Rectal Cancer

Clinical Trials

Below is a list of Rectal Cancer 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.

R-04, A Clinical Trial Comparing Preoperative Radiation Therapy and Capecitabine (Xeloda) with or without Oxaliplatin with Preoperative Radiation Therapy and Continuous Intravenous (IV) Infusion of 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) with or without Oxaliplatin in the Treatment of Patients with Operable Cancer of the Rectum
This study is being done with patients with rectal cancer to:
- See if taking a drug called capecitabine as a pill, twice a day by mouth during the weeks a patient receives radiation therapy, is as good as the standard treatment with the drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) given continuously into a patient's vein during the weeks the patient receives radiation therapy.
- See if adding oxaliplatin to capecitabine and 5-FU can improve how well these drugs work. At this time researchers do not know which chemotherapy drugs, when combined with radiation therapy, are most effective for this type of cancer.
- Look at the four different treatment options by obtaining important information regarding quality of life.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently considers the use of both capecitabine and oxaliplatin to be investigational when given before surgery to remove this type of cancer.
Read more

A Multinational National Institutes of Health-Sponsored Colon Cancer Family Registry
This study is being done to identify individuals from families that have experienced one or more instances of colon cancer, in order to study these families in detail. The current understanding of the environmental and genetic factors that contribute to the development of colon cancer are poorly understood. By carefully evaluating a large number of families that have experienced one or more instances of colon cancer it may be possible to identify factors (environmental, genetic or both) that lead to increase risk of colon cancer. The Mayo Clinic and other medical centers are working together to create a National Cancer Institute Cooperative Family Registry for Colon Cancer Studies, which consists of gathering together information and biological specimens (blood and tumor tissue) from carefully studied families with colon cancer in order to facilitate colon cancer research.
Read more

A Phase II Trial of Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Before Surgery (local excision) in Patients with Rectal Cancer
This study is being done to test whether giving patients a combination of chemotherapy and radiation before the cancer is surgically removed with a procedure called local excision can effectively treat the cancer. We also want to find out what effect that treatment has on the patient's quality of life.

We hope that by giving patients the combination of chemotherapy and radiation before surgery, the tumor will shrink. This will allow the doctor to remove the cancer with a local excision, a surgical procedure designed to leave as much of the rectum and lower intestine intact as possible while still removing all of the cancer. This operation has a better chance of allowing patients to continue to have normal bowel function than the standard therapy for this kind of cancer.
Read more

Study of Celebrex and Selenium to Decrease the Risk of Developing Recurrent Colon Polyps
The Division of Gastroenterology is currently recruiting participants between the ages of 40 and 80 in a research study to determine whether treatment with celecoxib (Celebrex), or selenium, or the combination of celecoxib and selenium can decrease the risk of developing recurrent polyps. Eligible particpants must have had a colonoscopy where an adenomatous(precancerous)polyp was found and removed.
Read more