View clinical trials related to Endocrine Gland Neoplasms.
Filter by:Establishment of a tumor bank, consisting of blood samples of tumor patients and healthy people as controls. The blood samples will be collected systematically together with the corresponding clinical data. The biological samples, the clinical date together with prospective experimental date constitute the entity of the tumor bank.
Background: The NCI Surgery Branch has developed an experimental therapy that involves taking white blood cells from patients' tumors, growing them in the laboratory in large numbers, and then giving the cells back to the patient. These cells are called Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes, or TIL and we have given this type of treatment to over 200 patients with melanoma. Researchers want to know if TIL shrink s tumors in people with digestive tract, urothelial, breast, or ovarian/endometrial cancers. In this study, we are selecting a specific subset of white blood cells from the tumor that we think are the most effective in fighting tumors and will use only these cells in making the tumor fighting cells. Objective: The purpose of this study is to see if these specifically selected tumor fighting cells can cause digestive tract, urothelial, breast, or ovarian/endometrial tumors to shrink and to see if this treatment is safe. Eligibility: - Adults age 18-72 with upper or lower gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, genitourinary, breast, ovarian/endometrial cancer, or glioblastoma refractory to standard chemotherapy. Design: Work up stage: Patients will be seen as an outpatient at the NIH clinical Center and undergo a history and physical examination, scans, x-rays, lab tests, and other tests as needed. Surgery: If the patients meet all of the requirements for the study they will undergo surgery to remove a tumor that can be used to grow the TIL product. Leukapheresis: Patients may undergo leukapheresis to obtain additional white blood cells. (Leukapheresis is a common procedure, which removes only the white blood cells from the patient.) Treatment: Once their cells have grown, the patients will be admitted to the hospital for the conditioning chemotherapy, the TIL cells and aldesleukin. They will stay in the hospital for about 4 weeks for the treatment. Follow up: Patients will return to the clinic for a physical exam, review of side effects, lab tests, and scans about every 1-3 months for the first year, and then every 6 months to 1 year as long as their tumors are shrinking. Follow up visits will take up to 2 days.
Background: - Laboratory investigators who are studying common childhood cancers are interested in developing a tissue repository to collect and store blood, serum, tissue, urine, or tumors of children who have cancer or adults who have common childhood cancers. To develop this repository, additional samples will be collected from children and adults who have been diagnosed with common childhood cancers such as leukemia and tumors of the central nervous system. Objectives: - To collect and store blood, serum, tissue, urine, or tumor samples of children who have cancer or adults who have common childhood cancers. Eligibility: - Individuals who have been diagnosed with a common childhood cancer (e.g., leukemia) regardless of patient age. - Children, adolescents, and adults who have been diagnosed with a type of cancer more commonly found in adults. Design: - Extra blood, serum (the liquid part of blood), tissue, urine, or tumor samples will be collected from participants at a time when sampling is required for medical care or as part of a research study. - No additional procedures will be performed for the sole purpose of obtaining additional tumor tissue, aside from what is required for clinical care.
Background: - Endocrine neoplasms (tumors) are among the fastest growing tumors in incidence in the United States. Furthermore, it is often difficult to distinguish between benign or malignant tumors in cancers of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal gland, and pancreas. More research is needed to improve detection and treatment options for patients who develop these kinds of cancer. - Researchers are interested in studying the molecular changes that are involved in endocrine cancer development and growth. To collect a sample of tumor specimens and healthy tissue for further study, researchers are specifically looking for samples from patients who are scheduled for surgery or biopsy on endocrine tumors. Objectives: - To collect samples of precancerous, cancerous, and healthy tissue from individuals who are scheduled for surgery or biopsy of endocrine system tumors. Eligibility: - Individuals who have a tumor in or around their thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal gland, pancreas, or any neuroendocrine tissue, and are scheduled for surgery at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Design: - Participants in this study will provide blood and urine samples prior to surgery. - During the surgery or biopsy, pieces of the tumor or precancerous growth and pieces of normal tissue near to the tumor will be removed for ongoing and future research. The rest of the tumor or growth will be sent for analysis. - After surgery, participants will receive routine care until discharge, and doctors will discuss possible treatment options. If there is an appropriate NIH protocol, participants may choose to be treated at the NIH. - After discharge, participants will return to the clinic for a routine postoperative check about 6 weeks following the operation, and then may be followed yearly at the Clinical Center or by phone.
The research is aimed at identifying new predisposition genes for endocrine tumours. Our focus initially is on pituitary adenomas including growth hormone-secreting tumors (somatotrophinomas) and prolactin secreting tumours (prolactinomas), but we wish to extend work to other pituitary tumour cases/families. The recruitment process will be as follows. 1. We will recruit patients from our own Endocrine outpatient clinics and inpatient wards. In addition we will ask colleagues in other Endocrinology Departments (or other specialties such as Clinical Genetics,Pathology, General Medicine ) to identify potentially suitable patients with endocrine & pituitary tumours from their records. We shall focus on patients with good evidence of inheritance of their condition: relatively early onset; or multiple lesions; or other affected family members. Conditions where the predisposing genes have been identified (principally MEN) will be excluded from study. Patients directly contacting us can also enter the study. 2. The Consultant looking after the patient will contact the patient to initially inform him/her of the study. 3. We will then contact the patient (generally by telephone) to discuss the study and what it would entail in terms of information and samples. 4. Subject to agreement in (3), patient will receive 'Information Sheet for patients with pituitary tumour' and 'Consent Form' and will have blood sampling in Consultant's clinic. 5. We will contact additional family members (if appropriate) after an initial approach by the family member already recruited to the study. The additional family members may have developed tumours similar to those of the proband, or may be unaffected individuals who provide useful information for gene identification purposes (for example, spouses may greatly aid the power of gene mapping by linkage. They will receive the "Information Sheet for family members". analysis). 8. Archival tissue will be obtained from HTA licensed tissue banks. This is an established bank whose licence is primarily for diagnosis but can be used for research. 9. We will undertake laboratory work, such as genetic linkage analysis, candidate gene mutation screening and studies of loss of heterozygosity in tumours, to identify the genes predisposing to the condition, such as the AIP gene. In addition we would like to screen other genes related to the chaperon AIP molecule, such as AhR, and other genes currently identified (PDE4A5, survivin and Tom20 protein) or may not been identified. Blood samples for DNA and RNA will coded with unique ID numbers. Pituitary and other endocrine tumour samples will be collected at surgery and kept in liquid nitrogen or -80 C. They will be coded with unique ID numbers. Candidate gene sequencing will be performed in the Barts and the London Medical School Genome Centre. RNA expression studies from blood or adenoma tissue samples will be performed by RT-PCR. Protein expression studies will be performed by Western blotting or immunohistochemistry. The first gene we wish to study causes familial acromegaly, a disease resulting from a pituitary adenoma secreting growth hormone. To establish if the candidate gene is also causing possibly sporadic (not familial) cases of the disease, samples (blood and tissue) will be collected from patients with sporadic disease and will be analysed as above.