Clinical Research Directory

Sirolimus in Previously Treated Idiopathic Multicentric Castleman Disease

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of sirolimus on idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease.

International Registry for Patients With Castleman Disease

The purpose of this study is to collect clinical, laboratory, and patient survey data from patients with Castleman disease to improve understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. Funding source - FDA OOPD.

Bevacizumab and Temsirolimus Alone or in Combination With Valproic Acid or Cetuximab in Treating Patients With Advanced or Metastatic Malignancy or Other Benign Disease

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of bevacizumab and temsirolimus alone or in combination with valproic acid or cetuximab in treating patients with a malignancy that has spread to other places in the body or other disease that is not cancerous. Immunotherapy with bevacizumab and cetuximab, may induce changes in body's immune system and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Temsirolimus may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as valproic acid, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. It is not yet known whether bevacizumab and temsirolimus work better when given alone or with valproic acid or cetuximab in treating patients with a malignancy or other disease that is not cancerous.

AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance Registry (AIDA)

Autoinflammatory diseases (AID) are clinical entities characterized by recurrent inflammatory attacks in absence of infection, neoplasm or deregulation of the adaptive immune system. Among them, hereditary periodic syndromes, also known as monogenic AID, represent the prototype of this disease group, caused by mutations in genes involved in the regulation of innate immunity, inflammation and cell death. Based on recent experimental acquisitions in the field of monogenic AID, several immunologic disorders have been reclassified as polygenic/multifactorial AID, sharing pathogenetic and clinical features with hereditary periodic fevers. This has paved the way to new treatment targets for patients suffering from rare diseases of unknown origin, including Behçet's disease, Still disease, Schnitzler's disease, PFAPA (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and cervical adenitis) syndrome, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), non-infectious uveitis and scleritis. Gathering information on such rare conditions is made difficult by the small number of patients, along with the difficulty of obtaining an accurate diagnosis in non-specialized clinical settings. In this context, the AIDA project promotes international collaboration among clinical centres to develop a permanent registry aimed at collecting demographic, genetic, clinical and therapeutic data of patients affected by monogenic and polygenic AID, in order to expand the current knowledge of these rare conditions.

An Italian Multicenter Retrospective Observational Study to Assess Effectiveness and Safety of Siltuximab for Patients with Castleman's Disease Treated in Italy in a Real-life Context

The study is a pilot, observational, retrospective, and (italian) multicenter study. The study will involve the collection of patient data from medical records for patients with Multicentric Castelman Disease Relapsed/Refractory who received treatment with at least one dose of siltuximab, as part of standard of care in a real-life context, from July 2016 till April 2022 in 31selected italian centres.

Nintedanib Treatment in Unicentric Castleman Disease

Unicentric Castleman Disease (UCD) is a rare non-malignant localised disease involving one or more lymph nodes, associating germinal centre atrophy, mantle zone thickening and intense vascular proliferation penetrating the germinal centres. Patients usually seek medical attention because of a localised, sometimes compressive, lymph node or the development of life-threatening autoimmune complications (paraneoplastic pemphigus or PNP or myasthenia gravis or MG). The best treatment option is complete surgical excision, but it has been recently demonstrated that up to half of the patients cannot undergo surgery. In these patients, an efficient medical approach needs be defined, as no current medical treatment has demonstrated to lower morbidity and mortality. The cause of UCD is currently unknown and current data favour a scenario of stromal impairment leading to the loss of lymph node architecture rather than one of a primary hematopoietic disease. UCD lesions are often associated with synchronous follicular dendritic cell (FDC) proliferation and can sometimes evolve towards a true FDC sarcoma (FDCS), indicating a possible role for FDC, a germinal centre stromal cell component, in UCD pathogenesis. A recurrent somatic activating mutation in PDGFRB (p.N666S) has been recently described in the CD45 negative (non-hematopoietic) compartment of up to 17% UCD specimens. Moreover, activation of the VEGFR pathway is thought to play a role in the development of the disease, especially in the increased vascularity characteristic of the UCD lesion. Nintedanib is a commercially available tyrosine-kinase inhibitor targeting PDGF, VEGF and FGF receptors. The drug has obtained European Market Authorization in 2015 for the treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis with a satisfactory safety profile. The hypothesis is that nintedanib could benefit patients with unresectable or partially resectable UCD.

HHV8 and Solid Organ Transplantation

Solid organ transplant candidates will undergo serological screening for HHV8 at time of listing and transplantation. In the event of a recipient/donor mismatch R-/D+ or in the presence of a seropositive recipient (R+), blood levels of HHV8 DNA will be monitored together with specific IGRA for HHV8.