Active clinical trials for "Lung Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tissue, blood, sputum, and urine from patients with lung cancer and from healthy participants 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 looking at biomarkers for lung cancer using tissue samples from patients with lung cancer and from healthy participants.

This research studies collecting and storing tissue and blood samples from patients with lung cancer who are undergoing surgery. Collecting and storing samples of tissue and blood from patients with lung cancer to study in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and identify biomarkers related to cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood and tumor tissue in the laboratory from patients with cancer and blood from healthy participants may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at cancer-related protein biomarkers in the blood and tumor tissue of patients with cancer and in the blood of healthy participants.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood and 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. It may also help doctors predict how patients will respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This research study is looking at blood and tissue samples from patients with locally advanced, metastatic, or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer treated with bevacizumab, carboplatin, and paclitaxel.

RATIONALE: Gathering information about experiences of episodic breathlessness in patients with advanced disease may help doctors learn more about the disease. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying experiences of episodic breathlessness in patients with lung cancer or other advanced disease.

The main aim is to determine, in patients with locoregional, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated by definitive radiotherapy, the influence on survival of the volume of primary tumour, as measured from CT imaging, after adjusting for the effect of the current TNM staging system and other known prognostic factors (especially ECOG performance and weight loss).

The goal of this research study is to look at how long individuals who have been treated for early stage NSCLC or HNSCC live without developing lung cancer. Another goal is to develop tools to help predict the likelihood of lung cancer occurrence in this population. This will be done by studying characteristics of tissue and bodily fluids (including blood). Objectives: To assess the smoking-related disease-free survival in patients who are current or former smokers with a prior definitively-treated stage I/II lung or head and neck cancer. To develop a risk model to help predict the likelihood of lung cancer development both imaging and biomarker based in this high-risk population.

The Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis and the Pharmocogenetics Section of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch will conduct a lung cancer case-control study in Baltimore, Maryland. The primary hypothesis of the study is to determine if mutagen sensitivity, p53 induction and apoptosis in cultured lymphocytes will be predictive of lung cancer risk. While there are some studies that examine mutagen sensitivity, none of these assays has been well-studied in an epidemiological setting. Because of methodological issues described herein, and the proposed development of new assays, this study will be viewed as a pilot and therefore hypotheses generating. The design of this molecular epidemiology study has been specifically developed to test the reliability and validity of the mutagen sensitivity assay, where a case-control study is needed to assess the possibility of case bias (i.e., results vary due to the concurrent presence of lung cancer rather than risk). Importantly, this protocol will establish a resource that will allow for the validation of these assays and also for the study of other biomarkers and gene-environment interactions, especially those related to DNA repair. Th secondary goals of this study are to 1) demonstrate gene-neuro-behavioral interactions for smoking addiction in controls and 2) assess the relationship of sex-steroid metabolism an and estrogen exposure to lung cancer risk. Cases will have histologically confirmed lung cancer and reside in Baltimore an and surrounding areas. They will be identified through six hospitals in Baltimore. Cases will be recently diagnosed and blood will be collected prior to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Because of this requirement to obtain samples before treatment (or for surgical cases at least two months after surgery), we recognize that case ascertainment will be reduced, but critical data to assess differences between eligible and ineligible subjects will be collected through tumor registries. Two control groups will be used, the first will be hospital-based (frequency matched by age, gender, race, smoking and hospital) and the second will be population-based (frequency matched by age-, gender and race). The first control group will allow us to examine risk factors for lung cancer independent of smoking (odds ration for smoking = 1.0), and the second will allow the results to be extrapolated to the general population and also will be used to validate the phenotyping assays. The strategy for recruitment will allow us to over-sample for women and African Americans, so that after examination of data for the entire study group, we can assess differences by these subgroups. Cases and controls will receive a structured, in person interview assessing prior medical and cancer history, tobacco use, alcohol use, current medications, occupational history, family medical history, menstrual history and estrogen use, recent nutritional supplements and caffeine intake, and socioeconomic status. The questionnaire also will include the Fagerstrom index for nicotine dependence (FTND), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale, and a modified version of the Horn-Waingrow Reasons for Smoking (RFS) Scale. The phenotypic markers to be studied will assess DNA repair with cellular response by using lymphocyte cultures exposed in vitro to radiation, bleomycin, benzo(a)pyrene-diol-expoxide and N-methyl-nitrosurea and then measuring induction of chromosomal aberrations, p53 induction and apoptosis. DNA from cases and controls also will be used for genetic polymorphism analysis of carcinogen metabolism, and those relating to the dopaminergic system and nicotinic receptors. Tumors from cases will be evaluated for estrogen and progesterone receptors. The target accrual number of total subjects will be 1,200 where there will be 100 cases for each combination of gender and race (Caucasian- and African Americans), matched to 100 each of the hospital-based and population-based controls.

We will conduct an interdisciplinary case-control/sib-pair study of lung cancer designed to explore the genetic determinants both of lung cancer and of smoking. The study includes biospecimen collection as well as exposure information with power to address main genetic effects and gene-environment interactions. This is an integrated proposal designed to address two major issues: the genetic determinants of lung cancer in smokers and the genetic determinants of smoking. Other important issues will be addressed in the study with a marginal additional cost to the main design. The study achieves excellent power for studying the main effects of genetic factors that are relatively common and good power for formal tests of interactive effects. Using a case-control design, with questionnaire, medical record abstraction, and blood collection, we will investigate: main effects of genes on lung cancer risk; gene-environment and gene-gene effects in lung cancer etiology; gene effects on smoking persistence; gene effects on ever-never smoking; gene-psychological interactions in smoking behaviors. In addition, we will collect viable lymphocytes from all study subjects and tumor, metaplastic and normal tissue samples from 100 surgical cases. With these data and tissues, we will be able to study: genetic instabilities in lung cancer tissue in relation to specific exposures, genotype, persistence of smoking, and clinical presentation of lung cancer; histologic characteristics of lung cancer in relation to genotype, gene expression, somatic mutations, and smoking; functional assays in viable lmphocytes in relation to genotype, gene expression. Finally, we will identify lung cancer-affected siblings of cases, and the unaffected siblings in the same sibships. This sample will permit us to: replicate associations found in the case-control sample with an alternative analytical method based on transmission statistics; address some population stratification issues.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine procedure based on the measurement of positron emission from radiolabelled tracer molecules. These radiotracers allow biologic processes to be measured and whole body images to be obtained which demonstrates sites of radiotracer accumulation. The most common radiotracer in use today is 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) which is a radiolabelled sugar (glucose) molecule. Imaging with 18F-FDG PET is used to determine sites of abnormal glucose metabolism and can be used to characterize and localize many types of tumours. Cancer treatment and outcome depend largely on the accurate diagnosis and staging of disease. There is extensive data in the literature indicating the importance of FDG-PET imaging in accurately characterizing disease, as well as determining stage and sites of recurrent disease in many cancer types. For these indications, functional imaging with PET provides unique information which is not available from standard medical imaging modalities such as ultrasound, X-ray, computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The objectives of this study are to document the safety and efficacy of 18F-FDG produced by the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) at its Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF) production facility and to evaluate FDG-PET as a diagnostic and decision making tool in the management of oncology patients in British Columbia. With a population base of over 4 million people, standardized cancer treatment protocols, and evidence based guidelines for FDG-PET imaging, the BCCA is positioned to make an important contribution to defining the role of PET in the Canadian health care system.