Clinical Trials Search at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

This phase II/III trial studies how well sentinel lymph node biopsy works and compares sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery to standard neck dissection as part of the treatment for early-stage oral cavity cancer. Sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery is a procedure that removes a smaller number of lymph nodes from your neck because it uses an imaging agent to see which lymph nodes are most likely to have cancer. Standard neck dissection, such as elective neck dissection, removes many of the lymph nodes in your neck. Using sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery may work better in treating patients with early-stage oral cavity cancer compared to standard elective neck dissection.

The trial will use neoadjuvant hypofractionated radiotherapy followed by surgical resection in the treatment for soft tissue sarcoma. It will allow patients to be treated over a shorter course (5 or 15 days of radiation) compared to the traditional 5 week regimen. It is proposed that this will be possible without increasing the risk of wound complication or local recurrence compared with a traditional 5 week course of pre-operative radiation.

This phase III trial compares total ablative therapy and usual systemic therapy to usual systemic therapy alone in treating patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to up to 4 body sites (limited metastatic). The usual approach for patients who are not participating in a study is treatment with intravenous (IV) (through a vein) and/or oral medications (systemic therapy) to help stop the cancer sites from getting larger and the spread of the cancer to additional body sites. Ablative means that the intention of the local treatment is to eliminate the cancer at that metastatic site. The ablative local therapy will consist of very focused, intensive radiotherapy called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) with or without surgical resection and/or microwave ablation, which is a procedure where a needle is temporarily inserted in the tumor and heat is used to destroy the cancer cells. SABR, surgical resection, and microwave ablation have been tested for safety, but it is not scientifically proven that the addition of these treatments are beneficial for your stage of cancer. The addition of ablative local therapy to all known metastatic sites to the usual approach of systemic therapy could shrink or remove the tumor(s) or prevent the tumor(s) from returning.