Active clinical trials for "Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal"

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors predict whether patients undergoing donor stem cell transplant will develop acute graft-versus-host disease. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying T cells to see how well they help in predicting acute graft-versus-host disease in patients undergoing donor stem cell transplant.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcome of intracranial non-germinomatous germ cell tumor (NGGCT) treated with reduced radiotherapy following high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDCT/auto-SCT).

This phase I/II trial studies the side effects and best dose of melphalan when given together with carboplatin, mannitol, and sodium thiosulfate, and to see how well they work in treating patients with central nervous system (CNS) embryonal or germ cell tumors that is growing, spreading, or getting worse (progressive) or has come back (recurrent). Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as melphalan and carboplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption (BBBD) uses mannitol to open the blood vessels around the brain and allow cancer-killing substances to be carried directly to the brain. Sodium thiosulfate may help lessen or prevent hearing loss and toxicities in patients undergoing chemotherapy with carboplatin and BBBD. Giving melphalan together with carboplatin, mannitol, and sodium thiosulfate may be an effective treatment for recurrent or progressive CNS embryonal or germ cell tumors.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine, paclitaxel, ifosfamide, and cisplatin, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects and best dose of gemcitabine when given together with paclitaxel, ifosfamide, and cisplatin, and to see how well they work in treating patients with progressive or relapsed metastatic germ cell tumors.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This research study is evaluating a tumor marker for testicular cancer, skin cancer, small intestine cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Peripheral stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more tumor cells. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, and bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating patients who have primary CNS germ cell tumors.

This study uses a double autologous peripheral blood stem cell rescue (PBSC) following dose-intensive chemotherapy for the treatment of high-risk pediatric solid tumors.

High-risk stage 1 NSGCTTs are curable with careful surveillance followed by 3 cycles of BEP (bleomycin, etoposide, cisplatin with 500mg/m2 of etoposide per cycle) chemotherapy for the 40-50% of cases experiencing recurrence. Alternatively, adjuvant chemotherapy with 2 cycles of BEP(at a lower dose than that used for advanced disease - etoposide 360mg/m2) for these patients achieves the same outcome and avoids intensive surveillance, but delivers 33% more chemotherapy cycles on a population basis. If a single cycle of BEP at the dose used in advanced disease had a similar high rate of relapse-free survival (cure) to that seen with two lower dose cycles, this would reduce the overall burden of chemotherapy and healthcare resource usage and would be likely to lead to a change in practice globally.

This is a prospective multicenter phase II trial of gemcitabine, cisplatin, and ifosfamide (GIP) in patients with relapsed non-seminomatous germ-cell tumors (NSGCT) and a predicted favorable prognosis.

Cabazitaxel is a new generation taxane with a high capacity for blood-brain barrier crossing and limited peripheral neuro-toxicity, two major potential advantages in patients with advanced NSGCTs. Cabazitaxel has a broader in vitro spectrum of activity than docetaxel. Taxanes have demonstrated activity in pre-treated GCTs and are now part of standard treatment, but cabazitaxel has not yet been tested in patients with NSGCT.