid) in the brain that is a marker of Alzheimer's disease pathology. One of the most common complaints among breast cancer survivors is cognitive or memory problems especially in older adults. Researchers need to better understand the mechanisms and risk factors for cognitive problems in order to address this problem. This study seeks to examine two mechanisms, neuroinflammation and amyloid deposition, that have been suggested in other age-related cognitive disorders. This study may help physicians and researchers develop new treatments to protect the brain in cancer patients. UAB plans to enroll 20 participants in this study.

This protocol is a companion imaging study that will add FES-PET/CT imaging to the FORESEE trial at HCI. This study will establish the feasibility of using FES-PET/CT imaging to guide therapeutic decision making for functional precision oncology trials. The unique ability of FES-PET/CT to show absence of functional estrogen receptors throughout the entire body may improve confidence among research oncologists that an ER+ metastatic breast cancer patient is truly refractory to hormonal therapies which is a critical determination in the study design of the FORESEE trial.

This phase II/III trial studies if contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using a contrast agent, perflutren lipid microspheres (Definity), can predict the early response of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy by estimating the pressure gradient between the breast cancer and surrounding tissues. To estimate the pressures noninvasively, subharmonic (half of fundamental frequency) aided pressure estimation (SHAPE) using CEUS will be utilized. The study hypothesis is that the subharmonic signal difference in the tumor relative to the normal tissue can predict breast cancer NAC response after 10% of therapy regimen.

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 44% of cancer survivors experience a deteriorated quality of life 5 years after diagnosis due to late onset of complications related to cancer treatments. The objective of the study is to evaluate the incidence rates of treatment-related complications, identify sub-clinical abnormalities and risk factors in patients participating in the PASCA post-treatment program. METHOD: PASCA is a single-center, interventional cohort study of adult patients who received at least chemotherapy and with a complete remission to a testicular germ cell tumor, primary non-metastatic invasive breast carcinoma, high-grade soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, acute myeloid leukemia, Hodgkin's or aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Four assessment visits will be scheduled at 1 month (T1), 6 months (T2), 24 months (T3) and 60 months (T4) after completion of treatment. During these visits, 22 complications will be screened and follow-up care will be systematically offered to the health professional concerned by the complication in case of a positive result. The screening will contain the following elements: screening self-questionnaires, quality of life questionnaire, 12 biological parameters, a urinalysis evaluating hematuria, proteinuria, and leukocyturia, a spirometry, an electrocardiogram, 5 tests evaluating physical condition, vital signs and the perimetric measurement between both arms. DISCUSSION: This systematic screening could highlight a number of complications occurring after cancer treatments. Sub-clinical abnormalities and new risk factors could also be identified. This new organization of care could improve the quality of life of adult cancer survivors.

This phase III trial studies how well Mepitel Film works in reducing radiation dermatitis (redness and peeling) in patients with breast cancer during radiation therapy after a mastectomy. Mepitel Film may reduce the severity of skin redness and peeling in the area of radiation.

16a-18F-fluoro-17b-estradiol ([18F]FES) is radioactive labeled estradiol, developed for in vivo visualization of the estrogen receptor (ER) using positron emission tomography (PET). To date, [18F]FES PET has been mainly explored as a diagnostic imaging tool to assess ER expression, thereby identifying locations of disease and their potential sensitivity to endocrine therapy, respectively. The primary aim of this project is to extend the application of [18F]FES PET as a baseline diagnostic imaging biomarker for ER expression to use it as an (early) treatment response marker. However, for such an application, visual assessment alone may not be sufficient and a more rigorous quantitative image analysis is needed. Therefore, in this project we shall first derive the optimal pharmacokinetic model for full quantitative analysis of [18F]FES uptake and, subsequently, we shall assess the validity of simplified, clinically feasible, quantitative parameters of [18F]FES uptake in 5 patients with metastatic estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer (part A). In addition, the repeatability of these simplified parameters will then be investigated in another 10 patients (part B).

The aim of this study is to assess the rates of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in patients treated with surgery for stage 1 breast cancer that is HER2 positive or triple negative. The study will involve collecting blood samples from patients before and after surgery, if patients are enrolled after surgery, blood samples will be collected after the procedure. On the follow-up visit, the results obtained from the blood tests will serve as a diagnostic method to discern adverse outcomes in the groups of patients with positive and negative ctDNA detection. Also, the results obtained will aid physicians in determining treatment courses for patients, in order to reduce the intensity of adjuvant chemotherapy. By identifying the patients with residual disease with ctDNA analysis, it is possible that this will improve disease prognosis.

To compare magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with more well established diagnostic imaging techniques to determine which method best finds and defines breast cancer.

Axillary lymph node status is an important prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer. After breast cancer diagnosis, current nodal staging consists of axillary ultrasound (US) combined with tissue sampling when deemed necessary. In case of positive axillary lymph nodes, patients will undergo axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). In case of no suspicious axillary lymph nodes (i.e. clinically node negative patients), patients will undergo sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). This surgical nodal staging is accompanied by co-morbidity. In theory, if non-invasive imaging can evaluate the lymph node status accurately, a node negative patient would no longer have to undergo axillary surgery. Since MRI is suitable for soft tissue imaging and PET has the advantage of showing increased metabolic uptake in lymph node metastases, a combination of these techniques in hybrid PET/MRI would be highly desirable. If dedicated axillary hybrid PET/MRI is equally accurate to SLNB for the detection of negative axillary lymph nodes, work-up could be more efficient by bypassing SLNB. However, the accuracy of dedicated axillary hybrid PET/MRI needs to be compared with the pathological outcome of SLNB (gold standard) first.