View clinical trials related to Neuroblastoma.
Filter by:This is a pharmacokinetic trial. Patients receive phenylbutyrate through a central venous catheter for each 28 day cycle. The first several days of drug administration should be inpatient. Cycles may be repeated if there is no tumor progression or dose limiting toxicities (DLT). There are no breaks between cycles. Once a minimum of 3 patients have completed at least 4 weeks of therapy without DLT, new patients will be entered at the next dose level.
A body of preclinical data has provided a strong rationale for evaluating the combination of IFN-alpha with retinoic acid. The two drugs have different mechanisms of action and, when used in combination, show enhanced activity in both adult and pediatric tumor cell lines. The combination of the antiproliferative and differentiation inducing effect of retinoids together with the antiproliferative, immunostimulatory and differentiation-potentiating effects of IFN-alpha warrant clinical investigation of this combination for the treatment of refractory pediatric malignancies.
The prognosis for patients with metastatic Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors (ESF), rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), and neuroblastoma (NBL) remains dismal, with less than 25% long-term disease-free survival. Though less grave, the prognosis for cure for other high-risk patients is approximately 50%. New treatment strategies, including the identification of highly active new agents, maximizing the dose intensity of the most active standard drugs, and the development of improved methods of consolidation to eradicate microscopic residual disease, are clearly needed to improve the outcome of these patients. This protocol will address these issues by commencing with a Phase II window, for the highest risk patients, to evaluate a series of promising drugs with novel mechanisms of action. All patients will then receive 5 cycles of dose-intensive "best standard therapy" with doxorubicin (adriamycin), vincristine, and cyclophosphamide (VAdriaC). Patients at high risk of relapse will continue onto a phase I consolidation regimen consisting of three cycles of dose-escalated Melphalan, Ifosfamide, Mesna, and Etoposide (MIME). Peripheral blood stem cell transfusions (PBSCT) and recombinant human G-CSF will be used as supportive care measures to allow maximal dose-escalation of this combination regimen.