View clinical trials related to Carcinoma, Squamous Cell.
Filter by:The general objectives are to evaluate the pre-operative activity and the safety of afatinib in head and neck cancer and to explore the different downstream molecular pathways to identify tumor response and resistance mechanisms. The results from this study can be used to conduct a larger trial that would allow us to confirm or validate the hypotheses generated.
The purpose of this research study is to learn about the effectiveness of using lower-intensity radiation and chemotherapy to treat human papillomavirus (HPV) associated low-risk oropharyngeal and/or unknown primary squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. The cure rate for this type of cancer is estimated to be high, > 90%. The standard treatment for this cancer is 7 weeks of radiation with 3 high doses of cisplatin. Sometimes surgery is performed afterwards. This standard regimen causes a lot of side effects and long term complications. This study is evaluating whether a lower dose of radiation and chemotherapy may provide a similar cure rate as the longer, more intensive standard regimen. Patients in this study will receive 1 less week of radiation and a lower weekly dose of chemotherapy followed by a limited surgical evaluation.
In this clinical trial, the investigators want to know if cabazitaxel is more effective than methotrexate for patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in palliative treatment.
Patients with melanoma, some other rare skin cancers, and some cancers of the penis and scrotum can have their cancer spread to the lymph nodes in the upper part of the leg, called the groin. Medically, this area is called the inguinal area. At present, for melanomas and skin cancers this type of spread is usually found with a special test called a "sentinel lymph node biopsy". This procedure can find spread of even a few cells in a single lymph node—allowing the treating doctor to find the spread very early. Treatment for patients with skin cancer in the lymph nodes in this area is to remove all of the lymph nodes in this area. In patients with cancers of the penis and scrotum who do hot have any evidence of cancer having spread either by physical examination or by radiology tests, the lymph nodes in this area are removed to check and see if there is cancer in them. This is called staging. At present, the standard way to remove all of the lymph nodes in the groin is by a large incision, approximately 8-10 inches in length. For patients who have this operation, there is a very high incidence of infection after surgery: as many as 50% as patients can have a problem after surgery. These infections range from a low grade skin infection needing oral antibiotics to deep infections requiring the wound to be opened and occasionally needing readmission to the hospital and antibiotics given via the vein. With the advent of new technology and new equipment, the ability to perform this procedure through small incisions away from the groin and further down the leg has become possible. This procedure has never been performed routinely nor compared side by side to the standard open approach. The investigators propose to perform this protocol in two phases. The investigators have performed procedures in 20 groins to this point and have confirmed the number of lymph nodes and visually verified that the procedure is identical to the open procedure. The investigators performed these procedures in order to insure that the investigators were offering an equivalent option regardless of which procedure the patient is randomized to. The study will involve the randomization of patients undergoing the procedure. The investigators will randomize the next 110 patients in a 2:1 fashion (two people will get the videoscopic procedure for every one who gets the open procedure) until 73 patients are included in the video arm and 37 in the open arm. Outcomes including recurrence rate, duration of drain requirements, and incidence of lymphedema will be followed. Patients will be followed using standard of care processes, including regular office visits, physical exams, and radiographic imaging, when indicated. Patients will be followed for 5 years.
This trial was originally designed and powered to compare biomarker modulation in the neo-adjuvant setting (erlotinib versus erlotinib plus sulindac versus placebo) with clinical response to erlotinib in the adjuvant setting. Since implementing the trial in late 2005, The investigators have encountered significant obstacles to implementing the adjuvant therapy phase of the trial. - Barriers included: 1. disease recurrence 2. patient refusal to take the agent 3. patient refusal to travel to Pittsburgh for clinical evaluations. Given the institutional challenges to implement and complete the adjuvant portion, the investigators have decided to change the primary endpoint to a biomarker modulation endpoint. To achieve this goal, the investigators determined that they needed 39 paired tissue specimens (see statistical justification below). The central hypothesis to be tested in this study is that persistent activation of parallel and/or downstream pathways contributes to tumor progression in the setting of EGFR blockade. While not all head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients will respond to EGFR targeting, the optimal strategy to identify those subjects whose tumors are sensitive to EGFR inhibition remains unknown. The primary objective is centered around the concept of tumor biomarkers which may be modulated by EGFR and Cox-2 inhibitors and may serve as future therapeutic targets for therapy. To this end patients on this trial will be randomly assigned to one of three arms to receive either Tarceva, Tarceva plus sulindac, or a placebo in the 2 week pre-operative period. A panel of biomarkers will be obtained by biopsy prior to pre-operative therapy and again at surgery. Biomarkers will be examined for modulation in the 2-week pre-operative period, for group differences, for treatment effects and for further understanding of protein signaling pathways. Sample size for the primary objective Modification of Statistical Design: The primary endpoint is the difference between pre (biopsy) and post (surgery). There are 3 hypotheses of interest: (1) placebo vs erlotinib alone, (2) placebo versus erlotinib plus sulindac, and (3) erlotinib vs erlotinib + sulindac. With a randomization in a 3:5:5 ratio, we have 88% power, alpha = .01 for an omnibus test to show between-group differences of 1 log exist. This requires 39 patients. Basically, 39 patients will provide the ability to detect a one log difference between any 2 of the 3 groups in pre-post change.
This pilot clinical trial studies freeze-dried black raspberries (BRB) in preventing oral cancer recurrence in high at-risk Appalachian patients previously treated with surgery for oral cancer. Chemoprevention is the use of drugs natural products to keep cancer from developing, progressing, or recurring. Giving freeze-dried black raspberries may prevent oral cancer from forming or returning in oral cancer survivors.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of short RNAs which have shown to be dysregulated in a variety of cancers. Data of miRNA expression in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is very limited and microarray based genome wide miRNA expression profiles of cSCC have not been investigated so far.
This is a study to assess how much of the investigational drug, PF-00298804, is in the blood stream over a period of time (called pharmacokinetic tests or PK) in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who have a (gastrojejunostomy) feeding tube.
Until today, the 5-FU/cisplatin combination is the reference regimen with 30-45% response rates, which is most commonly used to treat patients with metastatic, recurrent or locally advanced, unresectable squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Because the classical dose schedule of this two-drug combination is cisplatin 100 mg/m2 day 1 and 5-FU 1000 mg/m2/day continuous infusion for 96-120 hr, prolonged administration time and mucosal toxicity are inconvenient to the patients with the aim of palliation. Capecitabine, which is oral prodrug of 5-FU and mimic continuously-infused 5-FU, is being investigated in phase I, II and III trials for the treatment of gastric, gastroesophageal, and esophageal cancers, primarily in the first-line metastatic setting but also in the adjuvant setting. In the investigators experience, capecitabine plus cisplatin combination (XP) as a first-line treatment for 45 patients with advanced or recurrent esophageal squamous cell carcinoma demonstrated a promising anti-tumor activity with 57% of response rate and showed tolerable toxicity with convenience. Paclitaxel has been also investigated as monotherapy and in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced esophageal cancer. A Dutch phase II study demonstrated that paclitaxel combination with carboplatin had shown an encouraging confirmed response rate of 59% with 51 patients with resectable esophageal cancer in neoadjuvant setting. Another Dutch phase II study showed 43% of response rate including 4% of CR with 8 months of response duration when paclitaxel plus cisplatin administration was given for patients with metastatic esophageal cancer. Although recently first-line palliative chemotherapy regimen in esophageal cancer has been investigated, many trials have failed to show superiority to 5-FU/cisplatin combination. Since the investigators considered that XP or XG (genexol) is more effective and convenient chemotherapy regimen than 5-FU/cisplatin, this randomized phase II study was planned to compare XP with XG in terms of efficacy and tolerability.
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is considerably more prevalent in East Asia. Despite of relatively high prevalence of esophageal SCC, prognosis is very poor with limited options of effective chemotherapy regimens. We attempted to identify favorable subgroups of patient who are likely to benefit from 5- fluorouracil/cisplatin(FP) or capecitabine/cisplatin (XP) chemotherapy as first-line treatment.Between January 2000 to December 2010, 239 patients were diagnosed of recurrent, metastatic esophageal SCC and received either FP or XP as first-line chemotherapy. Clinicopathologic variables and treatment outcome were retrospectively collected. we analysis treatment outcome of palliative chemotherapy in metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and make prognostic scoring system. The present study represents the largest series to analyze the treatment outcome of FP/XP chemotherapy in metastatic SCC. Risk-adapted stratification of treatment for subgroup of metastatic SCC patients should be actively pursued.