23 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
This clinical trial is being conducted to find out the effects (good and bad) of giving the full radiation treatment for breast cancer as a single dose of radiation during surgery for breast cancer. This single fraction intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons will study the toxicity, local control and cosmetic outcome.
This pilot clinical trial studies caloric restriction in patients with stage 0-I breast cancer during surgery and radiation therapy. Reducing caloric intake may prevent disease progression in patients with breast cancer. Radiation therapy uses high energy x rays to kill tumor cells. Giving dietary intervention and radiation therapy together may kill more tumor cells.
This pilot clinical trial studies new ways to monitor the impact of hypofractionated image guided radiation therapy in treating patients with stage IV breast cancer. Radiation therapy uses high energy x rays to kill tumor cells. Giving radiation therapy in different ways may kill more tumor cells.
This phase II trial studies how well giving accelerated radiation therapy (RT) after surgery works in treating patients with breast cancer. RT uses high energy x rays to kill tumor cells. Giving RT after surgery may kill any remaining tumor cells
RATIONALE: Breast-conserving surgery is a less invasive type of surgery for breast cancer and may have fewer side effects and improve recovery. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving radiation therapy after surgery may kill any tumor cells that remain after surgery. PURPOSE: This phase II clinical trial is studying how well breast-conserving surgery followed by radiation therapy works in treating patients with stage I or stage II breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving radiation therapy after surgery kill any remaining tumor cells and may be an effective treatment for breast cancer. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well radiation therapy works in treating women with locally recurrent breast cancer previously treated with repeat breast-conserving surgery.
RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving radiation therapy in different ways may kill more tumor cells. Giving it after surgery may kill any tumor cells that remain after surgery. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of radiation therapy and to see how well it works in treating women with early stage breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Collecting and storing samples of blood and tumor tissue from patients with cancer to test in the laboratory may help the study of cancer in the future. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying blood and tumor tissue samples in women with invasive breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ, lobular carcinoma in situ, or benign breast disease.
RATIONALE: New surgery techniques may lessen pain after breast surgery. It is not yet known whether tumescent mastectomy or standard mastectomy results in less pain in women with breast cancer. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying pain after tumescent mastectomy compared with pain after standard mastectomy in women with stage I, stage II, or stage III breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the side effects of partial breast radiation therapy and how well it works in treating women undergoing breast conservation therapy for early-stage breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving radiation therapy in different ways may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying the side effects and best way to give radiation therapy and to see how well it works in treating patients with invasive breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) may kill more tumor cells. Monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Giving combination chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab before surgery may make the tumor smaller and reduce the amount of normal tissue that needs to be removed. It is not yet known whether combination chemotherapy is more effective with or without trastuzumab in treating breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase II trial is comparing two different regimens of combination chemotherapy given together with or without trastuzumab to see how well they work in treating patients with stage II or stage III breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. An autologous stem cell transplant may be able to replace blood-forming cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Giving combination chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab followed by an autologous stem cell transplant and radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving combination chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab followed by an autologous stem cell transplant and radiation therapy works in treating patients with stage III or stage IV breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as paclitaxel and carboplatin, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Giving chemotherapy before surgery may shrink the tumor so that it can be removed. Combining paclitaxel with carboplatin may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving paclitaxel together with carboplatin works in treating women who are undergoing surgery for newly diagnosed, locally advanced breast cancer.
RATIONALE: Diagnostic procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may improve the ability to detect cancer in the unaffected breast of women recently diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer. PURPOSE: Diagnostic trial to determine the effectiveness of MRI in evaluating the unaffected breast of women recently diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer.
The purpose of this study is to find out whether lattice radiation therapy (LRT) is an effective radiation therapy technique when compared to standard stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The study will also study how the different radiation therapy techniques (LRT and SBRT) affect how many immune cells are able to attack and kill tumor cells (immune infiltration).
This phase II trial studies how well radiation therapy works in treating post-menopausal women with early stage breast cancer undergoing surgery. Radiation therapy uses high energy x rays to kill tumor cells. This may be an effective treatment for breast cancer.
The goal of this clinical research study is to learn how often magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast locates additional areas of cancer in the breast of patients with lobular cancer as well as in the breasts of young breast cancer patients (less than age 40 years). Researchers also hope to learn how often the results of the MRI changes the type of surgical treatment that is recommended and understand the costs associated with using MRI in the diagnostic process. Researchers also want to use a different way of looking at the MRI scans to learn if they can more easily learn the difference between a cyst and a tumor.
The objective of the proposed research is to develop a clinical-trial-ready device and to evaluate its practical utility as a routinely used intra-operative tool. Our multidisciplinary group has previously shown that optical techniques can effectively discriminate between malignant and non-malignant breast tissues. The proposed technology will be a multi-channel optical assay device for intra-operative imaging of margins in specimens excised from patients undergoing breast conserving surgery (partial mastectomy) or mastectomy.
The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the prevalence of markers of chronic and cycling hypoxia and reactive species stress (oxidative and nitrosative) in the breast cancer tumor microenvironment. The study is based around four cornerstone features of the pathologic microenvironment - Hypoxia, Reactive Species (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species), HIF-1 and VEGF, which we term the HRHV axis. Fifty breast cancer patients with planned surgical excision will be administered the hypoxia marker drug, EF5, 24-36 hr prior to surgical excision. EF5 is a non-therapeutic drug and provides no direct benefit to those patients enrolled in this pilot study. Tissues obtained intra-operatively will be snap frozen and subsequently analyzed for EF5 binding. Immunohistochemical analysis of a cohort of immunohistochemical and urine markers that depict the HRHV axis will be examined. The association of the markers with the presence of hypoxia, as determined by EF5 positivity, will be determined. Data from this pilot study will be used to establish the prevalence of markers of the HRHV axis in breast cancer. This information will be crucial for future human trials in which the HRHV axis is therapeutically targeted.
Hypofractionated intraoperative boost (HIOB) is defined as hypofractionated WBRT (40.5 Gy in 2.7 Gy per fraction) preceded by an intraoperative boost to the tumor bed (10 Gy IOERT). The HIOB study concept will test whether such a combined schedule is superior or iso-effective standard RT in terms of local control and cosmetic outcome.
According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and is responsible for 686,000 new cases every year. The WHO also posit that nearly 420,000 women perished from the disease in 2002. Surgery remains the best option for patients presenting with operable Stage I, II or III cancers. Breast conservation surgery has been shown to be as efficacious as mastectomy. About 60-70% of these women with operable breast cancer are breast conservation candidates. However, the need to achieve negative tumor margins often requires a second operation (re-excision) in up to 70% of the women having lumpectomy surgery. Currently, tumor margins assessment in the operating room is often assessed grossly by palpation. The ability to evaluate tumor margin using our proposed intraoperative imaging technique may provide the surgeon with an alternative, and hopefully, more sensitive method to assess tumor margins which may decrease re-excision and the morbidity associated with additional surgery, and, perhaps, lower the risk of local regional recurrence.
Naltrexone is a drug which blocks some effects of chemicals called beta-endorphins that are made in the body. Beta-endorphins can be made in response to stress, injury, and also pleasurable activities. In previous studies, it has been shown that levels of beta-endorphins in the blood go up during radiation therapy, and that this increase is linked to fatigue. This suggests that naltrexone may help to reduce fatigue in people who are getting radiation therapy In this research study, the investigators are looking to see whether naltrexone works better than a placebo in reducing fatigue during radiation therapy.