Active clinical trials for "Multiple Myeloma"

A phase II clinical study to assess the efficacy of post-transplantation cyclophosphamide as single-agent GvHD prophylaxis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma and to describe the influence of the modified immunosuppression concept on relapse rates, minimal residual disease, immune reconstitution and chimerism.

This is an open-label, single-arm, multicentre study conducted in Spain to estimate the effectiveness of palifermin administered at a dose of 60 mg/kg/day IV for 3 consecutive days before the start of the conditioning regimen and for 3 consecutive days after autologous PBSCT for treating oral mucositis in patients with NHL and MM who have received high-dose conditioning chemotherapy.

RATIONALE: Chemoprevention therapy is the use of certain drugs to try to prevent the development or recurrence of cancer. Dehydroepiandrosterone and clarithromycin may be effective in preventing multiple myeloma. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to compare the effectiveness of dehydroepiandrosterone with that of clarithromycin in treating patients who may be at a high risk of developing multiple myeloma.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a specialised nuclear medicine procedure that uses positron emitting radiolabeled tracer molecules to measure biological activity. The most common of these radiolabeled tracers is 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), which is used to determine abnormal glucose metabolism in tumours and other sites. It has general applications in all areas where abnormal glucose metabolism may be present including in circumstances such as differentiating the tumour from scar tissue; evaluating the presence of the tumour in light of rising tumour markers and normal morphological imaging techniques; and assessing response to therapy where other techniques are deemed to be unhelpful. The Cross Cancer Institute has recently been funded to establish a PET centre, and this study will evaluate the effectiveness, value and safety of PET scanning in a number of uncommon cancers in the Canadian health care environment.

RATIONALE: Giving low doses of chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, and radiation therapy before a donor peripheral blood stem cell transplant helps stop the growth of cancer cells. It also stops the patient's immune system from rejecting the donor's stem cells when they do not exactly match the patient's blood. The donated stem cells may replace the patient's immune system and help destroy any remaining cancer cells (graft-versus-tumor effect). Sometimes the transplanted cells from a donor can also make an immune response against the body's normal cells. Giving cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil before transplant may stop this from happening. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects of alemtuzumab, fludarabine, and melphalan with or without cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and total-body irradiation before donor peripheral blood stem cell transplant and to see how well they work in treating patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic cancer.

There is a growing body of data suggesting that the the risk of developing multiple myeloma, or myelomagenesis, is associated with genetic alterations occurring in the tumor cells. A limited number of candidate genes and polymorphisms have been reported in patients with this disease. In this study the investigators will compare the genetic information obtained on purified abnormal plasmocytes obtained from patients with multiple myeloma with available public databases in an effort to identify and if possible validate the role of certain mutations and/or polymorphisms in myelomagenesis. Plasmocytes will be obtained by immunomagnetic enrichment using CD138+ beads.

Comparison between FDG-PET and MRI for the assessment of response to intensive chemotherapy in multiple myeloma patients.

Historically, participation in clinical trials has been highly skewed towards specific demographic groups. However, research identifying which trial attributes impact participation, in either positive or negative ways, is limited. This study invites participants to record a wide range of data on their clinical trial experience, with the goal being to identify factors which persistently limit patients' ability to participate in, or complete, a trial in which they were initially interested. Data will be analyzed through a range of demographic lenses, in hopes of discovering patterns which might improve the experience of future multiple myeloma patients.

The purpose of this study is to find out how balloon kyphoplasty (surgical repair of the patient's fracture using balloons and bone cement) compares to non-surgical treatment in reducing vertebral compression fractures while providing pain relief and improved function and quality of life.

The primary objective of this study, sponsored by Travera in Massachusetts, is to validate whether the mass response biomarker has potential to predict response of patients to specific therapies or therapeutic combinations using isolated tumor cells from varying cancers and biopsy formats.