Archives: Clinical Trials

Argos Therapeutics, Inc., (Argos) proposes to study AGS-006 in a subject with newly diagnosed resectable pancreatic cancer. The AGS 006 immunotherapeutic may potentially offer a desired additional option to conventional treatments for pancreatic carcinoma.

A national multicenter prospective study to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of endoscopic ultrasound guided radiofrequency ablation of neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors, WHO Grade 1-2 of 3 cm or less in diameter.

Over 7000 patients are diagnosed with pancreas cancer every year in the UK. Only 10% have it caught early enough to have surgery to cure it. The rest at best can undergo chemotherapy to extend survival, but current treatments offer at best an improvement of only a few months compared to no treatment at all. In addition only about a quarter of patients will respond to the treatment. In addition these patients often experience profound weight loss, loss of appetite and energy primarily because of the cancer process itself. Our hypothesis is that the addition of fish oil infusion to gemcitabine chemotherapy will result in an improved rate of tumour response on CT imaging.

Fish oils, or specifically the omega-3 fatty acid component, appear to have a range of powerful anti-cancer actions. This is supported by evidence from a wide range of sources, from laboratory experiments to basic human studies. Although this evidence specifically includes many pancreatic cancer studies in the laboratory it has not yet been confirmed in human trials.

Contrary to conventional chemotherapy, fish oil is a naturally occuring non-toxic compound and so is not associated with the side-effects of chemotherapy. In fact a number of clinical studies have demonstrated significant improvements in quality of life for pancreas cancer patients treated with fish oil, particularly with reference to improvements in appetite and energy levels. This is of course in addition to the anti-cancer actions.

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are a heterogeneous group of lesions derived from cells with the ability to produce hormones that may arise from multiple different organs. Their clinical behavior is quite variable, encompassing both benign lesions and aggressive tumors that invade surrounding and/or distant structures. NENs may also cause serious morbidity due to hormone oversecretion. NENs are among the most frequently inherited human tumors, presenting either isolated or as part of syndromes in which a single patient or family develops multiple tumors. There are also non-inherited changes in the genetic information of the tumor cells that are potential targets for treatment. Both inherited and non-inherited DNA defects can be identified using modern routine genetic tests which, unfortunately, are not widely available in Mexico.

This project seeks to uncover the genetic defects causing NENs in a large cohort of Mexican patients, using three different methods for genetic testing. Adult individuals with various types of NENs from two reference hospitals in Mexico City will be invited to participate. After completing informed consent, blood and, if possible, tissue samples will be obtained from all participants. Clinical details, laboratory results, imaging studies, and histopathological data at disease presentation will be retrieved.

An initial screening will be performed by analyzing changes in the sequence of multiple genes that have been associated with the occurrence of NENs. In cases with negative screening, a specific method to assess changes in the number of copies of the same genes will also be employed. Finally, sequences of all DNA regions encoding information required to make proteins will be obtained in selected cases. Analyses will be carried out in blood and, if available, also in tumor tissue samples from study participants. Screening of additional family members will be offered.

This project will accurately describe the repertoire of specific defects causing NENs in the study population, and will likely uncover and characterize novel genetic associations. The results will contribute for a better understanding of the alterations within and outside known driver genes that shape syndromic presentations, tumor behaviors, and inheritance patterns in individuals with NENs. These data will contribute to improve the information on the molecular bases of NENs, including alterations that can be used as therapeutic targets.

Postoperative Neurocognitive Disorders are the most common neurological complications after major surgery, which are associated with higher increased mortality and morbidity in elderly patients undergoing major surgery. Until now highly effective intervention has not been established yet. Recent preclinical studies suggest neuroinflammation may be linked to pathogensis of (postoperative delirium) POD and postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). As Methylene blue(MB) has neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties, and it is a safe drug with long history of clinical use, we propose that inflammation-targeted interventions may be useful to prevent POD/POCD in surgical patients.

This is a Phase 1/2a, first-in-human, open-label, multicenter study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of FL-301 in patients with advanced cancer.

Main Objective: To study the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and dose-dependent toxicity (DLT) of cord blood-derived CAR-NK cells (CB CAR-NK182) targeting Claudin18.2 in patients with advanced gastric cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer.

Secondary Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of CB CAR-NK182 in patients with advanced gastric cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer: overall objective tumor response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), duration of response (DOR), etc.

To evaluate the CAR-NK amplification and persistence of CB CAR-NK182 in the blood of patients with advanced gastric cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer;

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate changes in immune activity relative to baseline following treatment with Toca 511 and Toca FC in patients with solid tumors (including recurrent high grade glioma [rHGG]) or lymphoma. This is a multicenter, open-label study of Toca 511 and Toca FC. Patients with advanced solid tumors or lymphoma, for whom curative options are not available, will be enrolled into the study, subject to all entry criteria. Tumors must be accessible to biopsy and/or resection. Patients will be qualified based on the presence of specific molecular characteristics, documented by Foundation Medicine (or equivalent) genomic profile report, and specific tumor types.

Toca 511 will be administered by IV injection followed by (1) intratumoral injection following biopsy or (2) injection into the resection cavity wall following planned resection in the case of rHGG or brain metastases. Toca FC will be administered orally in cycles of therapy.

Patients not undergoing resection of brain tumors will undergo 2 biopsies to allow assessment of baseline and follow-up immune activity in the tumor. Changes in immune activity in peripheral blood will be measured in all patients.

The purpose of this clinical trial is to determine whether using chemotherapy followed by stereotactic ablative body radiation therapy (SABR) and tumor treating fields (TTF) will slow tumor growth in people with locally advanced pancreas cancer. All participants will receive SABR therapy once per day for five days and use the TTF system for at least 18 hours per day starting on the first day of SABR until the tumor progresses or severe toxicity develops.

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of BMS-247550 in treating patients who have advanced pancreatic cancer.