Dexamethasone Treatment Options in Baltimore, MD

RATIONALE: Thalidomide may slow the growth of cancer cells. Oblimersen may increase the effectiveness of thalidomide and dexamethasone by making cancer cells more sensitive to the drugs. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining thalidomide and dexamethasone with oblimersen in treating patients who have relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining chemotherapy with peripheral stem cell transplantation may allow the doctor to give higher doses of chemotherapy drugs and kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of peripheral stem cell transplantation plus combination chemotherapy in treating patients who have low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Read Less

RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known which regimen of combination chemotherapy is most effective for lymphoblastic lymphoma. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying different regimens of combination chemotherapy to compare how well they work in treating children or adolescents with newly diagnosed stage III or stage IV lymphoblastic lymphoma. Read Less

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not the dexamethasone pellet (Ozurdex®, Allergan, Irvine, CA) can replace oral corticosteroid (e.g. prednisone) in the treatment of active sight-threatening, noninfectious intermediate and/or posterior uveitis in which immunosuppressive drug therapy is indicated. Uveitis is an inflammation inside the eye. Uveitis can decrease patients' vision if it is not treated. The dexamethasone pellet is an implant filled with a corticosteroid medicine. This therapy is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of intermediate and/or posterior uveitis. In this study investigators want to see if using the implant together with systemic immunosuppressive drug therapy can result in lower ocular side effect profile but is effective enough to replace the use of high-dose systemic corticosteroids in the treatment of active intermediate and/or posterior uveitis. Knowing the effectiveness and safety of these treatments is important because the kinds of uveitis being studied usually need to be treated for many years. This information may help researchers understand uveitis better and may suggest ways of improving treatment. Adult patients with intermediate and/or posterior uveitis for which immunosuppressive drug therapy with high-dose corticosteroid is planned may join. Read Less

A single-arm, open-label study to assess the overall safety of rovalpituzumab tesirine in participants with relapsed or refractory delta-like protein 3 (DLL3) expressing small cell lung cancer by evaluating the frequency of high grade (\>= Grade 3) select treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs). Read Less

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the anti-tumor efficacy of tadalafil in combination with Lenalidomide/dexamethasone (Rd) in multiple myeloma. Read Less

To evaluate the relative efficacy of three commonly utilized regional corticosteroids for the regional treatment of uveitic macular edema: periocular triamcinolone acetonide; intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide; intravitreal dexamethasone implant. The primary efficacy measure will be percent change in central subfield thickness as measured by OCT at 8 weeks. Participants will continue in the study for 24 weeks in order to evaluate relative effects of the 3 treatment strategies on the duration of treatment effects, requirement for additional injections, and adverse effects. Note: The planned sample size for the POINT Trial was 267 subjects. On 17 July 2017, with 192 subjects enrolled, the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMC) reviewed the planned interim analysis and recommended that the goals of the trial could be accomplished by completing follow-up of enrolled subjects without the recruitment of additional subjects. Per the DSMC recommendations, recruitment was suspended and follow-up of enrolled subjects was completed according to the protocol. Read Less

This research study is a Phase II clinical trial. Phase II clinical trials test the effectiveness of an investigational combination of drugs. The purpose is to learn whether the combination of drugs works in treating a specific cancer. "Investigational" means that the combination of drugs is still being studied. It also means that research doctors are trying to find out more about it. Examples of what they want to learn about are the safest dose to use, the side effects it may cause, and if the combination of drugs works for treating different types of cancer. Read Less

Although anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy is generally effective as treatment for center-involved diabetic macular edema (DME), a substantial proportion of anti-VEGF-treated eyes with DME do not achieve vision of 20/20 or complete resolution of retinal thickening. Indeed, over 50% of ranibizumab-treated eyes did not achieve a 2 or more line improvement in visual acuity from baseline at 2 years in Protocol I, a previous DRCR.net (Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network) study. Furthermore, 27% of ranibizumab-treated eyes still had central subfield (CSF) thickness on time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) ≥ 300 at 1 year, and more than 40% of ranibizumab-treated eyes did not achieve complete resolution of retinal thickening (\< 250 microns) by 2 years. Thus, there is a need for alternative or additional treatments that will improve vision by reducing retinal edema in eyes with persistent DME following previous anti-VEGF therapy. Intravitreal steroid is not as efficacious as ranibizumab in eyes with DME overall, but it has been shown to have a positive effect for DME in some eyes and might add benefit in eyes that are already receiving anti-VEGF. The main objective of this study is to assess the short-term effects of combination steroid+anti-VEGF therapy on visual acuity and retinal thickness on OCT in comparison with that of continued anti-VEGF therapy alone in eyes with persistent central-involved DME and visual acuity impairment despite previous anti-VEGF treatment. This study will provide important information for the design of a future confirmatory phase III clinical trial on the efficacy of combination steroid and anti-VEGF in eyes with persistent DME and vision impairment following previous anti-VEGF therapy. The primary outcome for efficacy will be the mean change in visual acuity at 24 weeks. Each study eye is required to complete a 12-week run-in phase. The run-in phase will identify study eyes that truly have persistent DME despite anti-VEGF therapy by requiring an additional 3 injections while also collecting standardized visual acuity and OCT measurements. At the enrollment, 4-week and 8-week visits of the run-in phase, enrolled eyes will receive an intravitreal injection of ranibizumab 3mg. Then at the 12-week run-in visit, if the eye still has persistent DME, it will be randomized to receive either intravitreal sham+intravitreal ranibizumab 0.3 or intravitreal dexamethasone+intravitreal ranibizumab 0.3 injections. The randomized study duration is 24 week, during which a protocol visit takes place every month. The combination injections of sham+ranibizumab or dexamethasone +ranibizumab will be given at the randomization visit (baseline) and at the 12-week visit after randomization. In between, an intravitreal injection of ranibizumab only will be given to study eyes at the 4, 8, 16 and 20 week visits. Read Less

This research study is being done to see if combining the investigational chemotherapy drug, MEDI-551 with the known anti-myeloma drugs, Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone will reduce your myeloma cancer stem cells. Read Less

This randomized phase II trial studies how well giving bortezomib with or without combination chemotherapy works as consolidation therapy in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who have completed stem cell transplant. Bortezomib may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cyclophosphamide, dexamethasone, and lenalidomide, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. It is not yet known whether giving bortezomib is more effective with or without combination chemotherapy in the post transplant setting. Read Less

This pilot trial studies how well dexamethasone and re-treatment with enzalutamide work in treating patients with prostate cancer that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic), does not respond to hormone therapy (hormone-resistant), and was previously treated with enzalutamide and docetaxel. Dexamethasone treatment may be able to reverse one resistance mechanism to enzalutamide therapy (overabundance of receptors for dexamethasone and other glucocorticoids inside cancer cells) and allow for renewed therapeutic sensitivity to enzalutamide. Androgens (a type of male hormone) can bind to androgen receptors found inside prostate cancer cells, which may cause the cancer cells to grow. Enzalutamide may stop the growth of prostate cancer cells by blocking the activity of the cancer cell androgen receptors. Giving dexamethasone prior to re-treatment with enzalutamide may be a treatment for prostate cancer. Read Less