Oncology (Medical)

Below are current clinical trials.

Filter this list of studies by location, status and more.

1. Hypo-fractionated Proton Radiation Therapy With or Without Androgen Suppression for Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer

   Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.

   The purpose of this study is to compare the effects, good and/or bad of two treatment methods on subjects and their cancer. Proton beam radiation therapy is one of the treatments for men with prostate cancer who have localized disease. The benefit of the combination with androgen suppression is not completely understood. This study will compare the use of hypofraction proton therapy (28 treatments) alone to proton therapy with androgen suppression therapy.

2. A Study of Standard Systemic Therapy with or without Definitive Treatment in Treating Participants with Metastatic Prostate Cancer

   La Crosse, Wis., Rochester, Minn., Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.

   The purpose of this study is to evaouate how well standard systemic therapy with or without definitive treatment (prostate removal surgery or radiation therapy) works in treating participants with prostate cancer that has spread to other places in the body.

3. Innovative CAR-TIL immunotherapy against melanoma

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a revolutionary cellular immunotherapy strategy that has transformed the treatment of B cell malignancies by engineering T cells to recognize B cell specific tumor markers; however, attempts to treat solid tumors with CAR T-cells have identified unique challenges that have rendered CAR T cells less effective against these tumors. Conventional CARs are designed to target tumor-associated antigens, but antigenic heterogeneity and the variable nature of surface antigen expression provide escape mechanisms for solid tumors from CAR T-cell attack. [1, 2] The solid tumor stroma acts as an immunosuppressive cloud that impedes the homing of peripheral CAR T-cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME). The hostile TME can also drive CAR T-cells to functional exhaustion and metabolic dysfunction, thus blunting the therapeutic efficacy of CAR T-cells.[3] Oncolytic viruses or radiation that generate local inflammation in the TME have been shown to promote T cell homing and infiltration [4] but do not address the exhaustion of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). The PD-1/PD-L1 cascade allows tumors to evade the immune system by suppressing T cell function within the TME. [5, 6] An ideal adoptive cellular therapy must possess the ability to not only return to the site of the tumor but must also retain cytotoxic potential after a recognition event. We present here a CAR design that allows PD-1 to recognize PD-L1 on the tumor; however, the intracellular CAR design is one that results in T cell activation as opposed to inhibition. We hypothesize that targeting melanoma with a PD-1 (MC9324) CAR TIL therapy would capitalize on the tumor homing machinery of the TIL to drive the CAR TIL to the tumor where engagement of the PD-1 domain of the CAR with PD-L1 on the tumor cell would result in T cell cytotoxic killing.

4. Analyses of Metabolic Agents Following Brain Radiation

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of serial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assessments to evaluate the pharmacodynamic impact of agents targeting radiation-induced biology administered following completion of brain radiation.

5. Combination Treatment Therapy Approaches for the Treatment of High-Risk Multiple Myeloma, REACH Trial

   Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.

   The purpose of this study is to estimate the rate of sustained MRD negativity (MRD negative status at any point, with a repeated MRD negative status one year later) in subjects with high-risk multiple myeloma.

6. A Study of a New Way to Treat Children and Young Adults With a Brain Tumor Called NGGCT

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to monitor outcome to ensure that children and young adults with localized central nervous system (CNS) non-germinomatous germ cell tumors (NGGCT) treated with Induction chemotherapy followed by response evaluation and whole ventricular + spinal canal irradiation (WVSCI) will maintain the excellent 2-year progression free survival (PFS) rate as compared to ACNS0122. Also, to improve disease control by decreasing the number of spinal relapses for patients who achieve a complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) and receive WVSCI as compared to whole ventricular radiation on ACNS1123.

7. Immune Response to Antigens

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The purpose of this study is to sequence patient germline and tumor samples, and nominate top neoantigen candidates using an in-house developed bioinformatics pipeline, and to validate the neoantigen candidates by laboratory assays using patient peripheral blood immune cells or serum.

8. Female Patients and Female Partners of Patients With Confirmed HPV Associated Oropharyngeal Carcinoma (Pap-Op): Prospective Assessment of HPV Associated Anogenital Pathology

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to determine the incidence of anogenital infection with high-risk HPV serotypes and HPV-associated anogenital lesions in female patients with newly diagnosed HPV(+)OPSCC and female partners of patients with HPV(+)OPSCC, and compare this with retrospective review of exams and paps obtained during routine well woman checks in Rochester MN.  

9. A Survey of Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma Patient Environment

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to determine the association of environmental, geographic factors, as well as presence of comorbidities associated with hypoxia with development of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL), location of PPGL, and number of PPGL.

    

10. Early pancreatic cancer detection

    Jacksonville, Fla.

    The primary purpose of this study is to standardize the collection of demographic, clinical, and imaging data, and biosamples for a large high-risk familial Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarinoma (PDAC) cohort at consortium clinical cancer centers, worldwide.