Rochester, MN Paid Clinical Trials

This interventional clinical study will examine the safety and efficacy of a degenerate subdominant HER2 specific helper T cell epitope vaccine (H2NVAC) in patients with HER2-expressing ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The ultimate goal of this vaccine is to prevent future invasive breast cancer among patients who are diagnosed with DCIS. However, the focus of this study is safety and efficacy. Read Less

This study gathers information on patients at different stages of chronic pancreatitis to better understand the natural course and risk factors associated with pancreatitis. Chronic pancreatitis is a disease that occurs when the pancreas is inflamed (swollen and irritated) all of the time. It is important for doctors to diagnose chronic pancreatitis in the beginning stages of the disease. Over time, as chronic pancreatitis gets worse, the pancreas may stop working correctly. Since treatment options for advanced (end-stage) chronic pancreatitis are limited, patients with early-stage chronic pancreatitis or those at high risk of developing chronic pancreatitis are ideally suited for interventions to prevent the development of end-stage chronic pancreatitis and its associated complications. Information from this study may help researchers to develop lab tests for early diagnosis and prediction of disease progression, to understand disease mechanisms, and to discover genetic factors affecting susceptibility and progression. Read Less

This trial is designed as a non-randomized pilot trial to study, in a preliminary fashion, whether proton radiation therapy (proton RT) reduces acute gastrointestinal toxicities at the end of treatment compared to intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) Read Less

This research study is a Phase I clinical trial. Phase I clinical trials test the safety of an investigational intervention. Phase I studies also try to define the appropriate dose of the investigational therapy to use for further studies. "Investigational" means that the intervention is still being studied and that research doctors are trying to find out more about it. Retroperitoneal sarcomas are soft tissue tumors located at the far back of the abdomen. Typically, patients with retroperitoneal sarcomas either have surgery for the removal of their tumors alone, or have their tumors removed, followed by standard radiation therapy, or have pre-operative radiation followed by surgery. When conventional radiation therapy is delivered after surgery, it can damage normal tissue. In this study, you will undergo proton beam radiation therapy or IMRT before undergoing surgery for the removal of your tumor. Proton radiation and IMRT are FDA approved radiation delivery systems. Protons are tiny particles with positive charge that can be controlled to travel a certain distance and stop inside the body. In theory, this allows better control of where the radiation dose is delivered as compared to photons. Since proton radiation is more targeted, it may help to reduce unwanted side effects from radiation. In this study, a standard dose of radiation will be given to the majority of the tumor, while a simultaneously integrated boost of additional radiation will be given to certain areas of the tumor identified as higher risk. This means that a higher radiation dose will be given to the higher risk areas of the tumor. The purpose of this study is to determine the highest dose of radiation therapy with protons or IMRT that can be delivered safely in patients with retroperitoneal sarcomas and the effectiveness of proton beam radiation therapy as an intervention for patients with retroperitoneal sarcomas. Read Less