Cancer Clinical Trials in Baltimore, MD

This phase II trial studies how well Pemigatinib (an orally administered inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptors 1, 2, and 3) works in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients with recurrent tumors and a prior history of low- or intermediate-risk NMIBC tumors. Participants will receive pemigatinib for 4-6 weeks prior to standard of care transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT). Read Less

Previous studies of high dose testosterone therapy given intramuscularly to men with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer suggest that high serum levels of testosterone may be required for clinical response. This injection regimen was given as one dose of 400mg injection every 28 days, which initially produces high serum testosterone levels but these levels drop to a varying degree in some men over the 28-day cycle. In this 30 patient trial will analyze the effects of oral testosterone therapy in men with metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer taken on a schedule of seven days of oral testosterone therapy followed by seven days of no therapy for a twenty-eight day cycle. This therapy will be given for three 28 day cycles consecutively followed by radiographic scans to evaluate the metastatic disease. Patients will be allowed to continue on this therapy until the patients show signs of radiographic progression. If the patients show signs of radiographic progression after the first three cycles, the patients will stop taking the oral testosterone therapy and begin taking enzalutamide therapy. Enzalutamide therapy will be taken for three 28 day cycles, then radiographic scans will be taken. If there are no signs of radiographic progression, patients can continue to take enzalutamide therapy for an additional 3 cycles while on study. Patients with continued PSA or objective response will come off study but continue on enzalutamide as standard of care therapy. This study will help the investigators to understand if treating these men with the highest FDA approved dose of oral testosterone therapy will achieve similar and sustained high levels of serum testosterone that will produce similar or enhanced therapeutic response to the therapy when compared to the serum testosterone levels found in the previous injection therapy trials. Read Less

The objective of this study is the acquisition of whole blood samples and serum samples from participants with untreated Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and subjects undergoing Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) surveillance. These samples will be used for research purposes to develop and validate the Helio multi-analyte blood test. Read Less

The goal of this trial is to determine whether it is possible to minimize radiation dose to parts of the brain that are important for thinking and learning in children who require radiation to treat their tumor, and if this will help reduce neurocognitive (thinking and learning) impairments in these patients. Patients with newly diagnosed brain or head and neck tumors who are having radiation therapy will have neurocognitive testing and MRI imaging (both research and for regular care) done as part of their participation in the study. Survivors of childhood brain tumors who completed radiation therapy at least two years before joining the study, and have not had a recurrence, will have neurocognitive testing and research MRIs completed. Healthy children will also be enrolled and have research MRIs done. The researchers will use the radiation plan to determine how much radiation was delivered to different parts of the brain. The investigators will use the MRIs to determine how the normal brain is changing after treatment; and how this compares to patients who had standard radiation treatment or who never had a brain tumor. The neurocognitive testing will be compared among different groups to see how different treatment plans affect performance on neurocognitive tests. Read Less

The Johns Hopkins Proton Therapy center is establishing a registry to capture the full 3D radiation dosimetry delivered to the patient, baseline clinical data, and disease, toxicity and quality of life outcomes. The goal is to have all patients treated at the proton center to be included in the registry to enable future comparisons of treatment outcomes to assist in understanding which patients can benefit from the use of protons. Read Less

Prostate cancer is one of most common cancers in America, affecting 1 in 6 men. External beam radiation therapy is one of the common methods to treat prostate cancer. Although radiotherapy is effective, side effects to the adjacent normal organs limit the therapeutic ratio. Those side effects are usually associated with the radiation damage of the normal tissue surrounding prostate, e.g. bladder, urethra and rectum etc. Both effectiveness and the side effects of radiation treatment are often accessed after whole course of radiotherapy, which makes the early intervention difficult. The current research project is a feasibility study of utilizing advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to access radiotherapy treatment response of prostate cancer during and right after radiotherapy. Many advanced MRI techniques, e.g. spectroscopy (MRS), diffusion-weighted (DWI), dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) perfusion weighted images, have been used in radiology departments for diagnostic purpose. This research project is to study the feasibility of using advanced MRI sequences to monitor tissue response during and after radiotherapy. The tissue changes revealed from MRI can provide physicians early information on possible tumor recurrence and normal tissue toxicity, therefore, the early intervention may be possible to spare normal tissue and cure the patient. The project is designed to combine several different advanced MRI imaging techniques systematically to study tissue changes during radiotherapy, which has not been seen elsewhere to date. Another important goal of this research project is to study the feasibility of associating functional MRI with radiation treatment dose distribution. Tissue response during radiation treatment depends on dose. The functional MRI can provide more information than simple anatomic information. Mapping the functional MRI spatially and associating them with 3D dose distribution in radiation treatment planning system is one important step to quantitative assess the relationship between radiation treatment and tissue changes due to the radiation. Read Less

This research is being done to evaluate multimodality imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging-guided therapy (MRT), as a possible treatment for gynecologic cancers. The therapy takes place in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Johns Hopkins SKCCC. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of MRI to successfully guide the placement of the brachytherapy applicator necessary to treat participants' gynecologic cancer. The Investigators want to see if the use of MRI will do a better job of assessing the tumor at the time of brachytherapy than the routinely used CT scan. The Investigators also want to determine if the use of MRI will enable doctors to reduce the radiation dose received by the body during the process of treating the tumor. Read Less

The goal of this study is to evaluate combined radioactive iodine (RAI, 131-I) and external beam radiotherapy (XRT) to optimize the radiation dose delivered to treat well differentiated thyroid cancers (DTC) with iodine-avid metastases. The investigators hypothesize that precise dosimetric planning will permit this combined RAI-XRT radiotherapeutic approach to be safe and permit higher tumor radiation doses than could otherwise be delivered. Patients with metastatic well-differentiated DTC) that is not completely resectable with macroscopic invasion of tumor into cervical soft tissues and/or non-resectable distant metastases, are the target study population. The primary objective is to evaluate safety as defined by the incidence of maximum grade 3 or greater NCI CTCAE toxicity observed during the treatment period and for the first 30 days following completion of radiotherapy. Secondary endpoints will evaluate efficacy at 6 months and feasibility of this combination to deliver a minimum cumulative dose of 80 Gy to the index tumors selected prior to treatment initiation. The investigators plan to enroll 48 subjects at an accrual rate of 1 subject per month over a study duration of 4 years. Read Less

Assess the effectiveness of galeterone in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma Read Less

The purpose of this research study is to compare the effects (good and bad) on women and their cancer using proton radiation therapy. This study is being done to see if proton radiation therapy will prove to be beneficial for women with early stage breast cancer. A clinical study is necessary to compare the results (good or bad) of proton radiation therapy. Read Less

The Breast Cancer Program Longitudinal Repository (BCPLR) is being established to fulfill the research mission of the Breast Cancer Program at Johns Hopkins and to serve investigators affiliated with it - to develop a repository of specimens with corresponding characteristics from patients seen in the breast care and cancer clinics. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to see the effects of two different standard of care treatments of endometrial cancer on sexual dysfunction. This study will compare two standard of care treatments: HDR (high dose radiation) vaginal brachytherapy 3 fractions of 7 Gy to HDR vaginal brachytherapy 6 fractions of 4Gy for early stage endometrial cancer. Read Less