Clinical Research Directory

Studying Off Label Insurance Coverage for Patients With Cutaneous Cancers a "Filter" Observational Study

This study evaluates the time spent on obtaining insurance approval and drugs, means of insurance coverage, out-of-pocket costs for patients, and the surgical outcomes after neoadjuvant treatment is completed in skin cancer patients receiving "off label" and "on label" neoadjuvant treatment. "Neoadjuvant therapy" means cancer treatment given before surgery. However, in many instances, neoadjuvant therapy is used as an "off-label" approach for several types of skin cancers. "Off-label" means that the FDA has not yet approved its use for that type of cancer. Therefore, insurance approval of these "off-label" treatments could be delayed compared to label use, and "off-label" treatments may require several weeks of pre-authorization. There is evidence that the delayed start of cancer treatment can lead to poorer outcomes.

Personalized Neo-Antigen Peptide Vaccine for the Treatment of Stage IIIC-IV Melanoma, Hormone Receptor Positive HER2 Negative Metastatic Refractory Breast Cancer or Stage III-IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

This phase I trial studies the safety of personalized neo-antigen peptide vaccine in treating patients with stage IIIC-IV melanoma, hormone receptor positive HER2 negative breast cancer that has spread from where it first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic) or does not respond to treatment (refractory) or stage III-IV non-small cell lung cancer. Personalized neo-antigen peptide vaccine is a product that combines multiple patient specific neo-antigens. Given personalized neo-antigen peptide vaccine together with Th1 polarizing adjuvant poly ICLC may induce a polyclonal, poly-epitope, cytolytic T cell immunity against the patient's tumor.