Clinical Trials Search at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

This phase II/III trial compares the addition of nivolumab to the usual treatment of paclitaxel and ramucirumab to paclitaxel and ramucirumab alone in treating patients with gastric or esophageal adenocarcinoma that may have spread from where it first started to nearby tissue, lymph nodes, or distant parts of the body (advanced). A monoclonal antibody is a type of protein that can bind to certain targets in the body, such as molecules that cause the body to make an immune response (antigens). Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Ramucirumab is a monoclonal antibody that may prevent the growth of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow. Paclitaxel is in a class of medications called antimicrotubule agents. It stops cancer cells from growing and dividing and may kill them. Adding nivolumab to ramucirumab and paclitaxel may work better to treat patients with advanced stomach or esophageal cancer.

A first in human study to evaluate the safety and preliminary antitumor activity of BBO-11818, a pan-KRAS inhibitor, in subjects with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic KRAS mutant solid tumors.

The purpose of this study is to determine the clinical benefit and characterize the safety profile of tabelecleucel for the treatment of Epstein-Barr virus-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+ PTLD) in the setting of (1) solid organ transplant (SOT) after failure of rituximab (SOT-R) and rituximab plus chemotherapy (SOT-R+C) or (2) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) after failure of rituximab.

This phase III trial compares the addition of total ablative therapy to the usual systemic therapy versus the usual systemic therapy alone in treating patients with advanced colorectal cancer that has spread to up to 4 body sites (limited metastatic). The usual approach for patients who are not participating in a study is treatment with intravenous (through a vein) and/or oral medications (systemic therapy) to help stop the cancer sites from getting larger and the spread of the cancer to additional body sites. The ablative local therapy will consist of any combination of very focused, intensive radiotherapy called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), surgical resection, or microwave ablation, which is a procedure where a needle is temporarily inserted in the tumor and heat is used to destroy the cancer cells. The addition of ablative local therapy to the usual approach of systemic therapy could be more effective than usual chemotherapy alone by increasing the life of patients with limited metastatic colorectal cancer.

This study is being done to answer the following questions:

Can we lower the chance of your gastric cancer from growing or spreading by administering paclitaxel chemotherapy directly into your abdominal cavity in addition to chemotherapy given through a vein in your arm? Will administering paclitaxel chemotherapy directly into your abdominal cavity, in addition to chemotherapy given through a vein in your arm help you live longer? We are doing this study because we want to find out if this approach is better or worse than the usual approach for your gastric cancer. The usual approach is defined as care most people get for gastric cancer.

If you decide to take part in this study, you will first receive a surgical procedure called a diagnostic laparoscopy. This will help the study doctors learn more about your gastric cancer. Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgery for which you will be placed under general anesthesia. Then the surgeon will make small incisions (5mm) on your belly through which a camera and thin instruments are introduced to evaluate the abdomen. This procedure takes about 1 hour to complete. Your study group will be assigned during the surgery. The study groups are described further in the 'What are the study groups?' section below.

If you are placed into the study group 1, you will not have an intraperitoneal port (a small device which is placed under the skin and fat of your upper abdomen and a tube that is placed into the abdomen).

If you are placed into the study group 2, you will have an intraperitoneal port placed. The reason is that in addition to standard chemotherapy, which is given through a vein in your arm, this port will be used to deliver the medication paclitaxel directly inside your abdomen when you are ready to start study treatment.

It is important to know that you will not know your study group until after the surgery is over. This is because information that is learned during the surgery will help determine which study group you are put in.

Once you have fully healed from this surgery, you will start study treatment. Depending on which study group you are assigned, you will either receive a standard chemotherapy regimen (the regimen will be chosen by you and your doctor) if you are in study group 1, or paclitaxel through a tube in your belly plus chemotherapy given through a vein in your arm if you are in study group 2. All participants will get treatment for three (3) months after which you will undergo reevaluation. If the disease is under control or responding to treatment, you may continue the assigned treatment until your disease gets worse, the side effects become too severe, or you may be offered a surgical procedure to remove the cancer if the amount of disease is low and can be completely removed as determined by a surgeon.

There is a very small chance that during the laparoscopy surgical procedure, the doctor might find something called "intra-abdominal adhesions". These are areas where the stomach has healed previously and created scar tissue. If this scar tissue prevents the surgeon from being able to place a port in the correct area, you would be ineligible to receive the study treatment. If this happens, you may still receive standard of care therapy after your surgery, but you will not be able to continue on the study. If you have more questions about this, you can ask your surgeon or the study team to help.

After you finish your study treatment, your doctor or study team will watch you for side effects. They will continue to follow your condition every three (3) months during the first two (2) years, then every six (6) months until year 5. You may be reevaluated with Chest/Abdomen/Pelvis scans every three-six (3-6) months for up to five (5) years if decided by your doctor.

This phase II trial tests how well pB1-11 and human papillomavirus tumor antigen (TA-HPV) vaccines in combination with pembrolizumab work in treating patients with oropharyngeal cancer that has come back (recurrent) or that has spread from where it first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic) and that is PD-L1 and human papillomavirus (HPV) positive. Oropharyngeal cancer is a type of head and neck cancer involving structures in the back of the throat (the oropharynx), such as the non-bony back roof of the mouth (soft palate), sides and back wall of the throat, tonsils, and back third of the tongue. Scientists have found that some strains or types of a virus called HPV can cause oropharyngeal cancer. pBI-11 is a circular deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (plasmid) vaccine that promotes antibody, cytotoxic T cell, and protective immune responses. TA-HPV is an investigational recombinant vaccina virus derived from a strain of the vaccina virus which was widely used for smallpox vaccination. Vaccination with this TA-HPV vaccine may stimulate the immune system to mount a cytotoxic T cell response against tumor cells positive for HPV, resulting in decreased tumor growth. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread by inhibiting the PD-1 receptor. These investigational vaccines could cause or enhance an immune response in the body against HPV, during which time the activity of pembrolizumab against oropharyngeal cancer associated with HPV may be strengthened. These drugs in combination may be more effective in increasing the ability of the immune system to fight oropharyngeal cancer than pembrolizumab alone.

This is a multicenter, randomized, open-label, Phase 3 study in participants with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma to evaluate the benefits of teclistamab in combination with lenalidomide and teclistamab alone versus lenalidomide alone as maintenance therapy after autologous stem cell transplant.

This phase III single arm trial determines whether taking prophylactic letermovir will reduce the likelihood of infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) in children and adolescents after stem cell transplant compared to estimated rate of infection without prophylaxis. The treatments used to prepare for hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) reduce the body's natural infection-fighting ability and increase the likelihood of an infection with a virus called cytomegalovirus. "Prophylaxis" means to take a drug to prevent a disease or side effect. Letermovir is an antiviral drug that stops cytomegalovirus from multiplying and may prevent cytomegalovirus infection and make the disease less severe.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment and work by blocking protein interactions that normally prevent the immune system from recognizing and destroying cancer cells. However, these agents, now approved for over 15 types of cancers and for both early-stage and metastatic disease, are capable of causing inflammation in any organ system of the body that can lead to organ damage, dysfunction, and even death in rare cases. Some patients may suffer acute and treatable complications like joint pain, but some may have irreversible complications like hypothyroidism that requires daily, life-long medication. It is therefore important to fully understand the different types of damage ICIs can cause to better monitor patients receiving ICI therapy.

A rising concern from recent reports in the literature is that ICIs may weaken bone and increase the risk of fractures. In this study, the investigators aim to characterize how ICIs impact the bone by examining several factors in patients undergoing curative-intent ICI treatment either alone or in combination with chemotherapy: bone mineral density, bone volume, and markers of bone turnover in the blood. The study will use two imaging techniques to assess bone mineral density and volume. DXA (dual X-ray absorptiometry) imaging uses low-dose X-rays to measure how dense (or strong) bones are and is often used to diagnose or assess the risk of osteoporosis. High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) is a 3D imaging technology that can quantify bone structure and volume and offers high resolution that can be used to assess bone in smaller bones of the peripheral skeleton.

The investigators hypothesize that ICI treatment will weaken bones and increase the risk of fractures. As ICI therapy is relatively new, a rising number of patients may be at risk of fractures or have low bone density that is not being monitored because there are no guidelines in place notifying physicians of this potential risk to patients. This is study will provide important preliminary data that will be the basis for larger studies in the future aiming to better monitor and potentially treat bone weakening in patients treated with ICIs to reduce the pain, inconvenience, and complications from fragility fractures.

This phase III trial compares standard chemotherapy to therapy with liposome-encapsulated daunorubicin-cytarabine (CPX-351) and/or gilteritinib for patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia with or without FLT3 mutations. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as daunorubicin, cytarabine, and gemtuzumab ozogamicin, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. CPX-351 is made up of daunorubicin and cytarabine and is made in a way that makes the drugs stay in the bone marrow longer and could be less likely to cause heart problems than traditional anthracycline drugs, a common class of chemotherapy drug. Some acute myeloid leukemia patients have an abnormality in the structure of a gene called FLT3. Genes are pieces of DNA (molecules that carry instructions for development, functioning, growth and reproduction) inside each cell that tell the cell what to do and when to grow and divide. FLT3 plays an important role in the normal making of blood cells. This gene can have permanent changes that cause it to function abnormally by making cancer cells grow. Gilteritinib may block the abnormal function of the FLT3 gene that makes cancer cells grow. The overall goals of this study are, 1) to compare the effects, good and/or bad, of CPX-351 with daunorubicin and cytarabine on people with newly diagnosed AML to find out which is better, 2) to study the effects, good and/or bad, of adding gilteritinib to AML therapy for patients with high amounts of FLT3/ITD or other FLT3 mutations and 3) to study changes in heart function during and after treatment for AML. Giving CPX-351 and/or gilteritinib with standard chemotherapy may work better in treating patients with acute myeloid leukemia compared to standard chemotherapy alone.