Cancer Clinical Trials in Birmingham, AL

The purpose of the study is to see if a new group of imaging tests can help identify response to stage IV HER2+ breast cancer before treatment. Read Less

The FLEX Registry will be implemented to operate as a large-scale, population based, prospective registry. All patients with stage I to III breast cancer who receive MammaPrint® and BluePrint testing on a primary breast tumor are eligible for entry into the FLEX Registry, which is intended to enable additional study arms at low incremental effort and cost. FLEX Registry will utilize an adaptive design, where additional targeted substudies and arms can be added after the initial study is opened. Read Less

The researchers are doing this study to find out if the study drug, enzalutamide, alone or combined with the study drug, mifepristone, is effective in treating advanced or metastatic androgen receptor-positive (AR+) triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) or estrogen receptor-low breast cancer (ER-low BC), and whether these study treatments work as well as standard chemotherapy with carboplatin, paclitaxel, capecitabine, or eribulin. Read Less

Using a highly innovative methodology, the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST), the purpose of this randomized factorial trial is to identify components of a intervention (CASCADE) to enhance the decision support skills of family caregivers of persons with newly-diagnosed advanced cancer. Using a 2x2x2x2 full factorial design, 352 family caregivers of persons with newly-diagnosed advanced cancer will be randomized to receive one or more nurse coach-delivered decision partnering training components, based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework and Social Support Effectiveness Theory: 1) psychoeducation on effective decision partnering principles (1 vs. 3 sessions); 2) decision partnering communication training (yes vs. no); 3) Ottawa Decision Guide training (yes vs. no); and monthly follow (1 monthly follow-up call vs. monthly follow-up calls for 24 weeks). Read Less

The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) will investigate the long-term effects of cancer and its associated therapies. A retrospective cohort study will be conducted through a multi-institutional collaboration, which will involve the identification and active follow-up of a cohort of approximately 50,000 survivors of cancer, diagnosed before 21 years of age, between 1970 and 1999 and 10,000 sibling controls. This project will study children and young adults exposed to specific therapeutic modalities, including radiation, chemotherapy, and/or surgery, who are at increased risk of late-occurring adverse health outcomes. A group of sibling controls will be identified and data collected for comparison purposes. Read Less

The proposed study design is a single arm Phase II trial to document the feasibility of carboplatin-mirvetuximab - in patients with advanced-stage EOC. Patients with biopsy confirmed, newly diagnosed, advanced-stage serous EOC deemed appropriate for NACT will have their tumors evaluated for FRα receptor over-expression via a centralized immunohistochemical assay (IHC) and identified as appropriate for study participation if IHC staining is PS2+ in >75% of cells (40% of all serous patients). Eligible patients will receive NACT with one cycle of carboplatin, followed by mirvetuximab + carboplatin (if FRα +) every 21 days for three cycles prior to interval cytoreductive surgery (iCRS). A total of 70 will be included in the study. Following completion of 4 cycles total of NACT and after allowing for appropriate recovery of cycle # 4, patients eligible for surgery, will undergo an iCRS. Patients will then complete 3 more cycles of mirvetuximab + carboplatin for a total of 7 intended cycles of treatment. It is up to the treating physician if they want to add bevacizumab to the last 2 cycles or use any type of maintenance therapy. The decision to add bevacizumab or use maintenance therapy does not need to be made upfront. Patients will sign a screening consent form prior to tissue biopsy. If a patient is found to be FRα negative, their treating physician can select the treatment they deem appropriate and the patient will be declared a screen failure. Patients with BRCA mutations are not excluded from this trial and are allowed to receive standard of care maintenance therapy including bevacizumab and/or PARP inhibitors. Read Less

Immunotherapy has gained a significant amount of attention recently, but its efficacy as a single agent in gynecological cancers has been disappointing. Pre-clinical evidence supports the combination of using Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors (VEGF) inhibitors with immunotherapy. VEGF inhibitors suppress the activation of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and VEGF has been shown to affect the functional maturation of dendritic cells; therefore, VEGF inhibitors could improve the function of antigen presentation. In this study, Cabozantinib (VEGF inhibitor) and Dostarlimab (immunotherapeutic drug) will be admnistered as a combination to patients with recurrent gynecologic carcinosarcoma. Read Less

A total of 80 individuals receiving treatment for metastatic breast or advanced stage ovarian cancer will be asked to complete a baseline survey and install the mobile app on their smartphone; carry the smartphone for 28 consecutive days while outside the home; keep smartphone location and motion services active; confirm and correct (if needed) smartphone-detected activities and trips; use the app interface to provide additional information on activities and trips related to cancer treatment tasks; complete daily surveys regarding well-being; and at the end of the 28 day period, complete an online survey. Read Less

Many of the 2.8 million family caregivers (FCGs) of persons with advanced cancer are underserved, particularly African-Americans and rural-dwellers in the Southern U.S.. Most have poor access and awareness of community-based palliative care services and have received no formal support or training despite providing assistance to their relatives an average of 8 hrs/day. Providing intense care and witnessing a close friend or family member struggle with advanced cancer can result in FCGs experiencing marked distress, particularly as their care recipients near end of life (EOL). Reports from NCI and NINR caregiving summits, systematic reviews, and the National Academy of Medicine have highlighted major limitations of cancer caregiver interventions, including a lack of attention to underserved populations and cost, poor scalability, over reliance on highly-trained professionals (e.g., nurses, psychologists, behavioral therapists), lengthy sessions over a short duration, and a lack of demonstrated impact on patient outcomes and healthcare utilization. To address this gap, the investigators have developed and tested feasibility and acceptability of a lay navigator-led early palliative care intervention called ENABLE Cornerstone for rural and minority family caregivers of persons with advanced cancer in the Southern U.S.. Evolving out of the team's prior trials and community stakeholder formative evaluation work, this multicomponent intervention is based on Pearlin's Stress-Health Process Model where lay navigators, overseen by an interdisciplinary outpatient palliative care team, employ health coaching techniques and caregiver distress screening to behaviorally activate and reinforce psychoeducation on managing stress and coping, getting and asking for help, improving caregiving skills, and decision-making/advance care planning over 6 brief in-person/telephonic sessions plus monthly follow-up from diagnosis through early bereavement. This proposed hybrid type I randomized effectiveness-implementation trial will determine whether ENABLE Cornerstone compared to usual care can improve family caregiver (Aim 1) and patient outcomes (Aim 2) and will evaluate implementation costs, cost effectiveness and healthcare utilization (Aim 3), over 24 weeks with 294 family caregivers and their patients with newly-diagnosed advanced cancer. To maximize recruitment, the investigators will recruit from two community cancer centers in Birmingham, AL and Mobile, AL. Our theory-driven, standardized approach is innovative because it uses lay navigators in collaboration with a palliative care interdisciplinary team to promote caregiver activation, skills and knowledge enhancement, as opposed to other difficult-to-implement intervention models that rely mostly on delivery of services by advanced practice professionals providing lengthy sessions over a short duration. If effectiveness is established, the ENABLE Cornerstone intervention offers a highly scalable and reproducible model of formal caregiver support that would be primed for dissemination and implementation. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to create a registry to provide insight into treatment selection and treatment outcome of pancreatic IRE in order to develop an evidence base such that physicians can provide the best possible care to patients with pancreatic cancer requiring surgical interventions. The investigators seek a better understanding of the uses of ablation in the treatment of unresectable soft tissue pancreatic tumors and the limitations, concerns and complications that earlier users have. Read Less

The goal of this study is to investigate whether the therapeutic response of pancreatic tumors can be accurately assessed using quantitative DCE-MRI, when the inter/intra-scanner variability is reduced using the Point-of-care Portable Perfusion Phantom, P4. The intra-scanner variability over time leads to errors in therapy monitoring, while the inter-scanner variability impedes the comparison of data among institutes. The P4 is small enough to be imaged concurrently in the bore of a standard MRI scanner with a patient for real-time quality assurance. The P4 is safe, inexpensive and easily operable, thus it has great potential for widespread and routine clinical use for accurate diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring. This study has identified two arms, one arm is healthy individuals that will undergo DCE MRI at three different MRI locations to establish baseline results. The healthy volunteers will undergo these MRIs prior to the second arm, which contains patients with pancreatic cancer. The pancreatic cancer patients will only have DCE MRI done at one location. Read Less

A Phase I, Multicenter, Open-label, Dose-Escalation, Safety, Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Study of Minnelide™Capsules given daily for 21 days followed by 7 days off schedule in patients with Advanced Solid Tumors Read Less