Archives: Clinical Trials

Genes contain genetic code which tell the body which proteins to make. Many types of cancer are caused by changes, or mutations, in a gene called KRAS. Researchers are looking for ways to stop the actions of abnormal proteins made from the mutated KRAS gene.

ASP5834 is being studied in people with solid tumors who have certain KRAS gene mutations. Some people with solid tumors of the colon or rectum (colorectal cancer), will be given ASP5834 with panitumumab. Panitumumab is a treatment for colorectal cancer. In this study, the researchers will learn how ASP5834 is processed by and acts upon the body. This information will help find a suitable dose of ASP5834 and check for any potential medical problems from the treatment.

The main aims of this study are to check the safety of ASP5834 given by itself or given with panitumumab, and how well it is tolerated; and to find a suitable dose of ASP5834 given by itself or given with panitumumab.

People in this study will be adults with locally advanced, unresectable, or metastatic solid tumors with certain KRAS gene mutations. Locally advanced means the cancer has spread to nearby tissue. Unresectable means the cancer cannot be removed by surgery. Metastatic means the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. The key reasons people cannot take part are if they have specific uncontrollable cancers such as symptomatic or untreated cancers in nervous system, or have a specific heart condition, or infections.

In this study, ASP5834 is being given to humans for the first time. This is an open-label study. This means that people in this study and clinic staff will know that they will receive ASP5834 by itself or ASP5834 with panitumumab.

This study will be in 2 parts:

Part 1 is called Dose Escalation. Different small groups of people will receive lower to higher doses of either: ASP5834 by itself or ASP5834 with panitumumab. Only people who have colorectal cancer will receive ASP5834 with panitumumab. People with any type of solid tumor will receive ASP5834 by itself. For each dose, all medical problems will be recorded. A medical expert panel will check the results and decide if the next group can receive a higher dose of ASP5834. The panel will do this until the planned maximum number of people are treated or until suitable doses have been selected for Part 2.

Part 2 is called Dose Expansion. Other different small groups of people will receive ASP5834 or ASP5834 with panitumumab. They will receive the most suitable doses worked out from Part 1.

In both parts of the study, the study treatments ASP5834 and panitumumab will be given through a vein. This is called an infusion. Each study treatment cycle is either 21 days or 28 days long. People will continue study treatment until: they have medical problems from the study treatment they can't tolerate; their cancer gets worse; they start other cancer treatment; or they ask to stop study treatment.

People will visit the clinic on certain days during their study treatment, with extra visits during the first 2 cycles of study treatment. The study doctors will check for any medical problems from ASP5834. Also, people in the study will have a health check. On some visits they will also have scans to check for any changes in their cancer. Tumor samples will be taken at certain visits during study treatment with the option of a tumor sample being taken if people's cancer gets worse or the cancer comes back.

People will visit the clinic shortly after stopping treatment for a health check. After this, people will have health checks every couple of months to check the condition of their cancer. The number of visits and checks done will depend on the health of each person and whether they completed their study treatment or not. It is expected that people will be in this study for about 1 year.

The prognosis of pancreatic cancer is extremely poor, even in those patients who had underwent surgery, the 5-year survival is still less than 10%. Current guidelines recommend Gemcitabine monotherapy for R0 resection of pancreatic cancer. Inflammation plays an critical role in the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. Here we intend to assess the synergistic effect of using celecoxib in combination with gemcitabine on the treatment of R0 resection of pancreatic cancer.

* Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) is a rare form of cancer. Treatment options such as hormonal therapy (octreotide) and targeted therapy (everolimus and sunitinib) may be considered for grade 1 or 2 pNETs; however, cytotoxic chemotherapy is essential in cases with grade 3 pNETs or pNECs.
* Cisplatin/etoposide remains the treatment of choice for high-grade pNET/pNEC. Other irinotecan-based therapies, such as FOLFIRI (cisplatin/irinotecan), FOLFOX, and temozolomide ± capecitabine, have been employed; however, a standard of care remains to be established.

Patients with pancreatic cancer often suffer from pain. Because of such a pain, their quality of life have seriously deteriorated. There have been a few studies that showed an effect for pain control by hyperthermia (heating the patient's body). However, there are several limitations in conventional hyperthermia. In this study, the investigators tried to show the effect of &#x0022Oncothermia&#x0022 which is more selective to malignant tissue than conventional hyperthermia for pain control, increasing quality of life, and anti-tumor treatment.

For diagnosis of pancreatic tumors, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) are well established techniques in clinical practice. We hypothesize that a FNA needle with a side port could improve the diagnostic yield. The aim of this prospective randomized study is to determine whether there is a difference in diagnostic yield in patients with pancreatic masses for evaluation.

In China, there is a serious shortage of pathologists who can perform on-site cytological diagnosis. As a result, there are few centers that can conduct ROSE in China, which limits the diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA to a certain extent. Previous research reports on whether endoscopists could be trained for ROSE were controversial, which may be related to the lack of standardization of the training of endoscopists. There is no training program for training endoscopists to systematically process pathological specimens, operate microscopes, read the adequacy of cytological specimens, and evaluate the atypia of cytological specimens in China. Therefore, our center intends to carry out a training for endoscopists to compare the improvement of endoscopists' ROSE operating ability before and after the training, and to evaluate the practice of each endoscopist to perform on-site rapid cytology specimens of solid pancreatic lesions.

This is a Phase II, non-randomized, multicenter, unblinded open-label study of Olaparib in monotherapy in participants with advanced (locally advanced/metastatic) PALB2-related pancreatic cancer that have progressed after at least one treatment for advanced disease.

The Whipple procedure is associated with increased readmission rates for infection, pancreatic leak, and failure to thrive/malnutrition. The purpose of this study is to develop an evidence based perioperative nutrition plan to improve patient outcomes. The study has two specific aims including evaluation of feasibility of implementing an evidence based perioperative nutritional plan for patients undergoing Whipple and evaluation of impact of a standard perioperative nutritional plan on primary outcome of readmission rate and secondary outcomes of readmission cause, length of stay for initial hospitalization and/or readmission, post surgical complications (surgical site infections, pancreatic leak, sepsis, delayed gastric emptying), and nutritional status (PG-Subject Generated Assessment scores, BMI, albumin, pre-albumin, and method of oral intake). Categorical variables including readmission rate, readmission cause, post-surgical complications and nutritional status will be compared by chi-square test between intervention and control group. Length of stay for initial hospitalization and readmission will be compared by non parametric Wilcoxon test between two groups. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the sample. There are no risks to the study participants.

This phase II trial compares two treatment combinations: gemcitabine hydrochloride and nab-paclitaxel, or fluorouracil, leucovorin calcium, and liposomal irinotecan in older patients with pancreatic cancer that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic). Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine hydrochloride, nab-paclitaxel, fluorouracil, leucovorin calcium, and liposomal irinotecan, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. This study may help doctors find out which treatment combination is better at prolonging life in older patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The objective of this study is to estimate the R0 resection rate in patients with Resectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (R-PDAC) as well as those with Resectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (BR-PDAC) independently in response to neoadjuvant sequential therapy of combination nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine followed by stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).