Active clinical trials for "Skin Neoplasms"

RATIONALE: Photodynamic therapy uses a drug that becomes active when it is exposed to a certain kind of light. When the drug is active, tumor cells are killed. Photodynamic therapy using silicon phthalocyanine 4 may be effective against skin cancer. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of photodynamic therapy using silicon phthalocyanine 4 in treating participants with actinic keratosis, Bowen's disease, skin cancer, or stage I or stage II mycosis fungoides.

RATIONALE: SU5416 may stop the growth of cancer cells by stopping blood flow to the tumor. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of SU5416 in treating patients who have advanced or recurrent cancer of the head and neck.

This randomized phase III trial studies carboplatin, paclitaxel, and sorafenib tosylate to see how well they work compared to carboplatin and paclitaxel in treating patients with stage III or stage IV melanoma that cannot be removed by surgery. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Sorafenib tosylate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and by blocking blood flow to the tumor. It is not yet known whether giving carboplatin and paclitaxel together with sorafenib tosylate is more effective than carboplatin and paclitaxel in treating melanoma.

The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if the drug ZD1839 (Iressa) can shrink or slow the growth of cancer in participants with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell cancer (SCC) of the skin. The safety of this drug will also be studied.

The primary objective of this study is to measure the overall level of satisfaction in patients after cutaneous surgery in 4 different categories, including the surgeon, facility, procedure and recovery and outcome.

In psoriasis patients, thick psoriatic plaques can obscure these lesions, and clinicians rely heavily on visual inspection to recognize suspicious or atypical pigmented lesions. However, successful systemic treatment and subsequent clearing of psoriatic plaques may allow clinicians to better evaluate pigmented lesions, thereby increasing the likelihood of early identification and treatment of suspicious lesions such as nonmelanoma skin cancer and malignant melanoma.

The purpose of this study is to discover whether certain Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and/or cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in an Alabama population. Participant demographic information such as physical characteristics (e.g., ethnicity), family history, and cancer diagnosis will be collected in order to determine if there are relationships between the gene polymorphisms, cancer diagnosis, and these characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the decrease of post-operative morbidity in inguinal lymphadenectomies realised for vulvar tumors and inferior limb skin tumors by use of Ultracision with regard to classical operative techniques.

The study will draw patients from the Transplant Dermatology specialty clinic, where the investigators see organ transplant recipients (OTR) for regular screening and serve as a regional referral center for this population. Enrollment will be limited to 20 patients. Inclusion criteria are organ transplant recipients status, active immunosuppression for at least 5 years, and history of at least one NMSC.

In a population of kidney transplant recipients having developed a first squamous cell carcinoma, the aim of the study is to assess the incidence of subsequent skin cancers over 2 years in patients who are switched to rapamycin as compared to patients who are maintained under calcineurin inhibitors.