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Find 84 clinical trials for brain cancer near Georgia. Connect with research centers in your area.
Showing 81-84 of 84 trials
NCT00229801
Clinical measurement of renal function is generally performed using either laboratory tests or nuclear medicine techniques, however, both of these techniques suffer from some limitations. Notably the lab tests only assess global, rather than individual kidney, function and the nuclear medicine tests are demanding to perform well. Children with brain tumors are often treated with chemotherapeutic in order to try and kill the cancer. Amongst the known side effect of some of the drugs used in the chemotherapy is the fact that they may damage the kidneys. For this reason the function of the kidneys is assessed using a laboratory test at 3 or 6 months intervals during the treatment. In addition, to the problem mentioned above the tests also require a separate visit to the hospital. Children with brain tumors who are undergoing chemotherapy also routinely have contrast-enhanced MRI of the brain performed at intervals of three months in order to evaluate the response of the tumor to the chemotherapy. Recently, MRI techniques have been developed which can evaluate single kidney renal function. The aim of this study is to establish if a single MRI exam can be used to assess both the effect of the chemotherapy on both the tumor and the renal function. The results of the MRI measurement of the single kidney renal function would be combined to provide a measure of global renal function and this would be compared with that obtained from the laboratory test. The MRI exam will require only require an extra 10 minutes of scanning time and will not affect the rest of the MRI exam in any way. This study is being performed to validate a new technique for measuring kidney function. Patients are being asked to volunteer for this study because they require serial contrast enhanced MR scans to monitor their response to chemotherapy. Because some chemo-therapeutic agents can be toxic to the kidney the patient's kidney function will also be evaluated using conventional methods, and the results of these tests can be compared to those obtained using MRI. We plan to study 50 children in this study. The additional procedure for measuring renal function will add 10 minutes to the duration of the MRI exam and will have no effect on the routine brain study. If validated the proposed MRI technique would allow renal function to be evaluated at the time of a routine, contrast enhanced MRI exam and would avoid additional testing using radioactive tracers or urine collection over 24 hours. If successful, MRI could be used to measure single kidney renal function in all any patient undergoing a routine MRI exam by simply extending the scanning time by a maximum of 10 minutes. This would save such patients additional visits to the hospital and would have the advantage of measuring single kidney, rather than global, renal function.
NCT00229814
Tectal plate gliomas are relatively rare tumors of childhood with a reported incidence of 10%. Their typical clinical presentation is symptoms and signs of hydrocephalus and are often incidentally diagnosed in the imaging work-up of children with hydrocephalus. Tectal tumors in children comprise a subcategory of brainstem tumors with unique clinical, imaging, and spectroscopic features. There is debate whether they truly represent brainstem tumors or whether they are a site of benign cellular overgrowth. The majority of these tumors are pathologically benign and show no or minimal growth. Not all tectal plate tumors, however, have this typically benign course. Some can manifest a more aggressive behavior. There have been reports in the past attempting to analyze the histology and behavior of these tumors. None of the prior series looking at these tumors have included Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) analysis. It is interesting that according to where tumors occur in the brainstem usually indicates what their histology and behavior is. Although not absolute, we know that tumors can have a very poor prognosis versus an extremely good prognosis depending on their location in the brainstem. Yet there are always the cases that do not act in the typical fashion and this is where MRS can prove helpful. This study is being done to look at a region of the brain, called the tectal plate, in children. This part of the brain can be involved by tumors. Because of the location of the tectal plate, it is usually very difficult and risky to get a biopsy (tissue sample) from this area. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is a non-invasive imaging technique that can look at the chemical make up of the brain. MRS may allow us to better understand the nature and behavior of these tumors. However, in order to understand disease in this area, we need to look at the normal chemical make up of the brain in children without tectal plate tumors. Healthy patients are being asked to participate as a normal volunteer. We anticipate having a total of 10 to 12 normal volunteers in the MRS study.
NCT00389090
This is an open-label, multicenter, phase II trial, assessing the antitumor activity, and safety of temozolomide in combination with O6-BG in patients with temozolomide-resistant anaplastic glioma.
NCT00024557
IL13-PE38QQR is an oncology drug product consisting of IL13 (interleukin-13) and PE38QQR (a bacteria toxin). IL3-PE38QQR is a protein that exhibits cell killing activity against a variety of IL13 receptor-positive tumor cell lines indicating that it may show a therapeutic benefit. In reciprocal competition experiments, the interaction between IL13-PE38QQR and the IL13 receptors was shown to be highly specific for human glioma cells. Patients will receive IL13-PE38QQR via a catheter placed directly into the brain tumor. Tumor recurrence will be confirmed by biopsy. The next day, patients will start a continuous 48-hour infusion of IL13-PE38QQR into the tumor. The dose (concentration) will be increased in the pre-resection infusion until the endpoint is reached (histologic evidence of tumor cytotoxicity or a maximum tolerated dose). Tumor resection will be planned for one week after biopsy, plus or minus 1 day. A histologically-effective concentration (HEC) will be determined using pathologic observations. At the end of resection, three catheters will be placed in brain tissue next to the resection site and assessed within 24 hours using MRI. On the second day after surgery, IL13-PE38QQR infusion will begin and will continue for 4 days. The lowest pre-resection IL13-PE38QQR concentration will be used as the starting dose for post-resection infusions. After an HEC or maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined, the pre-resection infusion will no longer be administered. Subsequent patients will have tumor resection and placement of three peri-tumoral catheters at study entry. IL13-PE38QQR will be infused starting on the second day after surgery and continuing for 4 days. Escalation of the post-resection IL13-PE38QQR concentration will be continued until the previously-defined HEC or MTD is reached, after which duration of the post-resection infusion will be increased in one day increments for up to 6 days. If a post-resection MTD is obtained, there will be no increase in duration of infusion. In the final stage of the study, catheters will be placed 2 days after tumor resection, and a 4-day IL13-PE38QQR infusion will begin the day after catheter placement. Patients will be observed clinically and radiographically for toxicity and duration of tumor control.
