View clinical trials related to Thyroid Diseases.
Filter by:In France, 7-8 000 new thyroid cancer cases are diagnosed each year. Although a good overall prognosis, it is usually estimated that 10 to 20% will rescue and 5% will become metastatic. The standard treatment of advanced metastatic or recurrent thyroid cancer is limited to radioiodine therapy. It is estimated that 30 to 50% of patients will become resistant to radio iodine. Treatments options are limited in these refractory thyroid patients and long term survival is estimated to less than 10%. Nowadays, no drug is approved in this indication. The recent explosion in knowledge in tumour biology and the identification of potential biological targets in thyroid cancer led to several clinical trials with targeted therapies, mainly focused on TKI inhibitors targeting the MAPkinase pathway and/or VEGF. Preliminary results were encouraging in papillary thyroid tumors. Follicular (FTC) and poorly differentiated thyroid (PDTC) cancers account for 10% of thyroid cancer but 20-25% of cancers diagnosed at an advanced stage and near 50% of metastatic refractory thyroid cancers. These cancers with an aggressive behavior represent a major cause of death from thyroid cancer. In these subtypes, targeted therapies gave disappointing results. This may be related to the mutational profile of these tumors which is different from that of papillary cancers. Aberrant activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway is thought to play a fundamental role in thyroid tumorigenenesis of follicular and poorly differentiated thyroid cancers. Many genetic alterations have been, recently, identified in this pathway. PIK3CA mutations are found in 10-15% of FTC and can also occur in metastases derived from PDTC. Amplification/genomic copy gain of the PIK3CA has been identified in 24% of FTC and 42% of PDTC. Epigenetic inactivation of PTEN which negatively regulates PI3K has been shown in FTC. Moreover, RAS mutations observed in 20-40% of FTC and PDTC can activate the PI3K/AKT by interacting with the RAS-binding site of the P110 catalytic subunit of PI3K. Due to the high frequency of activation of PI3K and downstream effectors in progressive, recurrent and poorly differentiated cancers, inhibition of the PI3K signaling pathway with BKM120, a potent pan class I PI3K inhibitor, represents a particularly relevant therapeutic target and should be properly evaluated in advanced follicular and poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas
The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of pazopanib treatment interruption with reintroduction at progression in iodine refractory progressive Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (DTC) patients as compared to pazopanib continuous administration.
This phase II trial studies how well cabozantinib-s-malate works in treating patients with thyroid cancer that does not respond to treatment. Cabozantinib-s-malate may stop the growth of thyroid cancer by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Cabozantinib-s-malate may also stop the growth of thyroid cancer by blocking blood flow to the tumor.
The effectiveness of antimicrobial prophylaxis (AMP) for prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) following thyroid and parathyroid surgery remains uncertain. Present prospective randomized control study (Ito-RCT1) assessed the effectiveness of AMP in clean neck surgery associated with thyroid and parathyroid disease.
Patients with Thyroid Eye Disease (TED) often have enlarged extraocular muscles and higher orbital fat contents due to their disease process. The confined space of the orbit cannot hold the enlarged orbital contents creating a forward displacement and/or compression of the globe with a rise in intraocular pressure (IOP). Many of these patients undergo surgical decompression, a procedure that fractures orbital bones, in order to allow more space for the enlarged orbital contents to occupy. To date, there is no data that shows intraocular patterns over a 24-hour period in patients with mechanical compression on the globe as in TED. It is not know if the pattern of IOP is more consistent with normal IOP patterns, glaucomatous patterns, or perhaps completely different then either. The goal of this project is to investigate patterns of IOP in patients requiring orbital decompression because of orbital congestion. Changes in IOP during a 24-hour period will be studied with a contact-lens embedded sensor that provides continuous data. This device has previously been investigated and shown to be safe and well-tolerated. Monitoring the pattern in these patients will allow us to compare Thyroid TED patterns of IOP with those of normal and glaucomatous patients. Also, testing these patients before and after orbital decompression surgery will allow characterization of how intraocular pressure changes once the mechanical compression on the globe is relieved.
This study will investigate the usefulness of an optical probe in the differentiation of thyroid cancer from normal thyroid tissue in a thyroidectomy specimen.
For the treatment of thyroid cancer with the so called targeted therapy the angiogenesis pathway has several potential targets. The Receptors for Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and especially VEGFR-2 is considered to be crucial for the initiation of the formation as well as the maintenance of tumor vasculature. In thyroid cancer these VEGF receptors (VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2), VEGF itself and receptors of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and for the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) are often overexpressed. Other cells as pericytes and smooth muscle cells that are also involved in tumor angiogenesis express these receptors as well. Inhibitors of the VEGFR or PDGFR pathway have been tested in thyroid cancer with positive results. However there is no treatment that is generally considered as standard of care for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) or medullar thyroid cancer (MTC) who have progressed on one line of therapy. The classical cytotoxic chemotherapy has not shown a clinically meaningful benefit yet. Nintedanib is a triple angiogenesis inhibitor which inhibits receptors of VEGF, FGF and PDGF. Therefore it might act not only on endothelial cells but also on pericytes and smooth muscle cells. Nintedanib also interacts with other kinases such as RET. Because of this multi-kinase activity rationale exists to investigate the effect in MTC and DTC. Because it targets these three major angiogenesis signaling pathways it might prevent further tumor growth and related tumor escape mechanisms. Therefore nintedanib may be active in patients who have progressed on agents that target only one pathway.
Ultrasound-guided ethanol ablation is an effective treatment modality for patients with cystic thyroid nodules (cystic portion > 90%); however it is less effective in predominantly cystic thyroid nodules (90% > cystic portions > 50%). The volume reduction after EA has been reported 64% - 69.8% for predominantly cystic thyroid nodules. EA is insufficient for 26% (27/103) of patients with predominantly cystic thyroid nodules. Radiofrequency ablation to patients with incompletely resolved clinical problems after EA and the mean volume reduction ratio was 92% at 6-month follow-up. It is well known that RF ablation is effective in both predominantly cystic and solid thyroid nodules. Although RF ablation has effectively treated the patients who were unsatisfactory after EA, to the best of our knowledge, no study to date has compared these two ablation techniques. Therefore investigators performed a prospective randomized study to compare single-session RF ablation and EA for treating predominantly cystic thyroid nodules.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) has a growing incidence and in spite of early diagnostic, their outcome remains dismal. The evolution of MPM is often local with rare distant metastases. There is now a sizable body of evidence that metastases could develop from circulating tumor cells (CTC) spread in blood before or during surgery. Thus, sensitive and specific detection of CTC in blood is considered as a potentially relevant predictive biomarker for patients with carcinomas. In exchange, the prognostic value of CTC in MPM has not yet been evaluated. Indeed, the main goal for preoperative detection of CTC is to identify patients with high risk of recurrence after surgery, in order to perform more adapted therapeutic strategy. Despite several studies reported about CTC detection, methodological aspects concerning sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility have prevented a clear appraisal of their clinical impact. Thus, the aim of our study is to evaluate the presence and the prognostic value of CTC in MPM by a double approach. In our setting, cytopathological analysis of circulating non hematological cells (CNHC), of epithelial origin, isolated according to their size (ISET, Isolation by Size of Epithelial Tumor cells) along with immunomagnetic selection, identification and enumeration of circulating epithelial cells in peripheral blood (CellSearch method) is considered a promising approach.
Anaplastic thyroid cancer has historically proven very difficult to research due to a combination of its rarity and the associated short survival period for those affected. In 2009, 2340 patients in the UK were diagnosed with thyroid cancer with 70-90 expected to be the anaplastic subtype 1,2. For these patients average life expectancy is in the range of 2-6 months with only a very small number surviving for more than one year. It is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is refractory to current treatment options. By collecting tissue and blood samples along with clinical data across the UK we will be able to accumulate numerically significant numbers of samples and data points which will facilitate research opportunities. Researchers will be encouraged to apply for access to the collected samples in order to try and establish the causal mechanisms for disease development, potential therapeutic targets and to relate clinical course and outcome with specific molecular defects. Due to the rarity it is not feasible for a single cancer centre or cancer network to accumulate sufficient samples for research in a meaningful timeframe hence the need for national collaboration in order to try and offer patients with this disease hope in the future. All UK patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer would be potentially eligible. The project is expected to run for at least 15 years and all thyroid cancer clinicians will be encouraged to participate. Patients will be asked to donate surplus thyroid cancer tissue following routine biopsy procedures along with an optional blood sample. 2. Objectives Primary Objectives The primary objective of this project is to establish a national anaplastic thyroid cancer tissue collection to help facilitate both basic and translational research opportunities. There is no direct research question that the project itself addresses at this stage. The research proposals that subsequently arise as a result of this project will be generated by accredited research parties from the UK and potentially internationally. These research proposals will be submitted to the interNational Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Tissue Bank and Database Project (iNATT) Steering Committee for assessment. As the volume of material collected per patient is expected to be of small volume, by virtue of the specimen comprising core biopsy or fine needle aspirate material, research proposals will need to be prioritised according to the potential benefits the proposed research offers. Priority will be given to projects that may lead to the identification of potential therapeutic targets. Each research proposal will require their own ethical approval and research and development assessments before commencing. The steering committee will be multidisciplinary and will include nationally respected researchers and thyroid cancer clinicians. Scientific Justification The long term objective is to try and address the current lack of understanding about the aetiology and progression of this disease and ultimately to develop new therapeutic interventions that may slow the rate of disease progression, improve quality of life and prolong what is currently a very short survival. Due to the short prognosis following diagnosis it is notoriously difficult to run interventional therapeutic clinical trials in this patient population. Patients usually present with locally advanced and metastatic disease and as a consequence are often of poor performance status making clinical trial participation very problematic. If potential therapeutic targets could be identified in vivo it would potentially open up new therapeutic avenues whilst sparing some patients with the 'wrong' molecular profile futile treatment. This is a unique project within the setting of anaplastic thyroid cancer research.