Clinical Trials Search at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

This phase II trial tests whether using genetic testing of tumor tissue to select the optimal treatment regimen works in treating patients with clear cell renal cell (kidney) cancer that has spread to other places in the body (advanced or metastatic). The current Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved regimens for advanced kidney cancer fall into two categories. One treatment combination includes two immunotherapy drugs (nivolumab plus ipilimumab), which are delivered by separate intravenous infusions into a vein. The other combination is one immunotherapy drug (nivolumab infusion) plus an oral pill taken by mouth (cabozantinib). Nivolumab and ipilimumab are immunotherapies which release the brakes of the immune system, thus allowing the patient's own immune system to better kill cancer cells. Cabozantinib is a targeted therapy specifically designed to block certain biological mechanisms needed for growth of cancer cells. In kidney cancer, cabozantinib blocks a tumors blood supply. The genetic (DNA) makeup of the tumor may affect how well it responds to therapy. Testing the makeup (genes) of the tumor, may help match a treatment (from one of the above two treatment options) to the specific cancer and increase the chance that the disease will respond to treatment. The purpose of this study is to learn if genetic testing of tumor tissue may help doctors select the optimal treatment regimen to which advanced kidney cancer is more likely to respond.

This phase II trial tests how well itacitinib works in in patients with immune related adverse events (irAEs) arising from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) that do not respond to steroids (steroid refractory). Steroids are the usual treatment for these side effects. However, sometimes steroids do not improve or fix the side effects. Giving itacitinib may be effective in treating patients with known or suspected problems coming from ICIs, that do not resolve or improve with steroids, by reducing the patient's immune system response that can cause the irAEs.

This phase II clinical trial tests how well rigosertib plus pembrolizumab workings in treating patients with melanoma which cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable) or that has spread from where it first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic), and that has not responded to previous treatment with PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors (refractory). Rigosertib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth and may change the immune system to make immunotherapy more effective. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Giving rigosertib in combination with pembrolizumab may be more effective in treating patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma that has not responded to previous treatment with PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors than giving either drug alone.