Clinical Corner
Trials + Updates
Clinical Corner
Minimally Invasive Procedure Provides a "Heal Faster, Home Sooner" Cancer Treatment
Jerri Lane thought she had weathered the worst storm the year could throw at her when Hurricane Irma blew through North Florida on Sept. 10, 2017. Five days later Jerri was diagnosed with lung cancer, and she knew her prediction was wrong. The storm had just begun.
While cleaning up storm debris, Jerri fell and bruised her ribs. Her primary care doctor, UF Health family medicine physician, Matthew Odom, M.D., suggested a chest X-ray, which revealed a mass in her right lung. Dr. Odom referred Jerri to the UF Health lung cancer program.
Stacey Reeves, nurse navigator, promptly arranged for her to be seen by interventional pulmonologist Hiren Mehta, M.D., identified the mass as lung cancer and performed a noninvasive test called endobronchial ultrasound to rule out any cancer spread to the glands inside her chest. Now with appropriate diagnosis and staging, her case was presented at UF Health’s lung cancer multidisciplinary tumor board, where a team of dedicated experts recommended surgical resection of her cancer.
Get The Facts On Minimally Invasive Robotic Assisted Surgery
- Robotic-assisted surgery uses very small tools attached to a robotic arm. Using a computer, the surgeon controls the robotic arm with great precision.
- Similar to laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive robotic assisted surgery enables the surgeon to do procedures through small incisions that once could be done only with open surgery.
- Tiny cameras allow the surgeon to easily see the area where the surgery is being performed.
- Benefits of minimally invasive robotic surgery include: faster recovery time, less pain, less bleeding, less risk of infection, smaller scars and a shorter hospital stay.
Clinical Trial Highlight: Refractory Cancers
This issue of the UFHCC Connection highlights clinical trials currently recruiting patients with refractory malignancies.
Questions about how to send a patient? Please contact the Clinical Trials Office at cancer-center@ufl.edu or 352-273-8675
This is a Phase II study to determine if a therapy designed for each individual tumor will improve recurrence and survival over standard of care. Patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple negative breast cancer undergo genomic testing on the surgical specimen. Following post-op radiation, if indicated, patients receive 12-16 weeks of investigational adjuvant therapy versus standard of care, which may otherwise include observation or capectabine for 8 weeks.
Principle Investigator: Karen Daily, DO, cell: 352-222-1423
This is a Phase II study to investigate newly diagnosed patients with glioblastoma. Patients will receive chemotherapy and radiation with randomization to one of three vaccine groups: placebo, pp65 CMV RNA dendritic cell vaccine using shLAMP or pp65 CMV RNA dendritic cell vaccine with flLAMP.
Principal Investigator: Maryam Rahman, MD, cell: 352-682-6717
This is a Phase II study to investigate the safety and efficacy of three different regimens of panobinostat in combination with subcutaneous bortezomib and dexamethasone for patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Patients can only have received 1-3 prior lines of therapy, must have had prior IMiD exposure, and cannot be relapsed or refractory to bortezomib.
Principal Investigator: Jan Moreb, M.D., cell: 352-219-3787
Phase I/II Study of Rovalpituzumab Tesirine in Subjects with DLL3, Expressing Neuroendocrine Tumors
This is an open label study for metastatic and relapsed/refractory solid tumors that express DLL3 (most neuroendocrine tumors). Eight separate cohorts will enroll: malignant melanoma, medullary thyroid cancer, glioblastoma, large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, neuroendocrine prostate cancer, high-grade gastroenteropancreatic, neuroendocrine carcinoma, other NEC, and solid tumors other than the above.
Principal Investigator: Frederick Kaye, M.D., cell: 352-672-8860
This is an investigator-initiated clinical trial that is based on the discovery of the importance of the Metnase complex in repairing chemotherapy-related DNA damage in leukemia. Ciprofloxacin has been identified as a metnase inhibitor that chemosensitizes leukemic myeloblasts to etoposide chemotherapy. The primary aims are to determine the maximum tolerated dose of ciprofloxacin that can be given in combination with a fixed dose of etoposide and determine the efficacy of the combination treatment in adults with resistant AML.
Principal Investigator: Randy Brown, M.D., cell: 859-221-6828
DART: Dual Anti-CTLA-4 and Anti-PD-1 Blockade in Rare Tumors (SWOG1609)
This Phase 2 umbrella trial is a sister study to the NCI-MATCH but specifically for rare histologies (nearly 50 such diagnoses) in patients who have been screened with next generation sequencing for MATCH, but for whom do not have a molecular treatment match. Treatment for all such patients includes nivolumab and ipilimumab.
Principal Investigator: Thomas George, M.D., cell: 352-339-6672
