Active clinical trials for "Esophageal Neoplasms"

This study is being done to find out what effects a drug named/called bevacizumab has on patients and patients' tumors when given together with standard chemotherapy drugs. Making new blood vessels seems to be important for many tumors to grow. Bevacizumab is a new type of treatment for cancer that blocks the growth of new tumor blood vessels. In this study, the researchers will combine bevacizumab with chemotherapy drugs that are standard for the patient's disease and include cisplatin, docetaxel, fluorouracil, and leucovorin. The way the original combination of cisplatin, docetaxel, and fluorouracil was given caused many side effects including gastrointestinal symptoms, weakness, and a drop in the blood count of infection fighting cells. For this study, the researchers have modified this combination to give lower doses of the medicines more often, to reduce side effects from the chemotherapy. Patients will receive bevacizumab with this modified combination of docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil. This study is called a phase II study. In this study, everyone will have similar tumors and receive the same treatment.

There is a need for more effective therapy for patients following surgery for esophageal carcinoma. Docetaxel and Irinotecan, independent of each other, have demonstrated activity in this disease. There is interest in the combination of these two active agents plus radiotherapy.

RATIONALE: Gefitinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well gefitinib works in treating patients with recurrent or metastatic esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as docetaxel, carboplatin, and capecitabine, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more tumor cells. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Capecitabine may also make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Giving combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of docetaxel when given together with carboplatin and capecitabine followed by chemoradiotherapy in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for locally advanced esophageal cancer.

In this randomized study, we plan to address the important question of optimum local treatment for patients with localized esophageal cancer. All patients will receive our previously studied neo-adjuvant regimen including paclitaxel, carboplatin, infusional 5-FU, and radiation therapy to 45 Gy. At the completion of neo-adjuvant therapy, patients will be randomized to undergo surgical resection, or to continue radiation to a total dose of 60 Gy, along with one additional course of chemotherapy.

This is a phase II study of taxotere, cisplatin and irinotecan (CPT-11) used in combination to treat metastatic esophageal and gastric cancer in an effort to see what effects (good and bad) the combination may have on the patients cancer.

The purpose of this study is to find out what effects (good and bad) the combination of three chemotherapy drugs (cetuximab, cisplatin, and irinotecan) have on esophageal cancer when given with radiation therapy.

Purpose: There remains a great need for novel therapeutic agents and treatment strategies for advanced esophagogastric cancer. Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated increased EGFR expression in a significant proportion of both esophageal and gastric carcinomas. Inactivation of EGFR through use of a monoclonal antibody in preclinical models has resulted in inhibition of tumor growth. Agents designed to block the EGFR pathway have demonstrated disease control among previously treated patients with metastatic esophageal and gastric cancer. The proposed mechanism of action for cetuximab is its ability to effectively disrupt EGFR-mediated signal transduction pathways that ultimately leads to halting cell cycle progression, induces apoptosis, and also inhibits processes important for tumor growth, such as cell invasion and angiogenesis.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study of the effectiveness of combining docetaxel with capecitabine in treating patients who have metastatic cancer of the stomach or gastroesophageal junction.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tezacitabine when given alone or in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to subjects who have advanced esophageal or gastric adenocarcinoma.