Glioblastoma Multiforme Clinical Trials

This is a study to determine the safety and efficacy of the drug, mebendazole, when used in combination with standard chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of pediatric brain tumors. Mebendazole is a drug used to treat infections with intestinal parasites and has a long track record of safety in humans. Recently, it was discovered that mebendazole may be effective in treating cancer as well, in particular brain tumors. Studies using both cell cultures and mouse models demonstrated that mebendazole was effective in decreasing the growth of brain tumor cells. This study focuses on the treatment of a category of brain tumors called gliomas. Low-grade gliomas are tumors arising from the glial cells of the central nervous system and are characterized by slower, less aggressive growth than that of high-grade gliomas. Some low-grade gliomas have a more aggressive biology and an increased likelihood of resistance or recurrence. Low-grade gliomas are often able to be treated by observation alone if they receive a total surgical resection. However, tumors which are only partially resected and continue to grow or cause symptoms, or those which recur following total resection require additional treatment, such as chemotherapy. Due to their more aggressive nature, pilomyxoid astrocytomas, even when totally resected, will often be treated with chemotherapy. The current first-line treatment at our institution for these low-grade gliomas involves a three-drug chemotherapy regimen of vincristine, carboplatin, and temozolomide. However, based on our data from our own historical controls, over 50% of patients with pilomyxoid astrocytomas will continue to have disease progression while on this treatment. We believe that mebendazole in combination with vincristine, carboplatin, and temozolomide may provide an additional therapeutic benefit with increased progression-free and overall survival for low-grade glioma patients, particularly for those with pilomyxoid astrocytomas. High grade gliomas are more aggressive tumors with poor prognoses. The standard therapy is radiation therapy. A variety of adjuvant chemotherapeutic combinations have been used, but with disappointing results. For high-grade gliomas this study will add mebendazole to the established combination of bevacizumab and irinotecan to determine this combinations safety and efficacy Read Less

The high-grade malignant brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) comprise the majority of all primary brain tumors in adults. This group of tumors also exhibits the most aggressive behavior, resulting in median overall survival durations of only 9-12 months for GBM. Initial therapy consists of surgical resection, external beam radiation or both. Currently, all patients experience a recurrence after this first-line therapy, so improvements in both first-line and salvage therapy are critical to enhancing quality-of-life and prolonging survival. Superselective Intraarterial Cerebral Infusion (SIACI) is a technique that can effectively increase the concentration of drug delivered to the brain while sparing the body of systemic side effects. This technique threads a tiny catheter through the patient's femoral artery in the leg, up through the body and neck and into the brain. Once the catheter reaches the brain, chemotherapy is released to the blood vessels that feed the tumor. Read Less

The PIONEER Initiative stands for Precision Insights On N-of-1 Ex vivo Effectiveness Research. The PIONEER Initiative is designed to provide access to functional precision medicine to any cancer patient with any tumor at any medical facility. Tumor tissue is saved at time of biopsy or surgery in multiple formats, including fresh and cryopreserved as a living biospecimen. SpeciCare assists with access to clinical records in order to provide information back to the patient and the patient's clinical care team. The biospecimen tumor tissue is stored in a bio-storage facility and can be shipped anywhere the patient and the clinical team require for further testing. Additionally, the cryopreservation of the biospecimen allows for decisions about testing to be made at a later date. It also facilitates participation in clinical trials. The ability to return research information from this repository back to the patient is the primary end point of the study. The secondary end point is the subjective assessment by the patient and his or her physician as to the potential benefit that this additional information provides over standard of care. Overall the goal of PIONEER is to enable best in class functional precision testing of a patient's tumor tissue to help guide optimal therapy (to date this type of analysis includes organoid drug screening approaches in addition to traditional genomic profiling). Read Less

Patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, are recommended to undergo treatment with tumor treating fields using the Optune device as part of standard of care therapy. While undergoing treatment, patients are monitored regularly with brain MRI scans to look for tumor progression, but there are currently no means to predict which, or when, patients will progress. The purpose of the current study is to prospectively analyze these MRI scans to look for subtle imaging markers that can predict for future brain tumor progression while undergoing tumor treating field therapy. Read Less