A Phase 1 interventional study of GVAX in Sarcoma, Clear Cell, Sarcoma, Alveolar Soft Part and Renal Cell Carcinoma, sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Completed at 2 sites in United States. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-03-03.
Sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment
The purpose of this study is to learn if a vaccine made from the patient's own tumor cells, then genetically modified to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), will delay or stop the growth of the tumor. It will also look at the vaccine's effects on the immune system and the side effects of giving a vaccine made from a subject's own cancer cells.
The patient will have surgery to remove a portion of the tumor. This tumor is then brought to a special, certified laboratory where it is broken up into single cells and then washed.
Specially trained laboratory technicians then use a method known as adenoviral mediated gene transfer, which adds a new gene to the cancer calls. This gene causes the cells to make GM-CSF, a powerful hormone that stimulates the immune system. The cells are then given enough radiation so that they will never grow, but not enough to completely destroy them, developing a vaccine.
The patient is then injected with the vaccine on days 0, 7, 14, 28, and then every two weeks until the supply of vaccine has run out. The amount of vaccine that can be made depends upon the total amount of cells taken from the tumor. The actual injections are like childhood vaccinations that go under the skin or into muscle and a different place will be used for each injection.
It is hoped that the cancer cells that have been made to secrete the hormone GM-CSF will cause the patient's immune system to attack the cancer in other parts of the body.
If the tumor yields enough cells, the patient will also be given an injection of non-transduced irradiated tumor cells. Non-transduced means that the gene for GM-CSF has not been added to these cells as it has for the vaccines. This is done to measure the amount of reaction of the immune system caused by the vaccine. This injection is measuring delayed type hypersensitivity, or DTH.
The patient will be asked to undergo optional skin biopsies of the vaccine and DTH sites to see if an immune reaction is occuring at the injection sites 2 days after vaccine 1 and vaccine 5.
The following tests and procedures will be performed through out the study: physical exam, blood samples, immune studies, vital signs and physical exam.
At week 10 in the patient's treatment, or earlier if the doctor feels it is necessary, the patient will undergo a chest, abdomen and pelvic XT scan. A brain MRI will be performed if there were any abnormalities on the first brain MRI or if any new central nervous system symptoms have developed.
If the patient's disease has not disappeared or if new lesions have been found after the patient receives at least six vaccines, they may have the opportunity to undergo a second course of study treatment.
Patients may participate in this study until one of the following happens: All vaccine created from the tumor has been given to the patient; the patient's disease worsens; the patient experiences an unacceptable and/or harmful side effect; the patient becomes pregnant; the patient is unable to follow the study plan; or the patient's doctor feels it is no longer in the best interest of the patient to continue.
27 studies on the registry are indexed under Sarcoma, Clear Cell; 9 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 12 is below the median of 47 across 27 interventional studies indexed under Sarcoma, Clear Cell.
Browse Sarcoma, Clear Cell studies →Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is the lead sponsor of 834 studies on the registry; 122 are open to participants now.
Of its 114 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 78 (68%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Life expectancy
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GVAX for Sarcoma / Renal Cell Patients
Biological: GVAX
GVAX for Pediatric Melanoma Patients
Biological: GVAX
4 vaccines every two weeks
To determine the safety and feasibility of preparation and administration of vaccine in patients with metastatic or locally advanced clear cell sarcoma (CCS), alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) and translocation associated renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
Time frame: Years
To determine the disease response, immune response, and overall survival rate
Ran from Jan 2005 to primary completion in Jul 2006, 18 months.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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