Sarcoma

Clinical Trials

Below is a list of 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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Combination Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, and/or Surgery in Treating Patients With High-Risk Kidney Tumors
This is a study for children and young adults with high-risk cancers that usually start in the kidney. The study was designed for patients with anaplastic Wilms tumor, malignant rhabdoid tumor, clear cell sarcoma of the kidney, and renal cell carcinoma. These tumors are called "high-risk" tumors because they are likely to spread to other areas of the body and/or come back during or after treatment. The high-risk kidney tumors are very rare; only about 50 children and young adults are diagnosed with a high-risk kidney tumor each year in North America. This study has different treatment "arms" that vary according to the stage and type of the tumor.
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Monoclonal Antibody, Bevacizumab (Avastin), for Treating Angiosarcoma (NU04S1)
This research study involves the use of a drug called Bevacizumab. Bevacizumab is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for patients with metastatic colon cancer. It is not approved as a treatment for angiosarcoma, so it is considered experimental in this study. Bevacizumab works by blocking a substance in a persons body called endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. VEGF is found in many normal tissues and is important in the making of new blood vessels (both normal and abnormal) in a persons body. Cancerous tumors may cause too much VEGF to be made. This study is being done to find out what effects (good and bad) Bevacizumab has on a patient and angiosarcoma; find out what side effects this drug causes and how often they happen.
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Optimizing Treatment Strategies for Surgically Treatable Osteosarcoma, Based on Response to Pre-operative Chemotherapy.
Study doctors would like to find out how best to treat subjects with osteosarcoma by comparing how subjects do when treated with different anti-cancer drugs. The standard anti-cancer drugs used to treat subjects with osteosarcoma are methotrexate, doxorubicin (also called adriamycin) and cisplatin. These three drugs together are called MAP. This study is being done to:
- See if adding ifosfamide and etoposide (VP-16) to chemotherapy will help get rid of the disease in subjects who have a poor tumor response to MAP alone.
- See if adding a "biologic" drug called interferon after MAP chemotherapy can help get rid of the disease in subjects who have a good tumor response to standard chemotherapy. This study will use pegylated interferon alfa-2b, interferon that has been changed to last longer in the body so it can be given less often.
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Phase 3 Study of Vincristine, Dactinomycin and Cyclophosphamide (VAC) versus VAC Alternating with Vincristine and Irinotecan (VI) for Patients with Intermediate-Risk Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS)
The current standard treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is surgery to remove as much tumor as possible, chemotherapy (anti-drug therapy) with vincristine, dactinomycin and cyclophosphamide (together called VAC therapy), and, for almost all tumors, radiation therapy (treatment with high energy X-rays).
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Risk-Based Treatment for Pediatric Non-Rhabdomyosarcoma Soft Tissue Sarcomas (NRSTS)
Patients are being asked to take part in this study because they have a type of cancer called a non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcoma (NRSTS). Non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas are rare tumors and little is known about them. At the present time, doctors do not always know what the best treatment will be for a patient with one of these tumors. Studies done in both children and adults with NRSTS have shown that the amount of treatment a patient needs may be based on the risk group of the tumor.

Tumors are assigned a risk group based on features that influence how they behave. For NRSTS, the risk group is based on the type of cells in the tumor (the grade of the tumor), the size of the tumor, if the tumor has spread to other areas of the body, and how much of the tumor can be taken out by surgery. Patients with tumors in the low risk group may be cured with mild treatment, in some cases only surgery. Patients with tumors in the intermediate and high risk groups may need more treatment, including anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapy) and high energy X-ray therapy (radiation therapy).

It is common to enroll children and adolescents with cancer in a clinical trial that seeks to improve cancer treatment over time. Clinical trials include only people who choose to take part. Patients have a choice between a standard treatment for NRSTS and this clinical trial. Patients with NRSTS are commonly treated with surgery, radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy. The type(s) of treatment used depend on the type of tumor and the risk group.
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Vincristine, Dactinomycin, and Lower Doses of Cyclophosphamide With or Without Radiation Therapy for Patients with Newly Diagnosed Low-Risk Embryonal/Botryoid/Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma
This study is being done to:
- Find out the most effective treatment with the least amount of therapy that will still cure patients with low risk rhabdomyosarcoma

Results of past research studies with low-risk rhabdomyosarcoma patients show that using the three chemotherapy medicines (including cyclophosphamide) helps to cure more patients, but cyclophosphamide at the high doses that were used in these past studies can cause late effects.

The goals of this study are to see if:
1. Lower doses of cyclophosphamide used together with current standard doses of vincristine and dactinomycin can be as effective or better in curing patients as using the standard doses of vincristine and dactinomycin
2. The length of treatment can be shortened
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