Clinical Research Directory

Intraperitoneal Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Zoledronic Acids for Gastric Cancer Malignant Ascites

This study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intraperitoneal injection of immune checkpoint inhibitor combined with zoledronic acid for the treatment of malignant ascites in gastric cancer. This study is a phase Ib/II clinical study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intraperitoneal injection of immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with zoledronic acid in the treatment of malignant ascites in gastric cancer, which consists of two phases, firstly, the phase Ib safety study, which adopts the '3+3' drug-escalation experimental design, and after determining the safe and tolerable dose, it will proceed to the second part of the phase II efficacy study. The Phase II study was designed by Simon's two-stage approach to evaluate the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with zoledronic acid in the treatment of malignant ascites in gastric cancer.

Mass Response of Tumor Cells as a Biomarker for Rapid Therapy Guidance (TraveraRTGx)

The primary objective of this study, sponsored by Travera Inc. in Massachusetts, is to validate whether the mass response biomarker has potential to predict response of patients to specific therapies or therapeutic combinations using isolated tumor cells from various specimen formats including malignant fluids such as pleural effusions and ascites, core needle biopsies, fine needle aspirates, or resections.

QOL and Sarcopenia in Patients With Ascites

Clinical data regarding quality of life in patients with refractory ascites is limited and preceded the development of newer questionnaires that may be more robust. One primary objective of this study is to study changes in quality in life in a prospective fashion using newer general and ascites-specific quality of life survey instruments specific to benign and malignant etiologies. Sarcopenia is a condition that is prevalent in cancer and cirrhosis. Current data is retrospective and associative, evaluating heterogeneous patient populations at different stages within the timeline of refractory ascites. The other primary objective of this study is to study sarcopenia in a prospective fashion and to understand its kinetics once a patient develops refractory ascites. Prospectively-obtained measures of deterioration in patient-reported outcomes and in muscle mass will form the basis for the next stage of investigation of interventions to mitigate these declines.