Active clinical trials for "Thyroid Diseases"

Objectives: Primary objectives: To determine the maximum tolerated doses (MTD) for the combination of imatinib mesylate, capecitabine, and dacarbazine in patients with solid tumors. To determine the overall tumor response rate to imatinib mesylate in combination with capecitabine and dacarbazine as first line and second line therapy in advanced metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma. To determine the tolerability (toxicity) of this regimen. Secondary objectives: To determine the median overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP) for patients treated with this combination.

Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of sorafenib tosylate in treating patients who have locally advanced, metastatic, or locally recurrent thyroid cancer. Sorafenib tosylate may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for their growth and by stopping blood flow to the tumor.

Background: - Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) often spreads to lymph nodes in the neck. This can be hard to detect. People often have lymph nodes removed anyway, and researchers want to study if this is a good idea. Objective: - To compare the effectiveness of removing lymph nodes in the neck that show no evidence of cancer along with the thyroid, or removing only the thyroid. Eligibility: - Adults age 18 and older with PTC or thyroid nodules suspicious for PTC, with no evidence that the disease has spread in the body. Design: Participants will be screened with medical history, physical exam, blood tests, scans, and x-rays. Participants will: Answer questions. They may have a tumor biopsy. Have a flexible laryngoscopy. A small tube will pass through the nose to the vocal cords. Group 1: have surgery to remove the thyroid gland only. Lymph nodes in the neck will be removed if the cancer has spread. Group 2: have surgery to remove the thyroid and lymph nodes in the neck. At all post-surgery visits, participants will answer questions and have blood drawn. In addition: 1 day: laryngoscopy. 2 weeks: possible laryngoscopy. 3 months: ultrasound of the thyroid and neck. Discuss whether to try hormone treatment and/or radioactive iodine. Possible diagnostic whole body radioiodine scan (WBS). Participants will swallow a capsule or liquid and lie under a camera. 6 months: ultrasound and maybe laryngoscopy. 1 year: diagnostic WBS and ultrasound. Participants may get thyroid stimulating hormone. Participants will have annual follow-up visits for 10 years. They will have a physical exam, blood drawn, scans, and may complete a questionnaire.

Thyroid eye disease (TED) is an autoimmune disease that affects the eye area. The disease presents with a variety of physical findings, including bulging of the eyes (proptosis), upper and lower eyelid retraction, and swelling/inflammation of the eye itself. The disease passes through two phases: active and inactive. The active phase lasts between 18 and 24 months. During this phase, TED signs and symptoms generally worsen and then often improve. The inactive phase follows, during which the signs and symptoms of TED cease to improve and usually stabilize. Lid retraction is a cardinal sign of TED. In addition to potentially causing cornea damage due to improper lid closure, lid retraction is also very troublesome for patients due to its cosmetic appearance. The precise pathophysiology of lid retraction is poorly understood, but a leading hypothesis is that it occurs due to scarring and fibrosis in the muscles that lift the eyelid. Currently, the definitive treatment for lid retraction is surgery, which can be used to lengthen the lid itself or remove inflamed tissue from behind the eye, thus causing the eye to bulge less. In cases when patients first present to their physician with corneal ulceration or compression of the optic nerve, surgery may be performed immediately. However, in most instances, surgical procedures are delayed until the active stage of the disease has passed. Thus, most patients must endure the cosmetic and irritant symptoms of TED for up to two years. Hyaluronic Acid Gels (HAG) have been FDA approved for the treatment of facial rhytids (wrinkles). They are injected under the skin and work by increasing volume. Recently, some smaller retrospective research studies have shown that HAG is also effective in correcting upper and lower eyelid retraction in TED. Hence, HAG may be for patients with active stage TED. It is also thought that if employed early in active phase disease, HAG may also help to decrease the severity of associated symptoms and reduce the need for surgery. The purpose of the current investigation is to define the clinical utility of HAG correction of upper eyelid in active TED in terms of anatomic (lid position), quantitative (corneal dry eye signs) and qualitative effects (symptom severity and thyroid related quality of life).

We assess the effectiveness of percutaneous ethanol ablation for the treatment of thyroid cancer.

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT for the detection of medullary thyroid cancer in patients with primary and recurrent disease.

Radioactive iodine (RAI) is a radioisotope used to ablate thyroid gland remnant after thyroidectomy in patients diagnosed with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). A whole body scan (WBS) is performed to not only evaluate for iodine uptake by the native thyroid tissue but also to observe for uptake in other areas of the body, which could be physiological or indicative of iodide-avid metastases. Research has shown a correlation between breast cancer and thyroid cancer. Patients with DTC have been found to have elevated levels of serum prolactin, which could lead to mammary gland dysfunction. In patients with DTC undergoing RAI scanning or therapy, it has been previously observed that patients prepared by thyroid hormone withdrawal have significantly higher breast uptake on whole body scan compared to those prepared by rh-TSH. Considering the impact of prolactin on breast tissue, this study aims to correlate these findings with the lab values and the method of preparation. Accordingly, the research question is as follows: does the method of WBS preparation impact prolactin levels and how does that correlate with breast uptake in patients with DTC undergoing RAI WBS?

This project is a retrospective observational study based on the molecular characterization of a Spanish population of patients with refractory radio-iodine differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) with advanced and / or metastatic disease undergoing systemic treatment, or under clinical observation. Three diagnostic techniques will be performed on formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tumor samples from the study population: immunohistochemistry (IHC), fluorescence by in situ hybridization (FISH) as well as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques by means of DNA and RNA analysis (Ion Platform Torrent - Oncomine Focus Assay, 52 gene detection). The results of each patient will be compared in order to correlate the results of each method.

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of endocrine changes and their correction on survival and organ function in heart and lung transplant recipients. This study also features an investigation of the hormone levels and hormonal replacement therapy of the donors to study its role in the function of the transplanted hearts and lungs. Thyroid hormones (TSH, thyroxine, tri-iodothyronine), cortisol and the antidiuretic hormone will be studied. The former two hormone levels will be defined in the recipients just before transplantation and three days later. In the case of the donors all three hormones will be recorded at the time of the explantation. The investigators would like to record the hormonal replacement therapy in all our patients as well to see it's effect on survival and on the transplanted organ function. After the transplantation during the hospital stays all the important hemodynamic parameters, laboratory parameters, the result of the medical imagings, the medication, the length of ICU and hospital stay and the complications were recorded. Recipients will be followed for five years. Organ function will be assessed every three month for a year, after than every six month for further four years. Investigator would like to record the result of the cardiac echocardiography, spirometries, imaging, and complications. Our purpose is to compare these results against the endocrine disorders and the replacement therapy.

Background: The combination of anti-cancer drugs vandetanib (given orally) and bortezomib (given intravenously) has not been used in humans. However, both drugs have been studied separately. Bortezomib has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, while vandetanib is still under investigation pending FDA approval. Both bortezomib and vandetanib are under investigation for use in treating certain kinds of cancer. Researchers hope that the combination of these two drugs will be more effective than either of them alone. Objectives: To determine if the combination of vandetanib and bortezomib will decrease the amount of the cancer and, if it does, to determine how long the response will last. To determine any side effects that may occur with this combination of treatments. To determine what doses of each drug are well tolerated and safe when given together. To study genetic mutations in tumors to better understand how tumors grow and how these drugs interact with the tumor. Eligibility: Patients 18 years of age and older with solid tumors that cannot be surgically removed and have either recurred or shown further growth. The tumor(s) must be able to be evaluated by X-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), and CT (computerized tomography) scanning. Patients who have been diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer will participate in Phase II of the study. Design: Tumor samples may be taken at the start of the study for research purposes. Phase I: Patient groups will be treated on an outpatient basis with vandetanib and bortezomib, given at increasing doses over four different levels to determine the maximum tolerated dose calculated by height and weight: Doses will be given on Days 1, 4, 8, and 11 for each 28-day cycle. Two additional levels (Level 1A and Level 1B) may be included in the study, depending on side effects at various levels. Phase II: Patients with medullary thyroid cancer will be divided into two groups, with two patients in Group A for every one patient in Group B. No placebo will be involved in this study. Group A: Patients will be treated with vandetanib and bortezomib at the maximally tolerated dose of the Phase I study. Group B: Patients will be treated with bortezomib alone. A second tumor sample may be taken. In patients with thyroid cancer, the second biopsy will be done at the 6-week evaluation (approximately 42 days after beginning). In patients with cancer other than thyroid cancer, the second biopsy will be obtained on Day 4 of either the first or second cycle, after the bortezomib infusion. The effects of the drugs will be studied through blood samples and CT scans taken during and after various drug cycles.