Cisplatin Treatment Options in Houston, TX

RATIONALE: Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of cancer cells. Interleukin-2 may stimulate a person's white blood cells to kill melanoma cells. It is not yet known whether interferon alfa plus combination chemotherapy and interleukin-2 is more effective than interferon alfa alone in treating patients with melanoma. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of interferon alfa with or without combination chemotherapy plus interleukin-2 in treating patients with melanoma. Read Less

Primary Objectives: 1. To test whether the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy improves the progression-free survival for patients with stage I, II and IIIa malignant mixed mesodermal tumor (MMMT) of the uterus. 2. To determine the acute and late toxicity profiles associated with this treatment regimen. 3. To describe the effect of this treatment regimen on the patient's quality of life. 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 II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy in treating patients with stage III or stage IV head and neck cancer. Read Less

The purpose of this trial is to study the efficacy and safety of the combination of TLK286 with cisplatin as first-line therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Read Less

Thermal therapy (hyperthermia, or heat) increases chemotherapy cancer cell kill. By itself, thermal therapy can also kill cancer cells. Whole body thermal therapy is a systemic treatment; whole-body fever-range thermal therapy can safely treat cancer cells wherever they are throughout the entire body. In this study, we are testing the combination of fever-range heat treatment and chemotherapy to test 1) The response of three types of cancer (small-cell lung, neuroendocrine cancer, lung cancer, and gastric cancer) to the thermo-chemotherapy improves cancer response compared to the effect of only chemotherapy drugs in current use; 2) whether the thermo-chemotherapy treatment helps the person's own body fight the cancer cells; and 3) whether this treatment is safe and comfortable for the patient. This study does not offer heat treatment alone. Any patient with inoperable or metastatic small cell lung cancer, neuroendocrine cancer (any organ), gastric cancer, or lung cancer, can be treated with the Phase II protocol therapy; however, the patient will need to undergo selected medical tests to make sure this treatment would be safe for them. Read Less

Thermal therapy (hyperthermia, or heat) enhances the chemotherapy anti-tumor kill. Thermal therapy by itself also kills cancer cells. Whole-body thermotherapy is a systemic treatment that includes the entire body. By using fever-range whole-body thermal therapy, cancer cells can be treated wherever they are throughout the entire body. In this study, we are testing a combination of fever-range thermal therapy combined with chemotherapy to test: 1) the response of metastatic or advanced pancreas cancer to the combined modality treatment of thermotherapy and selected chemotherapy; 2) whether it helps the body immunity fight the pancreas cancer; and 3) if this treatment is safe for the patient. This study does not offer thermal therapy alone. Any patient with measurable, inoperable or metastatic pancreatic cancer may be treated; however, the they will need to undergo specific medical tests to make sure this treatment would be safe for them. We hypothesize that a combined-modality therapy using fever-range whole-body hyperthermia (FR-WBH; temperature = 40 o C; duration = 6 h), administered in an optimized time/sequence schedule with cisplatin, gemcitabine HCl (gemcitabine), and metronomically administered, low-dose interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) to patients with inoperable or metastatic pancreas cancer, will, without inducing intolerable toxicity: a.) decrease the pancreatic cancer size; b.) improve quality of life; c.) enhance the immune response against the cancer; d.) increase survival; and e.) allow inoperable pancreatic cancer to be converted to operable disease. Read Less

RATIONALE: Imaging procedures, such as fludeoxyglucose F18 positron emission tomography (\^18FDG-PET), may improve the ability to detect disease progression and help doctors predict a patient's response to treatment and plan more effective treatment. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well \^18FDG-PET imaging works in detecting disease progression and determining response to treatment in patients who are undergoing chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effect of combination chemotherapy on the body when treating patients who have relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as pixantrone, cytarabine, methylprednisolone, and cisplatin, work in different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy in treating patients who have relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Read Less

This study aims to determine how successful the chemotherapy regimen of Pemetrexed plus cisplatin before surgery is at killing all the tumor so that none is left at the time of surgery. Following surgery, all eligible patients will receive radiation to the chest. How patients respond, whether the cancer returns and if so, where, will also be monitored. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Interferon alfa may interfere with the growth of cancer cells. Hyperthermia therapy kills tumor cells by heating them to several degrees above body temperature. Combining hyperthermia with chemotherapy and interferon alfa may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I/II trial is studying the side effects of cisplatin, gemcitabine, interferon alfa, and whole-body hyperthermia and how well they work in treating patients with metastatic, recurrent, or refractory cancer. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness and side effects of LY293111 given in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Read Less