Vaccines Treatment Options in Houston, TX

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. Vaccines may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. Combining chemotherapy and radiation therapy with vaccine therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining chemotherapy and radiation therapy with vaccine therapy in treating patients who have limited-stage small cell lung cancer. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate NicVAX as an aid to smoking cessation for long term abstinence. Read Less

The aims of this study are to determine: 1. the degree of immunity against hepatitis B, 2. factors associated with immunity against hepatitis B, 3. if the amount of antigen provided in a booster dose (used to measure the degree of immune memory) affects the body's response to the booster, and 4. if the age at which the vaccination was initiated during infancy affects duration of protection against hepatitis B among adolescents 16-19 years of age born in the United States who were immunized against hepatitis B as infants. These data will be important to evaluate the potential need for a possible booster dose of hepatitis B vaccine among adolescents. Study subjects eligible for enrollment will: * have blood drawn for baseline serologies * receive the hepatitis B booster dose (randomly determined to be either a 10 ug or 20 ug dose) * have blood drawn again 14 days later to determine if the booster dose has engendered an anamnestic response (a response attributed to prior immunity rather than a new response to the vaccine) The primary hypothesis is that the majority of young people will exhibit immune memory for hepatitis B in response to a booster dose of vaccine. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of an influenza vaccine. Influenza is a highly infectious disease that occurs throughout the world in the winter months. Infection with an influenza virus is a major public health threat as it has the ability to spread rapidly and affect large numbers of people. Up to 1359 healthy adults ages 18 to less than 65 years old will participate in this study for up to 24 days. Volunteers will receive an injection of either influenza vaccine with thimerosal, vaccine without thimerosal, or placebo with thimerosal. Volunteers will be asked to document information about any health changes for 21 days following vaccination. Volunteers will return to the clinic on days 5 and 21 after vaccination to share this information with study staff. On day 21, volunteers will have a physical examination. Blood samples will be taken prior to vaccination and at Day 21 post-vaccination. Read Less