Ewing Sarcoma

Clinical Trials

Mayo Clinic participates in the national North Central Cancer Treatment Group, which develops chemotherapy treatment methods (protocols). This cooperative network has helped to develop the current standard treatment using a combination of five drugs, an approach that provides excellent survival rates.

Below is a list of Ewing Sarcoma clinical trials from the clinical trials database at Mayo Clinic.

This list includes only trials about which Mayo researchers choose to publish information. Mayo Clinic may be conducting other trials which are not in this database. Mayo's clinical trials include experimental treatments, often unavailable elsewhere, which frequently lead to improved patient care for people worldwide. Patients should ask their doctor at Mayo about clinical trials appropriate for their situation.

Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation, Radiation Therapy, and/or Surgery in Treating Patients With Ewing Sarcoma
This study is being done to:
- Improve the outcome of patients with Ewing sarcoma.
- Compare the survival of patients in a study of:
- standard drug treatment and whole lung irradiation versus
- high dose, stronger drug treatment followed by replacement of peripheral blood stem cells (transplant). Stem cells are the cells that create new blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. They can be found in the peripheral blood (bloodstream) or the soft tissue of the bone, called the bone marrow.

Patients are being asked to take part in this study because they have a type of cancer called Ewing sarcoma that has spread to the lung or pleura (lining of the lung and chest cavity).
Ewing sarcoma is a cancerous tumor that forms in the bone or soft connective tissues.
These tumors spread quickly to other areas of the body including the lungs. Ewing
sarcoma is always fatal without treatment.

The standard treatment for patients with Ewing sarcoma with disease that has spread to the lungs or pleura is standard dose chemotherapy and whole lung radiation therapy. It is possible that stronger chemotherapy, using high doses of standard chemotherapy drugs may improve the outcome (survival) for these patients. However, the side effects of using both whole lung radiation therapy and high dose chemotherapy would be too much to combine these treatments.
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The Use of Chemotherapy Medications, Gemcitabine (Gemzar) and Docetaxel (Taxotere) in the Treatment of Ewing Sarcoma, Osteosarcoma, or Chondrosarcoma
This study is being done to:
-See if the chemotherapy drugs gemcitabine (Gemzar) and docetaxel (Taxotere), when given together, may help to fight cancer of the bone or soft tissue. Each of these drugs is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of some kinds of cancer, such as cancer of the pancreas and lung, but they are not approved for this type of cancer, so in this study they are called investigational drugs.
-See what effects (good and bad) gemcitabine and docetaxel have on the patient and the tumor.
-See how a patient's body processes the gemcitabine and docetaxel.
-(When possible), to do genetic research studies on a sample of a patient's tumor tissue.
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