Current Funded Studies

Select a cancer type or topic below to view relevant research studies and information.

Anal

Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Investigator: Misha Cohen, OMD
Study: Phase II Study for Treatment of Anal HSIL through Use of a Chinese Herbal Topical

Impact: Demonstrate that a new noninvasive Chinese herbal topical ointment, AIJP, will treat precancerous anal lesions in order to prevent their progression to anal cancer.

Brain

Institution: University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
Investigator: Delphine Davis, PhD
Study: Predicting Brain Tumor Recurrence from MR Spectroscopy and Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Impact:Increase patient survival while decreasing harmful side-effects currently associated with radiation by better delineating and predicting the extent of cancer spread around a primary tumor.

Breast

Institution: Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA
Investigator: Leanna J. Standish, ND
Study: Trametes Versicolor in Breast Cancer Patients

Impact: Demonstrate that a widely used medicinal herb has a role in treating post-radiation fatigue and immune deficiency in women with breast cancer.

Institution: John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Investigator: Leisha A. Emens, MD, PhD
Study: Feasibility Trial of Cyclophosphamide-Modulated Vaccination with an Allogenic, GM-CSF-secreting Breast Cancer Vaccine in the Setting of Weekly Trastuzumab Therapy in Her-2/neu-negative and HER-2/neu-positive Metastataic Breast Cancer

Impact: Generate a robust T-cell response so existing breast tumors will shrink.

Institution: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY
Investigator: Heather Greenlee, ND, MPH
Study: Effect of Physical Activity and Dietary Change in Minority Breast Cancer Survivors

Impact: Demonstrate that hormonal profiles stimulate breast cancer growth and decreased obesity will reduce chance of recurrence.

Institution: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Investigator: William E. Gillanders, MD
Study: Phase I Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenecity of a Mammaglobin-A DNA Vaccine in Stage IV Breast Cancer Patients

Impact: Develop a vaccine that can be used for all breast cancer patients.

Institution:Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center, Zion, IL
Investigator: Percy McCray, Reverend
Study: Prayer as a Possible Adjuvant Treatment for Breast Cancer - A Randomized Partially Blinded Controlled Clinical Trial Evaluating the Effect of Prayer on Humoral and Biochemical Parameters in Stage I-IV Breast

Impact: Demonstrates that prayer affects your bodys immune response including the effects on blood pressure, quality of life and eating habits.

Institution: University of Washington
Investigator: Mary L. Disis, MD
Study: A Phase I/II study of infusion of HER-2/neu (HER2) specific T cells in patients with advanced stage HER2 expressing cancers who have received a HER2 vaccine

Impact: HER2 specific Th1 CD4+ T cell lines derived from vaccinated patients would be ideally suited for use in adoptive T cell therapy in patients with advanced stage HER2 overexpressing cancers who are no longer responding to standard treatment.

Colorectal

Institution: University of California, Irvine
Investigator: Randall F. Holcombe, MD
Study: Phase I biomarker study of dietary grape-derived low dose resveratrol for colon cancer prevention

Impact: Demonstrate that resveratrol in tandem with other bioactive compounds in grapes inhibit the activity of the Wnt signaling pathway found in 85% of colon cancers.

Leukemia / Lymphoma

Institution: UCSD Moores Cancer Center
Investigator: Januario E. Castro, MD
Study:Immuno-gene therapy for Non Hodgkin Lymphoma using intranodal injection of Ad-ISF35

Impact:Direct intranodal injection of Ad-ISF35 as an effective and less expensive strategy to transduce cancer cells and induce anti-tumor responses compared to the current ex-vivo manipulation protocols.

Institution: Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Investigator: Asher Chanan-Khan, MD
Study:A Phase II Study of Immune Induction with Lenalidomide Followed by Fludarabine Plus Rituximab Cytoreduction and Lenalidomide Maintenance as Primary Therapy For Patients With B-Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)

Impact: Develop a new combination of drugs based on improved understanding of the biology of CLL, that along with chemotherapy can augment clinical responses as well as durability of responses for the future management of patients with CLL.

Ovarian

Institution: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Investigator: John J. Kavanagh,
Study: Correlative Study of Letrozole in Patients with Recurrent Advanced Borderline Tumors or Low Grade Epithelial Cancers of the Ovary, Fallopian Tube and Primary Peritoneum

Impact: Reduce recurrence rate and increase survival rate of ovarian cancer patients.

Pancreas

Institution: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Investigator: William G. Hawkins, MD
Study: Phase I Study of Soluble Lag-3 (Imp321) and Gemcitabine in Patients with Advanced Pancreas Cancer

Impact: Develop novel treatment strategy to increase immune response and overall survival rates.

Institution: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Investigator: David C. Linehan, MD
Study: Correlative Studies in Pancreas Adjuvant Therapy

Impact: Reveal biological markers that allow physicians to detect and treat pancreas cancer, decreasing mortality rates.

Prostate

Institution: Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
Investigator: Rony Weitzen, MD
Study: Optimization of Fermented Wheat Germ Extract in a Pilot Clinical Trial

Impact: Assess the safety of fermented wheat germ in combination with hormone therapy as a treatment option for patients with hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC).

Institution: Medical University of South Carolina. Charleston, SC
Investigator: Sebastiano Gattoni-Celli, MD
Study: Vitamin D in Prostate Cancer

Impact: Demonstrate that appropriate regimens of vitamin D provide an excellent alternative or adjunct to "watchful waiting" for low-risk prostate cancer patients.

Institution: Strang Cancer Prevention Center, New York, NY
Investigator: Richard Rivlin, MD
Study: Chemoprevention of prostate Cancer by Combination of Garlic and Curcumin

Impact: Demonstrate that the combination of the dietary chemopreventive agents garlic and curcumin, with different mechanisms of action, offer major advantages for the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer.

Institution: University of California San Diego
Investigator: Alessandra Franco, MD, PhD
Study:Phase 1 Study With Designer Glycopeptides Containing The Tn TACA Antigen In Prostate Cancer Patients

Impact:Develop a vaccine using glycopeptides, small synthetic molecules that contain Tn, a sugar that is expressed on the surface of cancer cells, to expand immune cells which can destroy prostate tumors.

Sarcoma

Institution: H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL
Investigator: Dimitry Gabrilovich, MD, PhD,
Study: Combined treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. Combination of External Beam Radiation with Intratumoral Injection of Dendritic Cells as Neo-Adjuvant Treatment of High Risk Soft Tissue Sarcoma Patients

Impact: Develop a new treatment approach for a group of sarcoma patients who have a poor prognosis with standard therapy.

Stem Cell

Institution: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Investigator: Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, FRCP(C)
Study: Novel Approaches For Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Graft-vs.-Host Disease in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Impact: Demonstrate novel use of monoclonal antibody therapy may lead to the prevention and treatment of steroid-refractory chronic GVHD and increase survival rates.

Institution: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Investigator: Larry W. Kwak, MD, PhD
Study: Adoptive Immunotherapy with Donor Tumor Idiotype-specific T Cells

Impact: Develop a novel therapy for patients with blood cancers by transferring highly enriched populations of specific T cells from donor to recipient.

Institution: Stanford University
Investigator: Investigator: Sally Arai, MD
Study:A Pilot Study of Adoptive Immunotherapy with Ex-Vivo Expanded NK-92 Cells in Stem Cell Transplant Patients at High Risk for Relapse

Impact:Develop a highly targeted immunotherapy that can reduce the relapse rate after high-risk hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Institution: Duke University Medical Center
Investigator: Investigator: Mitchell E. Horwitz, MD
Study:Thymic Replacement Therapy to Augment Immune Recovery Following Adult Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation

Impact:Thymic replacement therapy to result in demonstrable improvement in parameters of immune reconstitution.

Targeted Systemic Therapies

Institution: Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center, Zion, IL
Investigator: Christopher Stephenson, DO/Robert Levin, MD/Christopher Lis, MPH
Study: A Phase I Study of High-Dose IV Vitamin C Treatment

Impact: Demonstrate high-dose IV vitamin C therapy in late stage cancer patients is safe and effective in improving their quality of life and prolonging survival.

Institution: Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, AZ
Investigator: Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP
Study: A Phase I Open Label, Safety, Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Dose Escalation Study SF1126, A PI3 Kinase (PI3K) Inhibitor, in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Tumor

Impact: This study would represent important and highly anticipated "firsts" in cancer therapy. It would be the first PI3K inhibitor in human studies for cancer. Also, it would be among the first of the newly established Exploratory Phase I clinical trials.