Active clinical trials for "Ovarian Neoplasms"

Ovarian cancer is the first mortality rate of gynecologic malignancies. The incidence of ovarian cancer increased in recent 10 years and it has become the ninth cause of malignancies in the women in Taiwan. From the above-mentioned data, ovarian cancer indeed is a disease that should be respected, however, there were only few of research work focusing on it in Taiwan. Despite the widespread use of aggressive cytoreductive surgery and the introduction of chemotherapy regimens, the overall survival has changed little over the last two decades. The basic problem in treating epithelial ovarian cancer is that once it has spread beyond the ovary, it is exceedingly difficult to control and ultimately to cure. More than 70% of ovarian cancer patients were advanced stage when diagnosed. To study the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, progression, and metastasis of ovarian cancer will help us understand this disease and develop new treatment strategies for ovarian cancer in the future. We have established an ascites-generating intraperitoneal tumor cell line-WF3 in the mouse model in our previous two-year project of NSC grant (grant number (NSC90-2314-B-002-457 and NSC91-2341-B-002-315). Our group found that, mesothelin, this molecule is highly related with the carcinogenesis, tumor progression and tumor metastasis in our animal model and human cancer tissues. To further evaluate the role of mesothelin in ovarian cancer and elucidate the potential of mesothelin as a target antigen for immunotherapy,

This clinical trial studies the quality of life and care needs of patients with persistent or recurrent ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or peritoneal cancer. Studying quality of life in patients with cancer may help determine the effects of gynecologic cancer and may help improve the quality of life for future cancer survivors.

Blood is collected from patients and cultured in a CimTube (a test tube with stimulation media) for several days. Following the culture step, the supernatant fluid is tested for the presence of CAAb on experimental test kits. Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between the presence or absence of ovarian cancer (OC) and the CAAb i.e. d=0. Alternative Hypothesis: The expectation of the CAAb in the cancer population differs from that of the control population, i.e. m1 is not equal to m2. Since the sign of the difference is not important, the test will be two-sided.

RATIONALE: Collecting samples of tissue from patients with cancer to study in the laboratory may help doctors predict how well patients will respond to treatment with certain chemotherapy drugs and plan the best treatment. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is looking at tumor tissue samples to predict response to chemotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer.

RATIONALE: Studying tissue and blood samples 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 respond to treatment. PURPOSE: This laboratory study is evaluating DNA to see how well it predicts response to treatment in patients with stage I, stage II, stage III, or stage IV ovarian epithelial cancer.

The purpose of this study is to invite all people diagnosed with cancer who meet the eligibility criteria to complete questionnaires before their treatment begins and at regular intervals over time to assess the impact of cancer and its treatment on people's lives in the short, medium and long term. We will explore a range of factors to determine their role in both recovery of health and well-being and self-management. Although it is known that people who have had cancer are likely to experience a number of physical and psychological problems as a result of the disease and treatment, it is not known what the 'typical' course of recovery of health and well-being looks like, how long it takes and how this can be influenced. We will determine pathways to recovery of health and well-being following cancer diagnosis (initially breast cancer diagnosed <50 years, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and gynaecological cancers) and identify what factors influence this. This includes assessing the relative importance of the person's illness, personal attributes, perceived burden of treatment, role of the environment they live in, including health / social care and personal networks of support, and their ability and capacity to self-manage. We will identify who is most at risk of problems and what environmental supports and resources people are able to mobilise to support their self-management. We will also explore who has the confidence and ability to manage during and beyond treatment and what factors influence this and whether this leads to earlier problem resolution and restoration of health and well-being. This knowledge will be used to develop and test future supportive interventions to enhance the rapid recovery of health and well-being - our long term aim being to design ways of helping people with cancer in areas we identify as problematic for them.

A feasibility study to provide 'proof of concept' of Elemental Diet (ED) as an acceptable/ useful feeding option for patient with inoperable malignant bowel obstruction and to examine the impact of ED on quality of life

Ovarian cancer is a major cause of cancer related death among women. The disease is usually advanced at diagnosis, because specialist referral is delayed due to vague nature of presenting symptoms. Primary treatment is successful, but most patients experience recurrence. Complaints due to disease and therapy overlap. Furthermore treatment schedules are similar in response rate and survival rates. Toxicity of therapy as scored by the physician is best documented, but varies depending on type of chemotherapy. Moreover most knowledge is acquired in clinical trials and not in daily practice. Patient reported outcome (PROs) concerning effects on symptoms, velocity of relief and quality of life (QoL) by the different regimens is sparce. Also it is unknown which symptoms are best relieved. Most trials take into account progression or survival as primary endpoint but not often symptom relief, which is especially important for patients with recurrent disease, without no chance of cure anymore. Knowledge on rating of problems and needs of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC) to support them in the course of their disease is needed to come to an evidence based and patient centered treatment of choice together with the patient. Physicians most frequently use the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) scale for grading of side effects of treatment, but discrepancies with patient experiences is high. Routine collection of PROs may therefore improve patient expectations and management. In this project the investigators intend to augment knowledge by PROs of different chemotherapy schedules for recurrent ovarian cancer in order to improve shared decision making with the physician. Objective: primary objective of this project is to explore the relief of symptoms due to ROC, the speed with which this occurs by different chemotherapy schedules and development of complaints due to the regimen of chemotherapy. Secondary the investigators intend (1) to assess preferential symptom relief by patients, (2) to correlate toxicity and symptoms of disease to tumor assessed response to chemotherapy and (3) to correlate symptom relief by psychosocial context.

Cancer is the leading cause of mortality in our country, and ovarian cancer becomes a more and more important disease gradually in the field of gynecologic malignancies. According to the statistics of the Department of Health, the incidence of ovarian cancer increased in recent years and the mortality rate was the highest among all gynecologic malignancies in Taiwan. Early diagnosis for ovarian cancer is difficult due to the lack of obvious and specific initial symptoms. Therefore, it is usually at advanced stage when the diagnosis is confirmed. The prognostic parameters for ovarian cancer include tumor stage, histological subtype and grade, residual tumor after surgical intervention and the response to chemotherapy. However, the possible mechanism of ovarian cancer is still not clear now, which has considerable influence on the management and prognosis of the patients. Malignancy is considered as a multi-factorial disease, and the influence of immunologic mechanism on progression and prognosis of cancer is more and more important. The natural CD25+CD4+ regulatory T cells actively suppress pathologic and physiological immune response, contributing to the maintenance of immunological self-tolerance and immune homeostasis. The development and function of regulatory T cells depend on the expression of the transcription factor forkhead box P3 (FOXP3). The mechanisms of suppression are still not known well. Whatever the mechanisms of suppression are, it is necessary to control the magnitude of regulatory T cells-mediated suppression for the benefit of the host because too much suppression might lead to immunosuppression and render the host susceptible to infection and cancer. We will collect the tumor tissue, ascites and peripheral blood during operation. Through this research we will set up the immunological profiles in the changes of lymphocytes, humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity in ovarian cancer patients. The kinetic changes and associations between regulatory T cells and the severity and progression of disease will also be evaluated. Therefore, the role of regulatory T cells would be defined in the patients with ovarian cancer. We will also correlate the regulatory T cells with the clinical prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. Finally, we will try to find an efficient therapeutic strategy for the cancer patients.

RATIONALE: Studying samples of blood 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 study is looking at genetic susceptibility for cancer and interactions between genes and the environment in patients with ovarian cancer.