View clinical trials related to Brain Neoplasms.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to determine if new MRI methods that measure various information and chemical makeup in the brain, will give early information regarding response to treatment in patients with brain tumors.
The purpose of this study is to determine normal measurements (ADC values) from the head and neck of healthy volunteers using 3T MRI.
Despite significant advances in the understanding of brain tumor biology and genetics as well as improvements in surgical techniques, radiotherapy administration, and chemotherapy methods, many primary brain tumors remain incurable. Most primary brain tumors are highly infiltrative neoplasms, and are therefore unlikely to be cured by local treatments such as surgery, focal radiotherapy, radiosurgery or brachytherapy. A particularly problematic aspect of the management of patients with brain tumors is the eventual development of enhancing lesions on MRI after radiation therapy. The treating physician is then left with the dilemma of what this enhancing lesion may represent (radiation necrosis versus recurrent tumor). The differential diagnosis is between recurrent tumor or radiation necrosis however the amount of each contributing to the enhancing mass on MRI is difficult if not impossible to assess. This particular problem is very common and most patients develop some degree of radiation necrosis after therapy with radiation. Differentiation of necrosis from recurrence is particularly challenging. MRI is typically unable to make this important distinction as there is simply an enhancing mass, the etiology of which could be either necrosis or recurrence. Other imaging methods such as FDG-PET have been used but this technique is also complicated in that the normal brain has FDG uptake and it is often difficult to differentiate recurrence from necrosis. [F-18]FLT may prove to be the most reliable method in making this important differentiation (necrosis versus recurrence) as normal brain and necrotic brain do not have proliferative activity and thus no [F-18]FLT uptake whereas tumor will have proliferative activity and thus [F-18]FLT uptake.
Meningiomas account for 20% of primary adult brain tumors, occurring at an annual incidence of 6 per 100,000 (Louis, Scheithauer et al. 2000). Complete surgical resection is the treatment of choice but may not possible when the tumor invades critical structures (e.g., skull base, sagittal sinus) (Mirimanoff, Dosoretz et al. 1985; al-Rodhan and Laws 1990; Al-Rodhan and Laws 1991; Newman 1994; De Monte 1995; Levine, Buchanan et al. 1999; Barnett, Suh et al. 2000; Ragel and Jensen 2003). Up to 20% of meningiomas exhibit a more aggressive phenotype that does not respond to standard therapies (Kyritsis 1996). Adjuvant therapies are critical for patients with this subset of meningiomas. Radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery are good adjuvant therapies but are limited by radiation neurotoxicity, tumor size constraints, and injury to adjacent vascular structures or cranial nerves (Goldsmith, Wara et al. 1994; Barnett, Suh et al. 2000; Goldsmith and Larson 2000). Standard chemotherapeutic treatments have been disappointing (Kyritsis 1996). Even drugs like temozolomide that have shown efficacy against malignant brain tumors have failed to inhibit the growth of refractory meningiomas in a phase II study (Chamberlain, Tsao-Wei et al. 2004).
Children treated with radiation therapy for brain tumors are at risk for cognitive problems. These problems have typically been demonstrated on global cognitive measures including measures of intellectual functioning (IQ). Identification of specific areas of impairment can assist in isolating vulnerable brain areas and developing targeted interventions. In this study, we assess brain tumor survivors, solid tumor controls and healthy sibling controls using measures of working memory (online maintenance and manipulation of information) in order to identify a specific cognitive process that may underlie the observed decline in IQ. We are also exploring relationships among working memory performance with IQ, clinical characteristics and a specific genetic factor of interest.
To verify the number of metastatic brain tumors detected in contrast-enhanced MRI, which is the primary variable, increases after an additional dose of Magnevist (SH L 451A) comparing images after an initial dose (0.1 mmol/kg) with those after an additional dose (0.1 mmol/kg, a total dose of 0.2 mmol/kg) intra-individually in patients with metastatic brain tumors. Safety was also to be assessed.
Tumors of the central nervous system are potentially curable. For tumors of comparable histology and grade, resectability is the most important prognostic factor affecting survival particularly in children. However, the infiltrative nature of the malignant cells produces indistinct borders between normal and malignant tissues, and the lack of easily identifiable tumor margins confounds attempts toward total resection. The investigators propose to identify the borders of tumors intraoperatively using protoporphyrin fluorescence of the malignant cells and thereby provide more complete tumor resection.
This Phase I clinical trial is studying the side effects and best dose of ABT-888 when given together with Whole Brain Radiation Therapy (WBRT) in treating patients with brain metastases.
RATIONALE: Vaccines may help the body build an effective immune response to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as temozolomide, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving vaccine therapy together with radiation therapy and chemotherapy may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: This randomized phase I/II trial is studying how well vaccine therapy works in treating patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme recovering from lymphopenia caused by temozolomide.
Sorafenib™ has the potential to inhibit tumor growth, tumor angiogenesis , and enhance radiation response. This study will test the combination of Sorafenib™ and radiation therapy with or without temozolomide to determine tolerance of the combined treatments. Defining safe dosing of Sorafenib™ in this combination therapy will be achieved.