Active clinical trials for "Prostatic Neoplasms"

The purpose of this study is to see if sequence inversion of Intensity - modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer, can improve the safety and deliverability of concurrent docetaxel chemotherapy with long - term hormonal therapy. The hypothesis is that inverting the traditional sequence of radiotherapy can delay the time to treatment - induced bowel toxicity.

This study will review the safety of picoplatin, a new type of platinum drug, with docetaxel, a drug commonly used in the treatment of prostate cancer. Patients who are eligible for this study will have had a diagnosis of hormone-refractory prostate cancer that has metastasized to other areas of the body, and have not been previously treated with chemotherapy drugs. Picoplatin will be administered in combination with docetaxel and prednisone to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). Patients will receive IV treatments of picoplatin with docetaxel every 3 weeks, with prednisone, 5 mg orally, twice daily.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of MK0822 in prolonging the time to first bone metastasis in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer.

The mechanisms responsible for the development of hormonal refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) have been elusive. Genetic inactivation/loss of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene occurs in 30-60% of advanced prostate cancers and in 20% of the localized form. Researchers hypothesize that PTEN loss is a landmark genetic event in prostate cancer progression into the fatal HRPC form. One consequence of PTEN loss is activation of the oncogenic Akt and phosphorylation of downstream Akt targets including mTOR. mTOR controls many important cellular processes including cell cycle regulation. We propose to evaluate pharmacodynamic assessments of the mTOR inhibitor RAD001 in intermediate and high risk prostate cancer patients in the neoadjuvant setting. Patients will be admitted to 6 weeks treatment with RAD001 10 mg/day followed by either radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy combined with hormonal treatment. Immunohistochemistry with antibodies for phosphorylated p70S6K , pS6, Akt as well as antibodies for VEGF, BCL2 and PTEN in prostate cancer tissues before and after 6 weeks RAD001 treatment will be performed. Additionally, Patients will be evaluated by FDG-PET scan before (as baseline) and after RAD001 treatment. A link between mTOR signaling and glycolysis regulation was established and may provide a mechanism to assess drug-target interaction of RAD001 in prostate cancer. The secondary endpoint of the trial will be to determine the response proportion to RAD001 treatment by assessing time to biochemical failure followed by radiation therapy or radical prostatectomy. The data will be compared to a matched cohort of high and intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients admitted to the same treatments modalities without receiving RAD001.

The goal of this clinical research study is to compare using external beam radiotherapy with intensity modulated beams for fewer days at a higher dose per day to the same type of therapy for more days at a lower dose per day in the treatment of prostate cancer. The safety of these treatments will also be studied and compared.

A study to determine the use of far infrared radiation for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Virtual high dose rate (HDR) CyberKnife (CK) prostate treatment has comparable morbidity and efficacy compared with actual prostate HDR treatment, but does it without the catheters and hospital admission. As such, it is a more "patient friendly" treatment method compared with actual prostate HDR brachytherapy as currently practiced. Related, as has previously been reported with actual prostate HDR treatment, Virtual HDR CyberKnife prostate treatment should have a high efficacy but with lower acute and chronic morbidity compared with other local prostate cancer treatment methods such as permanent seed prostate brachytherapy.

To asess the efficacy of Uroxatrol, an alpha blocker in men undergoing prostate brachytherapy to treat prostate cancer, and whether the use of Uroxatrol in advance of the brachytherapy is better or not than starting it on the day of surgery.

Purpose: The purpose of this trial is to compare two different treatment options for patients with low risk and low-tier intermediate risk prostate cancer. The two treatment arms being compared in this study are: (control arm) permanent interstitial prostate brachytherapy (PIPB) VERSUS (experimental arm) intensity modulated external beam radiation therapy (IMRT). Hypothesis: The acute and late toxicities experienced by patients in the experimental arm (IMRT) are not significantly worse then the toxicities experienced by patients in the control arm (PIPB).

RATIONALE: Vaccines made from a person's peripheral stem cells may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of vaccine therapy in treating patients who have metastatic prostate cancer that has not responded to hormone therapy.