View clinical trials related to Relapsed Neuroblastoma.
Filter by:This study is for patients with neuroblastoma, sarcoma, uveal melanoma, breast cancer, or another cancer that expresses a substance on the cancer cells called GD2. The cancer has either come back after treatment or did not respond to treatment. Because there is no standard treatment at this time, patients are asked to volunteer in a gene transfer research study using special immune cells called T cells. T cells are a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infection. The body has different ways of fighting infection and disease. No single way seems perfect for fighting cancers. This research study combines two different ways of fighting cancer: antibodies and T cells. Both antibodies and T cells have been used to treat patients with cancers. They have shown promise but have not been strong enough to cure most patients. We have found from previous research that we can put a new gene into T cells that will make them recognize cancer cells and kill them. In our last clinical trial we made a gene called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) from an antibody that recognizes GD2, a substance found on almost all neuroblastoma cells (GD2-CAR). We put this gene into the patients' own T cells and gave them back to 11 neuroblastoma patients. We saw that the cells did grow for a while, but started to disappear from the blood after 2 weeks. We think that if T cells are able to last longer they may have a better chance of killing GD2 positive tumor cells. Therefore, in this study we will add a new gene to the GD2 T cells that can cause the cells to live longer. T cells need substances called cytokines to survive and the cells may not get enough cytokines after infusion. We have added the gene C7R that gives the cells a constant supply of cytokine and helps them to survive for a longer period of time. In other studies using T cells, investigators found that giving chemotherapy before the T cell infusion can improve the amount of time the T cells stay in the body and therefore the effect the T cells can have. This is called lymphodepletion and we think that it will allow the T cells to expand and stay longer in the body, and potentially kill cancer cells more effectively. The GD2-C7R T cells are an investigational product not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The purpose of this study is to find the largest safe dose of GD2-C7R T cells, and also to evaluate how long they can be detected in the blood and what affect they have on cancer.
Parental decision-making for children with advanced cancer is complex. Many parents have overly optimistic beliefs about prognosis and as a result choose aggressive measures even at the end of life, which are associated with greater suffering. Yet most parents wish to limit suffering, and in retrospect, many regret choices for cancer treatment for advanced cancer. These findings suggest that parents do not always have the information they need to make decisions that reflect their preferences. The proposed study will evaluate parental decision-making in advanced cancer, addressing gaps in the literature in 3 important respects. 1) Previous work on decision-making for children with advanced cancer has typically looked at decisions at one point in time, often asking parents to reflect on decisions after the child's death, even though parents' understanding of prognosis and decisions about care evolve over time. We will evaluate parental decision-making for advanced cancer over time. 2) Existing work focuses on aggressive end-of-life care as the worst possible outcome. However, some parents wish to pursue aggressive measures even when they recognize that the child has little chance for cure. We will evaluate the extent to which parental decision-making is informed and consonant with preferences, regardless of whether decisions lead to aggressive or palliative care. 3) Previous studies have focused on groups of different childhood cancers, making it difficult to ascertain whether differences in decision-making reflect differences in diseases, options for care, or parent preferences. We will focus on a single disease, relapsed neuroblastoma, as a model for parental decision-making.