View clinical trials related to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.
Filter by:Investigate the effect of induction MEPFL chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) on the disease control and survival in treatment of patients with advanced NPC.
- To investigate the efficacy of adjuvant PFL chemotherapy after radiotherapy vs radiotherapy alone in AJC stage IV nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. The endpoints of the study includes : overall survival, relapse free survival, distant metastasis and local-regional control rates. - To evaluate the toxicities of the two treatment methods.
The standard treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer involves either radiation alone or radiation plus chemotherapy. Before the start of treatment,patients require an imaging scan to assess the extent of disease. The most commonly used test is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The goal of the study is to examine the value of a new imaging technology that has recently become available at the University Health Network Hospitals called Positron Emission Tomography scanning (PET). PET scanning involves the injecting a small amount of a drug through a vein in the arm called 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG). This drug is special in that it is radioactive and will be detected by the PET machine. Cancer cells are believed to be more active than normal cells and have a high rate of metabolism. Therefore, cancer cells are thought to take up glucose (a kind of sugar) faster than normal cells in the body. Because 18FDG is a modified type of glucose, it is also taken up by cancer cells. Special imaging cameras will be able to visualize the areas of uptake and reveal sites of cancer involvement. The main goal of this study is to evaluate whteher the scan is able to detect the presence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) both before and after treatment and to specifically compare it to findings on magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI). In addition to doing the PET scans, we are asking patients to have blood samples drawn throughout their treatment and follow-up, for a research test called Epstein Barr virus (EBV) DNA levels. The Epstein Barr virus is thought to have a role in the development of nasopharyngeal cancer, and many patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are found to have high levels of EBV DNA levels in their blood. The second goal of this study is to evaluate whether changes in EBV DNA levels are associated with the treatment and the disease course in nasopharyngeal cancer, and whether they help to predict any changes in the cancer. This part of the study involves the sampling of a small amount of venous blood at a time prior to the beginning of therapy and at regular intervals following treatment.
The proposed study will test the safety and efficacy of sodium valproate in the induction of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) lytic cycle antigen expression in tumor tissue of patients undergoing primary therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Up to 20 patients will be given valproic acid for 2 weeks. The primary surrogate endpoint for efficacy will be expression of EBV lytic antigens by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissue. Biopsies of primary tumor will be taken after 2 weeks with achievement of a therapeutic concentration of valproate. Expression of immunodominant EBV latency antigens in tumor tissue, EBV viral load by real time PCR, and valproate levels will be measured. Adverse events associated with valproate in NPC patients will be described.
Significant evidence has shown that radiation therapy for patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) can cause swallowing abnormality. Based on our prior cross-sectional study for 184 NPC patients from 1995 to 1999, the findings of videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) revealed continuous deterioration of swallowing function of these patients even many years after radiation. We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the longitudinal change of swallowing function based on VFSS before, one month, one year and two years after completing radiation therapy. The amount of saliva was measured at the same time of VFSS study to test the relationship of decreased amount of saliva and swallowing function. Comparison of serial VFSS studies in NPC patients (n=84) and normal volunteers (n=38) were obtained. We assume that this study may reveal a complete understanding of changing swallowing patterns in the course of radiation therapy of patients with NPC. From this study, NPC patients can understand their own swallowing function. Therefore, the information may enable for earlier intervention of swallowing training or correction to avoid morbidity of radiation therapy in this patient group.
EBV, infection process, immortalization, B lymphocytes, Epithelial cells, co-culture Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) belongs to human γ-herpes viruses. Unlike other human herpes viruses, EBV can only predominately infect two types of human cells: lymphoid cells and epithelial cells and its infection is associated with several human malignancies of these two cell types. The lymphoid cancers associated with EBV infection include Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, B lymphoma in immunodeficient patients and T/NK cell lymphoma. The carcinomas associated with EBV are nasopharyngeal carcinoma and gastric carcinoma. One unique biological feature of EBV is that it can infect and immortalize primary B lymphocytes in vitro into lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL). So far, limited information is known about the whole EBV infection process and its regulation mechanism for immortalization. In this project, three EBV infection models are setting up to reveal the cellular events and signal transduction pathway possibly involved in EBV infection process and immortalization course of action.