Physician Search

This trial studies health outcomes after treatment in patients with retinoblastoma. Gathering health information over time from patients and family members through vision assessments, samples of tissue and saliva, and questionnaires may help doctors learn more about what causes retinoblastoma, identify long-term health outcomes for patients with retinoblastoma, and find out which therapies may be the best for treating retinoblastoma.

This study compares therapy within the bladder (intravesical therapy) and surgery as treatment options for patients with bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the United States, but not enough research is available to help patients decide between the two most common treatments: medical therapies or bladder removal. The purpose of this study is to compare how the two treatments affect patient clinical outcomes and patient and caregiver experiences. This study may help researchers improve the decision-making process about bladder cancer treatments for patients and their caregivers.

This trial tests the use of a disposable perfusion phantom (P4) to decrease errors in calculating the blood flow of a tissue with DCE-MRI. DCE-MRI is used calculate blood flow of various tissues including tumors. Blood flow often serves as a critical indicator showing a disease status. For example, a pancreatic tumor has typically low blood flow, so it can be used as an indicator to identify the presence of a pancreatic tumor. In addition, an effective therapy may result in the increase of blood flow in a pancreatic tumor during the early period of treatment. Therefore, DCE-MRI may be used to determine whether the undergoing therapy is effective or not by measuring the change of blood flow in the pancreatic tumor and may help doctors decide whether to continue the therapy or try a different one. Unfortunately, the measurement of blood flow using DCE-MRI is not accurate. The use of an artificial tissue, named "phantom" or P4, together with a patient may help to reduce errors in DCE-MRI because errors will affect the images of both the patient and the phantom. Because it is known how the blood flow of the phantom appears when no errors are present, the phantom may be used to detect what kinds of errors are present in the image, how many errors are present in the image, and how to remove errors from the image.

This phase II trial studies how well acalabrutinib works in treating patients with chronic graft versus host disease. Acalabrutinib may be an effective treatment for graft-versus-host disease caused by a stem cell transplant.

This phase II trial investigates the effect of avelumab or hydroxychloroquine sulfate with or without palbociclib in treating patients with stage II-III breast cancer that is positive for disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) after curative therapy. DTCs are breast cancer cells that are asleep (dormant) in the bone marrow. There are multiple ways in which these cells stay alive, and three of these mechanisms are inhibited by the drugs in this trial. First, dormant cancer cells need a protein signal pathway involving CDK 4/6 to start dividing once they wake up in order to survive as an active cancer cell. Palbociclib works by blocking the CDK 4/6 protein and by doing so may limit the dormant cancer cell from being able to survive. In addition, palbociclib may also help both of the other drugs in the trial to work better. Second, dormant cancer cells also use a process called autophagy to generate their own nutrition, which can allow them to stay asleep. Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to block autophagy, which leads to starvation of the cells. Third, dormant cancer cells are able to hide from the bodys immune system. The immune system sends a type of cell called T cells throughout the body to detect and fight infections and diseasesincluding cancers. One way the immune system controls the activity of T cells is through the PD-1/PD-L1 (programmed cell death protein-1) pathway. However, some cancer cells hide from T-cell attack by taking control of the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and this stops T cells from attacking cancer cells. Avelumab is an antibody designed to block the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway and helps the immune system in detecting and fighting dormant cancer cells. Because palbociclib, hydroxychloroquine, and avelumab work on the mechanisms that keep the dormant cells alive, taking one or a combination of these drugs may be able to eliminate DTCs.

This phase II trial tests whether designing radiation to avoid bone marrow in the spine (vertebral bone marrow) leads to less reduction of white blood cell counts (lymphopenia) in patients with lung cancer. This sparing technique could lead to better disease control and outcome.

This phase II trial studies the effect of hypofractionated radiotherapy followed by surgery in treating patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Hypofractionated radiation therapy delivers higher doses of radiation therapy over a shorter period of time and may kill more tumor cells and have fewer side effects. Giving hypofractionated radiotherapy followed by surgery may allow patients with sarcomas to be treated in a much more rapid and convenient fashion.

This phase I/II trial studies the side effects and best dose of a combination of gabapentin and ketamine and to see how well it works to prevent acute and chronic pain in patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy (chemoradiation) for head and neck cancer that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes (locally advanced). Gabapentin is a medication that is commonly used to treat nerve related pain. Specifically, it has been used to treat pain involving the mouth, throat and nasal passages in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiation. Ketamine is a type of general anesthetic that blocks pathways to the brain involved with sensing pain. This trial may help doctors determine how patients tolerate the combination of gabapentin and ketamine and to find the correct dosing for ketamine in those taking gabapentin. This will be the basis for a future, larger study to look at how effective this combination is at reducing and/or preventing pain in head and neck cancer patients.

This study gathers health information for the Project: Every Child for younger patients with cancer. Gathering health information over time from younger patients with cancer may help doctors find better methods of treatment and on-going care.

The primary purpose of the Research Database is to have a comprehensive source of
observational data that can be used to study HSC transplantation and cellular therapies.

A secondary purpose of the Research Database is to have a comprehensive source of data to
study marrow toxic injuries.

Objectives:

To learn more about what makes stem cell transplants and cellular therapies work well such
as:

- Determine how well recipients recover from their transplants or cellular therapy;

- Determine how recovery after a transplant or cellular therapy can be improved;

- Determine how a donor's or recipient's genetics impact recipient recovery after a
transplant or cellular therapy;

- Determine how access to transplant or cellular therapy for different groups of patients
can be improved;

- Determine how well donors recover from the collection procedures.