View clinical trials related to Rectal Cancer.
Filter by:While new treatments for metastatic and recurrent colorectal cancer have become available over the past several years, this disease remains incurable with a limited life expectancy from the time of diagnosis. New strategies for treatment of disseminated colorectal cancer are needed. Under this proposal, patients with advanced colorectal cancer will receive Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) to stimulate endogenous dendritic cells and enhance anti-tumor immune mechanisms. This will be combined with standard chemotherapy and patients will be followed for response and overall survival. Detailed correlative laboratory analysis will also be performed to define the extent of dendritic cell and cellular immune system stimulation.
Preoperative chemoradiation therapy is the preferred initial treatment option for distal rectal cancers. However, assessing tumor response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy remains a challenge to the colorectal surgeon, especially when determining if there is a complete response, observed in more than 10% of cases. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of the PET/CT in assessing distal rectal tumor response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of epoetin alfa on reduction in red blood cell transfusions in gastric and rectal cancer patients undergoing preoperative chemoradiation therapy followed by surgery.
A combination of chemotherapy and radiation is often used to treat rectal cancer patients before surgery in an effort to shrink the tumor and make it easier to remove as well as to help increase the chances of sphincter-sparing surgery. Many previous clinical studies have suggested that rectal cancer patients may survive longer if the surgery results in a pathological complete response - that is, the absence of any tumor cells in the surgical specimen. However, there is still controversy over this. This study attempts to start to answer this question by treating rectal cancer patients with a combination of chemotherapy drugs (oxaliplatin and capecitabine), a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme inhibitor and radiation before surgery. The rates of pathologic complete response, sphincter-sparing surgery, and disease-free survival are some of the therapeutic endpoints that will be studied.
The objective of this trial is to compare efficacy and safety of CoFactor and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) versus leucovorin and 5-FU in treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S. and if detected early, has a favorable prognosis. Colorectal cancer survivors report increased fatigue, low vigor, impaired physical functioning and disturbances in body esteem. However, the group is relatively understudied and the potential benefits of increased physical activity to their recovery have not been examined. This study focuses on enhancing recovery by offering a home-based physical activity program to patients who have completed treatment for colorectal cancer. This study will test the efficacy of the physical activity intervention using a randomized controlled design among 134 patients who have completed treatment for colorectal cancer in the past 2 years. Outcomes will include physical activity behavior, fitness, vigor, fatigue, physical functioning, and body esteem among participants at baseline, 3 (posttreatment), 6 and 12 months. We will also track intervention costs and conduct exploratory analyses of moderators and mediators of change to help guide the future development of physical activity interventions to enhance recovery from colorectal cancer.
The objectives of this study are to: 1. To assess dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) of capecitabine +/- oxaliplatin in a combination regimen with capecitabine and radiotherapy (Phase 1) 2. To determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) when capecitabine - oxaliplatin in a combination regimen with capecitabine and radiotherapy (Phase 1) 3. To determine the pathologic response rate of cetuximab +/- oxaliplatin in combination with capecitabine and radiotherapy (Phase 2)
To assess the efficacy and safety of pre-operative capecitabine and oxaliplatin followed by capecitabine with concurrent radiotherapy followed by post-operative capecitabine in the treatment of patients with locally advanced or inoperable rectal cancer.
Preoperative induction chemotherapy has been successfully used in a variety of malignancies and provides several advantages over postoperative therapy. Combination of 5-FU/Leucovorin/CPT-11 has demonstrated significantly better response rate than 5-FU/Leucovorin alone. Replacing 5-FU with oral capecitabine in combination with CPT-11 has emerged as a potentially more effective, safe and convenient treatment option for metastatic colorectal cancer. Capecitabine is also well tolerated in concurrent treatment with radiation. Recent data has shown that preoperative radiation appears to be significantly more effective in increasing resectability rates. This trial will investigate the activity of capecitabine and CPT-11 combination in the preoperative setting followed by chemoradiation with capecitabine in locally advanced rectal cancer to improve response and decrease local recurrence. We will also study whether TS, TP, DPD and carboxyesterase expressions correlate with the objective response rate with this chemotherapy and chemoradiation regimen.
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as 5-fluorouracil, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing and also as a radiosensibilisant. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. 5-fluorouracil may make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Oral 5-fluorouracil is more convenient for ambulatory patients. Giving UFT (Tegafur and Uracil) with radiation therapy before surgery may shrink the tumor so it can be removed. PURPOSE: This phase III trial is studying how well giving UFT with radiation therapy works in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for operable rectal cancer.