View clinical trials related to Melanoma.
Filter by:Subjects must be diagnosed with melanoma. All subjects receive Wide Excision (WEX) of their melanoma. If the melanoma meets study requirements, the subject is randomized to receive either (1) no further surgical procedures as part of the study or (2) a Selective Lymphadenectomy with the possibility of a Complete Lymphadenectomy. Subjects are then followed for 10 years.
This study will evaluate the immunization effects of a vaccine for patients who are at risk for recurrence of their skin cancer. That is, the risk of cancer is higher if melanoma has invaded deep into the skin or lymph nodes. Currently, the only therapy that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for preventing recurrence of melanoma is alpha-interferon. But the research data are controversial. In this study, the vaccine to be used, called gp100, contains a piece of a protein called a peptide, which melanoma cancer cells produce. Patients 16 and older who have had confirmed melanoma surgically removed and whose tissue type is tested as being human leukocyte antigen serotype within HLA-A serotype group (HLA-A2), through a specific blood test, may be eligible for this study. Up to 132 participants will be enrolled. There will be a physical examination and collection of blood samples for tests, and making sure that x-rays and scans are current. Patients will be randomly assigned to four groups. Group 1 will receive the peptide with an adjuvant (assistant) oil-based liquid called Montanide ISA-51, as an injection in the thigh. Group 2 will receive gp100, Montanide, and a cream called imiquimod, which the FDA has approved for treating genital warts and herpes but that may help immune cells in the skin to recognize the vaccine. Imiquimod will be applied to the skin for 5 days. Group 3 will receive gp100 mixed in salt water given as several mini-doses under the skin of the thigh. Group 4 will also receive several mini-doses of gp100 mixed in saline, as well as imiquimod cream applied to the skin for 5 days. All patients will receive the gp100 every 3 weeks for 12 weeks. Every dose is a cycle, with four cycles considered a course of therapy. If the melanoma does not return or patients do not experience side effects from this therapy, then the courses of vaccine will repeated for up to 12 cycles of therapy (3 courses over 33 weeks). Side effects of the peptide vaccination include local swelling, swelling of local lymph nodes, bruising, and pain and redness at the injection sites. There may be chills or fever. Patients will be watched closely for such side effects. To study how the vaccine changes the action of cells in the immune system, patients' white blood cells (lymphocytes) will be obtained, involving a separate informed consent. The procedure, called leukaphersis, requires inserting a needle into the arm, to obtain blood going into a machine, which divides the blood into red cells, plasma (or the serum part), and lymphocytes. The lymphocytes are removed, and the plasma and red cells returned to the patient through a second needle in the other arm. Risks associated with the procedure include fainting, which can be prevented by patients' eating before coming to the lab, and bleeding and infection at the needle site. Patients will undergo leukapheresis will be done about four times: before receiving the vaccine, 3 weeks after the first four doses, and then after 8 cycles and 12 cycles. Patients assigned to the groups receiving imiquimod will be asked to record every time they apply that cream and describe any symptoms developed during the study. All patients will be watched closely for any sign that their melanoma has returned. Before and throughout the study, multiple blood tests will be conducted. The vaccine, Montanide, and imiquimod may increase patients' immune system in fighting off new tumors, but that is not known now. However, the study may provide information that will be useful in treating melanoma patients in the future.
Phase II, open label study in which patients with metastatic melanoma (stage III or IV) who have cancer which is not considered curable by surgery will receive intratumoral injections of TNFerade™ plus radiation as a 4-week treatment, followed by a 3 year follow-up period.
The purpose of this study is to identify candidate markers predictive of response and/or serious toxicity to BMS-734016 (MDX-010).
The purpose of this study is to learn if a vaccine made from the patient's own tumor cells, then genetically modified to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), will delay or stop the growth of the tumor. It will also look at the vaccine's effects on the immune system and the side effects of giving a vaccine made from a subject's own cancer cells.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a vaccine composed of patients' own melanoma cells treated with the chemical, dinitrophenyl (DNP)(called a hapten), is safe and stimulates an immune response to patients' own cancer cells.
This is a Phase 3, multi-national, open-label, 2-arm randomized study in patients with surgically incurable metastatic melanoma who have received no prior chemotherapy, or biochemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic disease. The primary objective of this trial is to compare overall survival for patients with advanced melanoma who are randomized to receive CP-675,206 with that of patients who are randomized to receive either dacarbazine or temozolomide (investigator choice)
This is a Phase II Evaluation of Docetaxel and Vinorelbine Plus Sargramostim in subjects who have metastatic melanoma which has advanced beyond the point at which local therapies such as surgery or radiation therapy would be helpful. Without effective treatment, metastatic melanoma is usually a severe and fatal disease. Chemotherapy agents or combinations of chemotherapy agents have produced tumor shrinkage in some patients, which has occasionally persisted. This research involves treatment with a combination of chemotherapy drugs known to be active against melanoma alone. The investigational purpose of this study is to determine if the combination of docetaxel, vinorelbine and sargramostim will produce a response (complete or partial) in metastasis melanoma. The researchers also wants to find out what side effects are associated with this combination of drugs.
Melanoma remains a malignancy that is largely resistant to chemotherapy. Metastatic disease responds poorly to the treatments used today with only 2 out of 30 drugs tested, DTIC and nitrosoureas, showing response rates greater than 10%, and complete responses are rare. DTIC-based regimen has been recognized as a standard chemotherapy for advanced melanoma, and temozolomide demonstrated efficacy equal to that of DTIC and is an oral alternative agent that also crosses the blood brain barrier. Randomized phase III trials have shown no survival benefit of adding other agents (cisplatin, BCNU, and tamoxifen). Biochemotherapy is being developed extensively with moderate improvement in the responsive rate (approximately 50%) and is under evaluation in randomized trial to identify whether there is survival benefit to this strategy, compared with chemotherapy alone. Recently, a randomized phase III study comparing chemotherapy (cisplatin, dacarbazine, and tamoxifen) with biochemotherapy (the same chemotherapy regimen plus high-dose IL-2 and interferon alfa) have shown 44% response rate for biochemotherapy vs. 27% for chemotherapy. However, the tendency toward an increased response rate in patients who received biochemotherapy did not translate into an increase in overall survival, and there was, in fact, a trend for a survival advantage in patients receiving chemotherapy alone (median survival: 10.7 vs 15.8 months). New agents (or combinations) need to be developed for this refractory malignancy. The purpose of this study is to determine the response rate and evaluate the toxicity of disulfiram (DSF) in the treatment of Stage IV melanoma. The advantages of using DSF in this phase I/II trial are the following: - DSF has been used as a drug for many years for the treatment of alcoholism. Its mechanism, pharmacokinetics, toxicity/tolerable dose are well known, and this drug is relatively non-toxic by itself at therapeutic dose. Doses of greater than 3000mg/m2 can cause reversible confusion. - DSF can be taken orally; therefore, it is convenient to administer. - DSF can penetrate the blood-brain barrier (unlike dacarbazine and many other chemotherapy agents); therefore, it might have an active effect on CNS metastasis. This study is designed to include women and minorities, but is not designed to measure differences of intervention effect.
This phase II trial is studying how well giving carboplatin and paclitaxel together with bevacizumab works in treating patients with stage IV melanoma that cannot be removed by surgery. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Monoclonal antibodies, such as bevacizumab, can block tumor growth in different ways. Some block the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Others find tumor cells and help kill them or carry tumor-killing substances to them. Bevacizumab may also stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking blood flow to the tumor. Giving carboplatin and paclitaxel together with bevacizumab may kill more tumor cells.