Active clinical trials for "Ovarian Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Screening tests may help doctors detect cancer cells early and plan more effective treatment for ovarian cancer. PURPOSE: Screening trial to determine the significance of cancer antigen 125 (CA125) levels in detecting ovarian cancer in participants who have a high genetic risk of developing ovarian cancer.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROMA) is effective in the determination of a woman's risk of cancer when she is scheduled to have surgery to remove a pelvic mass. After Informed Consent is obtained, an Initial Cancer Risk Assessment will be made. A blood sample will be collected within 30 days of the surgical procedure. Results of the surgical procedure will be collected and analyzed against the CA125 and HE4 results used in the calculation of the ROMA.

In the United States, ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer to develop in women and causes more deaths than all other gynecologic malignancies combined. Because of the difficulties in detecting early stage ovarian cancer, 75% of women continue to be diagnosed with advanced stage disease (stage III or IV). The National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program (NOCEDP) as part of the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) is committed to the development of effective means for the accurate detection of early stage ovarian cancer. The last decade has seen rapid technological advances in diagnostic ultrasonography with the recent development of three-dimensional imaging. Initial studies suggest that these new technologies improve upon the diagnostic accuracy of two-dimensional transvaginal imaging in the differentiation between benign and malignant pathology. This improved diagnostic accuracy may promote improved patient care by separating complex benign masses from ovarian cancer therefore facilitating appropriate treatment.

This study will try to determine whether or not certain genes are responsible for the huge variation in toxicity and effect observed between patients treated with paclitaxel (chemotherapeutic drug). Specifically we will study this retrospectively in patients who participated in clinical trials that are now closed. All patients had ovarian cancer and received paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy after primary surgery.

RATIONALE: Palliative care may help improve the quality of life of patients with ovarian cancer who are undergoing intraperitoneal chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying palliative care in patients with ovarian cancer who are undergoing intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

RATIONALE: Estrogen may cause the growth of ovarian cancer cells. Hormone therapy using tamoxifen may fight ovarian cancer by blocking the use of estrogen by the tumor cells. Measuring CA 125 levels may help doctors predict a patient's response to tamoxifen and help plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying CA 125 levels in treating patients with relapsed advanced ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer who are receiving tamoxifen.

The purpose of this clinical trial is to evaluate the ability of multiple serum biomarkers to estimate the risk of ovarian cancer in women presenting with pelvic mass (defined as a simple, complex or a solid ovarian cyst / pelvic mass).

Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of gynecologic malignancies and the overall 5-year survival rate of ovarian cancer is only 20-30%. Additionally, the incidence of ovarian cancer has increased in recent years in Taiwan. Ovarian cancer is indeed a disease that should be respected, however, there was very little research work focusing on it in Taiwan. Patients with ovarian cancer who have stage I disease (localized to ovaries) after optimal surgical staging do not need any adjuvant therapy. In contrast, patients with cancer spreading beyond the ovaries have median survival rates that decrease to less than (<) 10% for patients with bulky residual disease after surgery and treatment with platinum-based combination chemotherapy. In developing effective therapy for ovarian cancer, there should be a distinction between preventative and therapeutic approaches. Immunoprevention will be developed for women who are at an increased risk for the development of ovarian cancer. In contrast, immunotherapy would be used as an adjuvant to surgery or in combination with chemotherapy or other biologics such as chemoimmunotherapy or biochemoimmunotherapy. The folate receptor (FR) is expressed in some normal epithelial cells and is elevated in certain carcinomas. The FR has been reported to be selectively overexpressed in 90% of non-mucinous ovarian carcinomas. The specific epitopes of the folate receptor in the HLA-A2 haplotype have been identified. It appears that the folate receptor could be a target antigen for the immunotherapy of ovarian cancer. Therefore the investigators would like to propose the development of folate receptor-specific immunologic assays. There are two aims in this project: to develop and utilize assays to measure cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) to folate receptors, and to evaluate the folate receptor-specific immunologic responses between normal controls and ovarian cancer patients.

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women in Korea, with 2,600 cases occurring annually, and the number of cases is steadily increasing. There is no practical method for early detection of ovarian cancer, and 75 percent of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage. The treatment of ovarian cancer is based on surgical removal and platinum-based chemotherapy. The cell-free DNA (cfDNA) test has the advantage of being able to track and monitor mutations of tumor origin noninvasive. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a biomarker for cancer recurrence in ovarian cancer after surgery. Diagnosis and prognosis evaluation using conventional methods such as CA-125, radiologic examination (CT), had limitations in diagnosing and prognostic observation of ovarian cancer. For precise diagnostic purposes, CA-125 had limitations because it was detected as positive value when the tumor size is enough large or states of metastasis, and CT-based diagnosis is practicable only when the size of tumor is detectable. However, cell-free DNA can be detected even if the tumor size is small because it detects very small amount of mutation gene in the blood. In addition, the detection of tumor cell DNA from circulating blood can be a clinical decision making point whether to continue or stop chemotherapy. In this study, the investigators collect whole blood from patients with ovarian cancer undergoing surgery. Control samples will be obtained from patients undergoing surgery for benign adnexal disease with CA125 >35U/ml. In ovarian cancer patients, blood samples will be collected prospectively every 3 months after surgery. Mutations found at the initial sample will be monitored during chemotherapy to investigate the ctDNA pattern. The primary outcome will be progression free survival (PFS).

Detection of the potential oncogenic role of Engrailed-2 in epithelial ovarian neoplasms, in order to detect biological markers that could be targeted and blocked by new medications.