Active clinical trials for "Melanoma"

This phase II trial studies the side effects and how well nivolumab with trametinib and dabrafenib, or encorafenib and binimetinib work in treating patients with BRAF-mutated stage III-IV melanoma that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic) or cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable). Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, may induce changes in the body's immune system and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Trametinib, dabrafenib, encorafenib, and binimetinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. It is not yet known if nivolumab with trametinib and dabrafenib, or encorafenib and binimetinib may work better in treating patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma.

Purpose of the study: The investigators are proposing that melanomas which respond and develop eventual disease stability in response to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy undergo a genetic program promoting secondary resistance.

Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can be different in their onset, kinetics and presentation but unlike chemotherapy are seldom predictable. Toxicity can affect nearly any organ system and multiple presentations of rare but severe irAEs have been reported, highlighting the relevance of vigilant monitoring. Although early detection and timely management of high grade or special interest irAEs (such as cardiac and neurological) is obvious, it is unclear whether early identification of less serious events can lead to clinical benefit. Furthermore, it is of the utmost importance to develop new tools which can increase identification of side effects. The current study investigates systematic symptom assessment through an electronic patient reported outcome tool and aims to define whether this can reduce the rate of serious irAEs.

The objective is to determine the safety and efficacy of dexosome immunotherapy in patients with Stage IV malignant melanoma

Surgery is a key element in the treatment of melanoma, and naturally linked with an inflammatory response and recruitment of innate immune cells. Although surgery has a favorable intent, surgery-induced inflammation, neutrophils in particular, may accelerate growth of local and systemic micrometastases. Thus, improving cancer surgery and modulating the wound microenvironment in ways that benefit the patients is crucial. Repurposing already approved drugs in a cancer setting has gained increasing interest in recent years. Interestingly, tranexamic acid was recently suggested as an anti-cancer drug, capable of reducing tumor growth in experimental animal models and reducing the viability of different melanoma cell lines. As a novel approach, sponsor and investigators will conduct a Randomised Clinical Trial, using perioperative treatment with Tranexamic Acid, aiming to prevent the early relapses for patients with melanoma.

This phase I/II trial is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose or the maximum administered dose of intratumoral administration of hu14.18-IL2 and to evaluate side effects of intratumoral hu14.18-IL2 when given alone, after radiation therapy, after radiation therapy and in combination with nivolumab, and after radiation therapy and in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with melanoma that is advanced (stage IV) or with melanoma that cannot be removed by surgery and is considered surgically incurable. Hu14.18-IL2 is a molecule called a fusion protein that can bind to some tumor cells and cause immune cells to become activated to kill tumor cells. Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses beams of high energy x-rays to kill tumor cells and shrink tumors. Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as nivolumab and ipilimumab, can help the body's immune system attack cancer by releasing the "brakes" on the immune system to allow cancer fighting immune cells to remain activated. This study will evaluate whether giving intratumoral hu14.18-IL2 with radiation therapy, nivolumab and ipilimumab has antitumor activity for participants with advanced melanoma. After completion of study treatment, participants are followed up at 30 days, every 12 weeks for up to 2 years, and then every 6 months thereafter.

Patients with advanced stage melanoma who underwent vaccination with the Melan-A/MART-1 peptide and who display detectable levels of Melan-A specific CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood are eligible for this trial. After collecting and freezing of these tumor specific T cells via apheresis, patients undergo a single cycle of immunosuppressive chemotherapy. 3 days after, cells are reinfused and peptide vaccination continued. The aim of this immunotherapy protocol is to boost tumor specific T cells during the immune recovery period in order to reinforce the patients' immune response against the tumor.

This phase II trial studies the good and bad effects of the combination of drugs called cabozantinib and nivolumab in treating patients with melanoma or squamous cell head and neck cancer that may have spread from where it first started to nearby tissue, lymph nodes, or distant parts of the body (advanced). Cabozantinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. This trial may help doctors determine how quickly patients can be divided into groups based on biomarkers in their tumors. A biomarker is a biological molecule found in the blood, other body fluids, or in tissues that is a sign of a normal or abnormal process or a sign of a condition or disease. A biomarker may be used to see how well the body responds to a treatment for a disease or condition. The two biomarkers that this trial is studying are "tumor mutational burden" and "tumor inflammation signature." Another purpose of this trial is to help doctors learn if cabozantinib and nivolumab shrink or stabilize the cancer, and whether patients respond differently to the combination depending on the status of the biomarkers.

Despite the recent notable advances in the treatment of advanced melanoma with application of growing immunotherapies, patterns of response and factors resulting in treatment failure are poorly understood. Moreover, the application of these therapeutics has been limited in the neoadjuvant setting, particularly in earlier stage disease, even though this strategy has improved tolerance and efficacy with other modalities of therapy in other cancer types. Survival remains significantly poorer for thicker and ulcerated lesions with T3b and T4 lesions demonstrating less than 50% survival at 5 years independent of other prognostic indicators. Oncolytic viral therapies (OVT) stimulate or suppress the immune system in different ways to stop cancer cells from growing and intra-lesional OVT has demonstrated comparable efficacy and durability with greater tolerability than most effective systemic therapy. Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is the only phase III approved intra-lesional therapy in melanoma and has demonstrated significantly improved overall response rate (64%) and bystander effect (34% in uninjected lesions) in the therapeutic setting for advanced disease. The investigators propose an open-label, Phase 2 study of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), in the neoadjuvant setting for patients with high-risk, resectable primary and cutaneous melanoma prior to definitive excision. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that neoadjuvant intra-lesional therapy with T-VEC in high risk early stage melanoma will effectively treat local and subclinical distant disease by enhanced immune recognition, immunomodulation of the nodal basin, and still allow for standard of care surgery. The primary aim of this study will be to evaluate for histologic response of melanoma with secondary aim to determine changes in immune response and draining sentinel nodes as well as relationship of immune phenotype to response rate, stage and nodal burden. The investigators plan for thorough exploratory analysis of genetic and microenvironmental changes to identify actionable targets in incomplete as well as evaluation of changes in sentinel burden and subsequent rates of locoregional disease control, recurrence-free survival and overall survival in long term follow up. The investigators predict that histologic clearance of the primary tumor in the surgical specimen will be associated with improved RFS.

IRFARPC is a multicenter national registry designed to study the diagnosis and predisposing factors of subjects with an inherited increased risk for pancreatic cancer.