Cisplatin Treatment Options in North Dakota

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. It is not known whether high-dose radiation therapy is more effective than standard dose radiation therapy in treating cancer of the esophagus. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus high- or standard-dose radiation therapy in treating patients with cancer of the esophagus. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining more than one chemotherapy drug with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of radiation therapy plus combination chemotherapy in treating patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, etoposide, and docetaxel, use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining cisplatin and etoposide with radiation therapy may shrink the tumor so it can be removed by surgery. Giving docetaxel after surgery may kill any remaining tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving chemoradiotherapy together with cisplatin and etoposide followed by surgery and docetaxel works in treating patients with newly diagnosed Pancoast tumors, a type of non-small cell lung cancer. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and vincristine, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining carboplatin and vincristine with radiation therapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy plus radiation therapy followed adjuvant chemotherapy in treating young patients who have newly diagnosed high-risk CNS embryonal tumors. Read Less

This study will gather and compare data about the effectiveness and safety of two different treatments for extensive Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) in patients who have not received previous chemotherapy. One treatment will use an investigational drug in combination with an FDA approved chemotherapy. The other treatment will use a combination of two FDA approved chemotherapy drugs. Read Less

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Cisplatin and paclitaxel may make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Giving more than one drug (combination chemotherapy) and giving them with radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether giving radiation therapy together with combination chemotherapy is more effective than giving combination chemotherapy alone in treating head and neck cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying radiation therapy and combination chemotherapy to see how well they work compared to combination chemotherapy alone in treating patients with recurrent head and neck cancer that cannot be removed by surgery. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not known whether combining chemotherapy with bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation is more effective than combination chemotherapy alone in treating men with germ cell tumors. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with or without bone marrow or peripheral stem cell transplantation in treating men with previously untreated germ cell tumors. Read Less