Active clinical trials for "Pleural Effusion"

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an indwelling tunneled pleural catheter (ITPC) in the management of hepatic hydrothorax that is not responsive to conventional medical therapy. Hepatic Hydrothorax (HH) is defined as an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space between the chest wall and the lung and occurs in 5-10% of patients with liver disease. Despite medical therapy with diuretics and salt restriction, many patients still experience intractable, debilitating shortness of breath, often necessitating hospital admission. Repeated thoracentesis,which is a procedure in which the hepatic hydrothorax is drained with a needle may be effective, but is often only temporary prior to the reaccumulation of fluid leading to the requirement of repeated procedures. Trans-jugular intrahepatic porto-systemic shunt (TIPS), while a valuable treatment for HH, is not always effective or able to be performed. Similarly, liver transplantation although potentially curative, is not available to many patients and may be significantly delayed. Many patients do not experience sufficient or timely relief with current conventional therapy.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare radiological lung expansion after talc pleurodesis performed either by videothoracoscopy or chest tube and correlate it with clinical outcome. Secondary endpoints evaluated were: clinical efficacy, safety, quality of life and survival.

AZD0530 may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. This phase II study is studying how well giving AZD0530 works in treating patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

Your lung cancer has caused fluid to build up in the space around your lung. This fluid is called a malignant pleural effusion. This fluid takes up space in your chest, and prevents your lung from fully filling with air. As a result, you may be experiencing shortness of breath, cough, or chest discomfort. Your doctors have determined that you would feel better if a surgeon or pulmonary specialist removed this fluid immediately. Your doctors are offering to admit you to the hospital, and drain the fluid using a Pleur-XTM catheter. Once the Pleur-X catheter is in place, your doctors would like to start your chemotherapy. Your doctors have decided to treat you with chemotherapy. If the chemotherapy works to kill the cancer cells in your body, the cancer will make less fluid, and your doctors will be able to remove the Pleur-XTM catheter sooner. It is possible that adding a second drug to the chemotherapy, called bevacizumab may make he fluid dry up even faster. It is not known whether adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy for patients with a Pleur-XTM catheter in place is more helpful, or potentially more harmful, than using chemotherapy alone. For this reason, only patients enrolled in this research protocol can receive both chemotherapy and bevacizumab while they have a Pleur-XTM catheter in place. The purpose of this research study is to determine whether chemotherapy may be delivered safely with a Pleur-XTM catheter in place.

Tuberculous (TB) pleurisy can cause clinical symptoms and pleural fibrosis with resultant residual pleural thickening (RPT). Therapeutic thoracentesis or initial complete drainage in addition to anti-TB drugs have been tried to rapidly relieve dyspnea caused by effusion and to decrease the occurrence of RPT. However, contradictory results are reported without clear reasons. The researchers' hypothesis is that, in addition to anti-TB medications, early effective evacuation of inflammatory exudates with or without fibrinolytic agents may hasten resolution of pleural effusion, reduce the occurrence of RPT and finally improve long-term functional outcome in patients with TB pleurisy.

RATIONALE: Using BG00001 to insert the gene for interferon-beta into a person's pleural cavity may improve the body's ability to fight cancer. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of intrapleural BG00001 in treating patients who have malignant pleural mesothelioma or malignant pleural effusions.

RATIONALE: It is not yet known whether pleurodesis using a chest tube with infusions of talc is more effective in improving quality of life than pleurodesis using a small catheter in treating malignant pleural effusion. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of a chest tube and talc with that of a small catheter in treating malignant pleural effusion in patients who have cancer.

The aim of this study is to better understand the relationship between pleural effusions and breathlessness in patients with unilateral pleural effusions and breathlessness who require pleural fluid removal for its management.

Pleural fluid can be caused by cancer. Patients with repeated presentation of pleural fluid where initial diagnostic tests have been inconclusive are the focus of this trial. In this clinical trial patients are randomized into two groups and the efficacy of local anesthetic thoracoscopy (LAT) is compared to an ultrasound guided biopsy of the outer lining of the lung. The aim is not only the diagnostic yield in diagnosing cancer, but also the procedures ability to diagnose specific cancer mutations and immune system markings. Methods and objectives: Patients with reoccuring one-sided pleural fluid, with a marked clinical risk of cancer based on findings in medical work-up, radiological scans, biochemistry and medical history and who are undiagnosed upon initial pleural fluid analysis are the target patients of the trial. Patients are randomized into two groups to have undertaken either pleural biopsy at the optimal site for a repeat thoracentesis or LAT. Thus diagnostic yield for both fluid analysis and biopsy analysis will be compared to tissue samples taken with LAT. We hypothesize that LAT is superior both to pleural biopsy and repeat thoracentesis in providing diagnostic clarification and providing sufficient basis for treatment without further procedures resulting in less time consumption, cost and discomfort for the patient.

To evaluate the safety and tolerability of single dose of SCB-313 by intrapleural injection.To evaluate the safety and tolerability of repeated dose of SCB-313 by intrapleural injection once a day for 3 days, and to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of SCB-313.