Clinical Research Directory

CSF and Blood Plasma Liquid Biopsy in Patients With Metastatic Solid Tumours and CNS Metastases or no CNS Metastases

This is a prospective, single-centre feasibility study of CSF ctDNA conducted at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre (SOCC), Toronto, Canada, including multiple solid tumor, stratified into cohorts according to CNS disease involvement, including leptomeningeal disease (Cohort A), parenchymal brain metastases (Cohort B), and no evidence of CNS metastases (Cohort C).

A Phase 0/1 Clinical Trial With an Expansion Phase of GSK5764227, a B7-H3-Targeted Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC), in Patients With Recurrent Grade 4 Glioma and Patients With Brain Metastases

This will be an open-label Phase 0/1 study that will enroll approximately 15 participants, 9 participants with recurrent WHO Grade 4 glioma (rGBM) and 6 participants with brain metastases, who will receive the investigational drug risvutatug rezetecan (GSK5764227), a B7-H3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with the GSK5757810 payload. The trial will consist of a Phase 0 component (subdivided into Arms A and B) and an Expansion Phase 1 component. Participants with tumors demonstrating a positive pharmacokinetic (PK) response in the Phase 0 component will be eligible to enroll in the Expansion Phase to receive therapeutic dosing of risvutatug rezetecan.

Bevacizumab Versus Corticosteroids as First-line Treatment in Patients With Symptomatic Cerebral Radiation Necrosis After Radiation for High-grade Glioma or Brain Metastases

Cerebral radiation necrosis (CRN) is a severe complication of high-dose radiation for brain metastases (BM) or glioma, which can potentially cause significant neurologic symptoms leading to serious morbidity and impaired quality of life (QoL). The first-line therapy for symptomatic CRN (sCRN) is corticosteroids, primarily dexamethasone, which often leads to complications, refractory symptoms, and interference with anti-cancer treatment. Since 2017, bevacizumab, an antibody against Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), has been used in a second-line treatment setting for refractory sCRN. A small randomized clinical trial (RCT) has shown that bevacizumab significantly diminishes cerebral edema on MRI and decreases clinical symptoms of sCRN in irradiated glioma patients. Several non-randomized clinical studies demonstrated a beneficial radiological and clinical effect of bevacizumab in patients with sCRN after irradiation for BM. The optimal first-line treatment for sCRN is currently unknown. Effective and safe first-line treatment of sCRN will optimize the patient's well-being and health-related QoL. Furthermore, minimizing corticosteroid use will benefit the clinical treatment options and outcomes of concomitant or future anti-cancer treatment. This phase III multicenter, open-label, randomized clinical trial compares the clinical efficacy of first-line bevacizumab versus standard-of-care dexamethasone for sCRN in patients with high-grade glioma (HGG) or BM.

Phase Ib Study of AlpeliSib With PEmbroLizumab in Patients With mEtastatic Breast caNcer or melanomA (SELENA)

To find a recommended dose of the combination of alpelisib and pembrolizumab that can be given to patients with metastatic breast cancer or melanoma.

Combined Gamma Knife/Linac Radiosurgery for Large Brain Tumors / Metastases

When cancer spreads to the brain, doctors often use a precise type of radiation therapy called stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to treat these tumors. This treatment can effectively control brain tumors while helping protect healthy brain tissue. However, when brain tumors or the areas where tumors were surgically removed are larger, treatment outcomes in terms of side effects and tumour control can become worse. Specifically, standard SRS on larger areas can have lower tumour control and higher risk of side effects, particularly a condition called radiation necrosis, which can cause swelling and damage in nearby healthy brain tissue. Currently at Sunnybrook, large brain tumors are typically treated with SRS spread over 5 daily treatments using a machine called a linear accelerator. While this approach works well for many patients, it may be possible to improve results by combining two different types of radiation therapy machines - the linear accelerator and another specialized machine called the Gamma Knife. In this study, the investigators want to test a new treatment approach where patients first receive 4 daily treatments using the linear accelerator, followed by a 1-2 week break, and then a final treatment using the Gamma Knife. The break between treatments allows the study doctors to take new scans and precisely target any remaining tumor, which may shrink during the break, thereby potentially reducing the amount of healthy brain tissue exposed to radiation. The Gamma Knife is also particularly good at delivering very precise radiation while sparing nearby healthy tissue. Lastly, there may be unique biological mechanisms between the two technologies that could be taken advantage of, by combining the technologies in the participant's treatment plan, to improve cancer control. The investigators believe this combined approach might help achieve better tumor control while reducing the risk of side effects compared to using just the linear accelerator. This study will help the investigators understand if this new treatment strategy is safe and effective for patients with large brain tumors or surgical cavities, and whether it leads to better outcomes than the current treatment approach.

Study Investigating the Role of Routine Screening and Molecular Characterisation of Brain Metastasis in the Management of High-risk Metastatic Breast Cancer

The purpose of this study is to improve outcome of breast cancer patients who develop brain metastases. This will investigate the benefits of early detection of brain metastases using brain imaging. In patients diagnosed and currently being treated for advanced or metastatic breast cancer, current guidelines do not recommend routine brain imaging. However, there is emerging evidence suggesting that patients diagnosed without symptoms of brain metastases may have a better outcome than those with symptoms such as headache, vomiting and weakness. In current practice, if signs and symptoms suggestive of brain metastases are to develop, then the doctor will arrange imaging of the brain, which may be a computerised tomography (CT scan) and/or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Should brain metastasis be detected, local radiotherapy, chemotherapy or targeted treatments will be offered. When initially diagnosed with metastatic or advanced breast cancer, participant will or would have undergone a brain scan by either MRI or CT during normal standard full-body CT scan (chest, abdomen and pelvis) imaging. In this study, each time participants have a regular full-body CT scans to assess treatment progress, they will also have an additional CT scan of the brain. Participants will have a total of 12 extra brain scans, with scans taking place every three months for the first 2 years, and every 6 months for the following years. These scans will occur at the same location as your current treatment. There will be no extra costs involved in the study and participants will be in the study for 4 years and following their follow-up details will be collected from medical records. Some participants who develop brain metastases during the followup will have neurosurgery to remove these metastases. The investigators will collect either fresh or archived tissues and a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample at the time of surgery from those patients. If the treating investigators do not think neurosurgery is an option, they will ask participants to have a lumbar puncture for the collection of CSF. The purpose of this optional CSF collection is to take a liquid biopsy to check for markers (or biomarkers) potentially expressed by the breast cancer tumour cells in the brain. Participants will also be asked to provide a blood sample as well as old tumour from breast surgery (other metastatic tumour tissue). The information obtained from this component of the study will not impact a parcipants current management, but it will help researchers to develop better treatments for breast cancer brain metastases in the future.

AI-guided Prognostication and Cranial Radiotherapy Optimization in EGFR-TKI-treated Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients With Baseline Brain Metastases

The goal of this observational study is to extract the imaging features of brain lesions and primary lung lesions in NSCLC patients with brain metastases by deep learning, as well as common clinicopathological parameters, which are used to construct a multimode model that can accurately predict the treatment efficacy and survival of the third-generation EGFR-TKI treatment, and to use the model to assist in screening high-risk populations suitable for upfront cranial radiotherapy. Participants receiving third-generation EGFR-TKI treatment will be enrolled in our study and we will collect their regular contrast-enhanced chest CT and contrast-enhanced brain MRI for model construction.

A Multicenter, Single-arm, Open-label Study Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of AK112 Combined With Chemotherapy as First-line Treatment for Non-squamous NSCLC Patients With BRAIN Metastases and Negative Driver Genes (IVO BRAIN)

A multicenter, single-arm, open-label study evaluating the safety and efficacy of AK112 combined with chemotherapy as first-line treatment for non-squamous NSCLC patients with BRAIN metastases and negative driver genes

JK-1201I in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients with Brain Metastases

This study was designed to evaluate the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of JK-1201I in triple negative breast cancer patients with brain metastases.