Clinical trials

A number of recent studies have successfully reduced the number of radiotherapy treatments used for prostate cancer from 39 daily treatments to as little as 5 treatments. This study is designed to determine how tumors inside the prostate respond during these 5 treatments on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and use that information to design 2 fraction radiotherapy treatments for prostate cancer. For these two fraction treatments, the first fraction of radiation will use extra radiation to any nodules in the prostate, and the second fraction of radiation will give extra radiation to the nodule(s) in the prostate based on how those nodules responded to the first fraction of radiation. This idea is a relatively old concept but has not been used in the treatment of cancer yet. This research includes a clinical trial that evaluates whether it is safe to design treatments like this.

The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (immunotherapy) that stimulate our immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells has been one of the most exciting advances in oncology over the last decade. These medications are now employed across almost half of cancer types and settings, however they come with a cost. In some patients, instead of attacking cancer cells alone, the stimulated immune system damages healthy tissues (immune related adverse events), with one of the most severe and potentially deadly such complications being immune attack on the lungs, or checkpoint inhibitor pneumonitis (CIP). When treated promptly with oral or intravenous steroids, acute CIP improves in many cases, however for approximately one-fifth of patients the lung inflammation is difficult to control, resulting in recurrent shortness of breath, the need for extended courses of oral or intravenous steroids, impacting quality of life and cancer therapy decisions. The goal of the trial is to assess whether use of inhaled steroids, a type of medication commonly used in asthma patients, for one year after a first diagnosis of CIP may help the lung inflammation resolve and not return, without the repeated use of oral or intravenous medications that carry more side effects.

A multi-centre, randomized, non-inferiority trial in patients with irH, randomized to receive either close surveillance with corticosteroid rescue therapy or early high dose corticosteroids.

Currently, the optimal treatment regimen for elderly Glioblastoma (GBM) patients with poor performance status (PS) is unknown. Based on data for elderly GBM patients and the limited data for patients with poor PS, hypofractionated RT or a short course of Temozolomide (TMZ) may provide survival benefit without the added toxicity and inconvenience of a more protracted treatment regimen. In particular, treatment with RT or TMZ monotherapy on the basis of methylated O6 - methyl guanine - DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation status, followed by the alternative therapy at progression, may provide a safe and effective treatment regimen for patients with poor PS. The hypothesis of this trial is that in elderly GBM patients with poor performance status (age ≥ 65 years and KPS 60-70), a chemotherapy alone (TMZ monotherapy) approach to therapy results in non-inferior overall survival compared to combined TMZ/RT. It is hypothesized that chemotherapy will result in non-inferior progression-free survival, reduced toxicity and increased cost-effectiveness compared to combined chemoradiotherapy. Primary objective: • To compare overall survival of standard therapy vs chemotherapy in elderly and frail patients with newly diagnosed GBM. Secondary objective: * To evaluate progression-free survival following treatment in both arms. * To evaluate adverse events according to CTCAE criteria in both arms. * To evaluate health-related quality-of-life as assessed by MoCA and EORTC QLQ-C30/QLQ-BN20 questionnaires in both arms. * To evaluate cost-effectiveness of standard therapy vs chemotherapy Methods: Patients will be randomized to two treatment groups in a 1:1 ratio. Standard Arm: Combined modality arm Chemo-radiotherapy consisting of 40 Gy in 15 daily fractions with concurrent TMZ. TMZ will be delivered at a dose of 75 mg/m2 daily for 21 days. TMZ will be administered 1 hour before each session of RT. After a 4-week break, patients will receive adjuvant TMZ according to the standard 5-day schedule (days 1-5) every 28 days, up to 6 cycles as tolerated by the patient. The dose will be 150 mg/m2 for the first cycle and increased to 200 mg/m2 beginning with the second cycle, so long as there are no hematologic adverse events, intractable nausea or fatigue. If tolerated, additional cycles of adjuvant TMZ may be administered at the treating investigator's discretion according to site practice. Investigational Arm: TMZ monotherapy Patients will receive TMZ at a dose of 75 mg/m2 daily for 21 days, followed by adjuvant TMZ according to the standard 5-day schedule (days 1-5) every 28 days, up to 6 cycles as tolerated by the patient. The dose will be 150 mg/m2 for the first cycle and increased to 200 mg/m2 beginning with the second cycle, so long as there are no hematologic adverse events, intractable nausea or fatigue. If tolerated, additional cycles of adjuvant TMZ may be administered at the treating investigator's discretion according to site practice. Upon treatment completion, participants will be followed by every 2 and 3 months for 2 years. Response and progression will be evaluated using the new international criteria proposed by the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology working group (RANO).

Most thyroid cancers can be cured with surgery, sometimes with radioactive iodine therapy. However, some patients have cancer that has spread, and some have cancer that comes back after treatment. For those with remaining cancer, lowering TSH levels is recommended. This is because thyroid cancer growth can depend on TSH, so reducing TSH can lower the risk of cancer returning and slow its growth in patients with cancer that can't be surgically removed. International guidelines recommend keeping TSH levels as low as \<0.1 mU/L for patients with advanced thyroid cancer. This advice is based on past studies, but it hasn't been tested in a controlled way. One old study suggested that not lowering TSH enough could lead to more cancer relapses. Another study suggested that lowering TSH more could help prevent cancer from getting worse in high-risk patients. However, a recent study found no link between TSH levels and better outcomes, and the researchers suggested doing a new study to confirm if this practice is truly beneficial. Lowering TSH levels to \<0.1 mU/L using levothyroxine has been the standard of care for treating advanced thyroid cancer for a long time. The researchers would like to investigate whether using levothyroxine to keep TSH levels between 0.1 and 0.5 mU/L is just as safe and effective for cancer treatment as the current recommendation of keeping it below 0.1 mU/L. The researchers also believe this study can help set TSH suppression targets based on cancer type, reducing unnecessary side effects from too much TSH suppression while still achieving the same cancer treatment results. If the researchers can prove that keeping TSH levels between 0.1 and 0.5 mU/L is just as safe and effective as the standard of care practice, we can change our standard treatment approach. This would help reduce symptoms for our patients.

The research question for the current study is: Is loratadine more effective than placebo in preventing G-CSF-related bone pain during autologous hematopoetic stem cell transplant in patients with lymphoma or multiple myeloma? The hypothesis is that prophylaxis with loratadine will help prevent or reduce the severity of bone pain in this setting.

Participants in this study will have esophageal cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body either at initial diagnosis (synchronous) or after the cancer returned following treatment (recurrent). In Alberta, the current standard approach for treating esophageal cancer that has metastasized is to first give patients radiation to the main tumor in the esophagus to relieve symptoms. After that, they receive a combination of chemotherapy drugs (either CAPOX or FOLFOX) chosen by their doctor, along with immunotherapy drugs like Pembrolizumab or Nivolumab to fight the cancer. The study intends to add a treatment called stereotactic body radiation treatment (SBRT), which uses very high doses of radiation in a few sessions, to target small tumors which remain after the standard treatment. The goal of this study is to see if adding SBRT to chemotherapy and immunotherapy helps patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent esophageal cancer that has metastasized to a few other places. The study aims to improve survival and control the disease better.

This study aims to show that the addition of carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy to a palliative course of external beam radiation treatment improves both dysphagia relief and patient quality of life in patients with unresectable esophageal cancer.

This is a randomized phase II study to evaluate the disease control rate (DCR) of patients with metastatic or locally advanced METHYLATED 06-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) treated with Temozolomide ± Olaparib. Patients will be randomized 1:1 to Treatment Arm 1 (temozolomide treatment) or Arm 2 (temozolomide plus olaparib treatment).

This study is to see if the standard of care subcutaneous injection of bortezomib can safely be administered at home by the patient or caregiver. All tests and assessments are based on standard of care procedures.

In this study, prostate cancer patients whose cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes will receive radiation therapy targeted to the prostate and nearby tissues with or without whole pelvis radiation therapy. PSMA imaging will be used to visualize prostate cancer prior to starting the trial.

This clinical trial is comparing morning infusions of the study drug (pembrolizumab) to random infusion scheduling for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Participants will be randomized to either the Intervention (Morning Group) where Infusion start times are restricted between 0800 AM and 1000 AM or to the Control (Standard of Care) group where scheduling will occur as standard of care scheduling, in which infusions are scheduled without respect to a specific time of day. There are past studies that suggest the timing of treatment may influence immune response and outcomes. This idea is called chronotherapy. Chronotherapy explores the notion that the timing of drug administration in relation to the body's internal clock can optimize treatment effectiveness. The timing of the infusions for the morning group was therefore, chosen based on data from these past studies that looked at circadian variation in immune system function with the intent to focus on similar infusion windows. The aim of this study is to provide confirmation that the intervention is possible to achieve and use these results to design a larger study. Circadian timing of drug administration, if effective, would represent an intervention that could improve survival outcomes at no additional cost or apparent increase in toxicity, which is truly rare in oncology. Participants are asked to participate in the study intervention for 18 weeks (6 cycles of pembrolizumab), after which participants would continue with ad hoc scheduling as per standard of care.

The purpose of this study is to see whether avoiding preventative radiation to the groin in patients with normal sentinel node biopsy and PET-CT, is at least as effective treating cancer as giving preventative radiation to the groin for patients with anal canal cancer. The investigators also want to know if avoiding radiation to the groin will cause fewer side effects and better quality of life

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are rare, slow growing, and diagnosis is often delayed with advanced metastases at presentation. In select patient populations, radioisotope therapy with Lutetium-177 (Lu-DOTA-TATE) has been shown to be a safe and effective palliative therapy, and has been widely used by research groups in Europe. A brand of Lu-DOTA-TATE (Lutathera(R)) is approved for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic NETs in Europe, the U.S., and more recently in Canada. While Lutathera(R) is approved in Canada, it is not publicly funded in Alberta. Lu-DOTA-TATE has been used at the Cross Cancer Institute to treat more than 300 patients with NETs since August, 2010. Our Lu-DOTA-TATE treatment was initially given under Health Canada's Special Access Programme (SAP), with each individual treatment requiring separate approval. In 2014, Health Canada requested we conduct a clinical trial with Lu-DOTA-TATE instead. The purpose of this study is to: 1) assess the efficacy of Lu-DOTA-TATE treatment in patients with somatostatin receptor positive tumours; 2) assess the safety of Lu-DOTA-TATE; 3) assess the effect of Lu-DOTA-TATE on Quality of Life and survival.

The purpose of this study is to prospectively evaluate the feasibility of SBRT for the management of synchronous oligo metastatic liver metastases from colorectal cancers.

The study team's principal interest is to address the question, "Will prophylactic treatment with mesalamine reduce the incidence and severity of immune-related diarrhea occurring secondarily to treatment with ipi/nivo?"

A single-arm, interventional study combining Immunotherapy and propranolol with/without chemotherapy and propranolol 1. Pancreatic Cancer Durvalumab will be administered once every 4 weeks, in combination with gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel (day 1/8/15) and continuous propranolol. Tremelimumab will be given on day 1 of cycle 1, which may be repeated at the time of progression in eligible patients. 2. HCC Durvalumab will be administered once every 4 weeks in combination with continuous propranolol. Tremelimumab will be given on day 1 of cycle 1, which may be repeated at the time of progression in eligible patients. 3. Biliary Tract Cancer (BTC, Cholangiocarcinoma of the gallbladder or bile ducts) Durvalumab will be administered once every 3 weeks, in combination with cisplatin + gemcitabine (day 1/8) and continuous propranolol. Tremelimumab will be given on day 1 of cycle 1, which may be repeated at the time of progression in eligible patients.

The investigator propose a single-center randomized phase II controlled study designed to compare the management of first recurrence of GBM using etoposide versus tamoxifen.

Since patients with spinal metastases are living longer, durable palliation with long-term tumor control are becoming increasingly important. EBRT results in durable local control of bone metastasis. However, about 25 % of patients with spinal metastases only achieved complete pain relief following EBRT for a median duration of less than 4 months. This could be partly due to spinal instability. In addition, almost half of the patients who receive EBRT will subsequently develop VCFs . Hence, RT does not stabilize the spine secondary to VCFs and is not effective in preventing imminent VCFs. Vertebroplasty has rapidly reduced pain and improved function in patients with VCFs. However, vertebroplasty does not provide local tumor control similar to EBRT. It is theorized that combining vertebroplasty with EBRT will stabilize the spine, relieve the pain, prevent imminent VCFs and minimize or avoid the need for opioids. It is hypothesized that combining a spine stabilization procedure such as vertebroplasty with RT will be the most effective management for patients with spinal metastases than RT alone for patients with spinal metastases. Combined vertebroplasty and radiotherapy is not a standard treatment option at present. This study is designed to quantify the advantage of adding vertebroplasty to radiotherapy for patients with spinal metastases. If the study is proven to be significant, it could become the standard of care for patients with spinal metastases.

The purpose of this study is to see which participants have a better treatment response using PET/MRI imaging to study the removed tumor, after they have received a total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT). The treatment choice of long course chemo-radiotherapy treatment will be determined by institutional policy. The researchers will also be looking at whether this study could significantly improve the future management and quality of life of rectal cancer patients.

Many people develop joint pain, stiffness and swelling due to their cancer treatment that targets the immune system. The severity of symptoms ranges from mild to debilitating and sometimes requires delaying or stopping cancer treatment. The usual plan is to discontinue cancer treatment and give relatively high doses of a medication called prednisone (a steroid, which is an anti-inflammatory medication which may suppress the immune system) with a gradual lowering of the dose over several weeks. While this can be effective, prednisone can cause a number of side effects, and it is not known if this is the best or safest treatment. Hydroxychloroquine is a medication that is often used to treat inflammatory joint pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis, has relatively few side effects when compared to prednisone, and may be effective at treating this condition. The purpose of this study is to find out whether it is better to receive hydroxychloroquine and prednisone, or prednisone alone for joint pain. To do this, some participants will get hydroxychloroquine and some will receive a placebo (a substance that looks like the study drug but does not have any active or medicinal ingredients). A placebo is used to make the results of the study more reliable. This is a double-blinded study, which means that neither participants nor the study doctor or study staff will know which group participants are allocated. After 12 weeks of study treatment, the blind will be opened and participants will be informed which treatment was given.

Cancers are often treated with external beam radiotherapy. Current radiotherapy treatments are performed using computed tomography (also known as CT) scans which may not always clearly identify the cancer. In some instances, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be able to better identify cancers. Therefore, efforts are currently underway to use the MRI scans to improve radiotherapy treatments or eventually even use radiotherapy equipment that only uses MRI scans to guide treatments. This new technology that will only use MRI scans to guide treatments is called the Linac-MR (linear accelerator with an MRI). This new Linac-MR is a unique innovation at the Cross Cancer Institute, with theoretical advantages over other Linac-MR machines that are being tested elsewhere in the world. This feasibility study is being done as a first step in clinical development of the Linac-MR, as this new technology has to be tested to see if it is acceptable to both doctors and participants. The purpose of this Phase I/II study is (1) to verify treatment completion as intended and scheduled the oncology team, and (2) to evaluate treatment effects, including any expected or unexpected radiation side effects and cancer response to radiation. This study will allow the researchers at the Cross Cancer Institute to develop this technology further by conducting additional studies to take advantage of MRI scanning on tumor tracking during radiation treatments.

The purpose of this study is to find out what effects of using adaptive radiotherapy to deliver chest radiation has on the ability to control lung cancer and side effects.

A \[68\]Ga-HA-DOTATATE PET/CT or PET/MRI scan is a nuclear medicine test used to create pictures of the whole body that will show where somatostatin receptors are found, including on tumours. Somatostatin receptors are found on most neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), and some other types of tumours. Currently at the Cross Cancer Institute, most patients with suspected somatostatin positive tumours (e.g. NETs) have an In-111 Octreotide (Octreoscan™) scan. A scientific study has shown that a scan with a similar product (\[68\]Ga-DOTATATE) is more accurate than an Octreoscan™. This study will look at \[68\]Ga-HA-DOTATATE, a product virtually identical to \[68\]Ga-DOTATATE. The purpose of this study is to: 1) demonstrate the safety of \[68\]Ga-HA-DOTATATE; and 2) confirm that \[68\]Ga-HA-DOTATATE PET/CT or PET/MRI is effective at diagnosing somatostatin positive tumours.

Cancers are often treated with external beam radiotherapy. Current radiotherapy treatments are performed using computed tomography (also known as CT) scans which may not always clearly identify the cancer. In some instances, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be able to better identify cancers. Therefore, efforts are currently underway to use the MRI scans to improve radiotherapy treatments or eventually even use radiotherapy equipment that only uses MRI scans to guide treatments. This new technology that will only use MRI scans to guide treatments is called the Linac-MR (linear accelerator with an MRI). The purpose of this pilot phase of the study is to test whether the Alberta linac-MR P3 system at the Cross Cancer Institute can acquire high quality MR images safely. It will allow the researchers to develop the best collection of MR images possible with this new machine, in order to allow them to visualize tumors for future patients that are treated on this machine.