Initial results from a series of three small clinical trials of a targeted cancer therapy called larotrectinib suggest that it may be effective in children and adults with a wide variety of cancer types.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the approval of cabozantinib (Cabometyx) for use as the first treatment for people with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The expanded approval was based on results from the NCI-supported phase 2 CABOSUN clinical trial.
In the trial that led to the approval, apalutamide (Erleada) delayed cancer metastasis for men with prostate cancer that is resistant to androgen deprivation therapy.
This page explains how clinical trials undergo extensive scientific review before patients are enrolled and while the study is conducted. It introduces the various groups that review trials and monitor their progress.
Sometimes clinical trials are stopped early, before the planned treatment period has been completed. This page explains several of the scenarios in which a trial might end early.
NCI-Supported Clinical Trials that Are Recruiting Patients
This phase 2 trial is testing a combination of the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with any of approximately 40 rare tumors that have either not responded to previous therapy or for which no standard therapy exists. Nivolumab and ipilimumab target different immune checkpoint molecules and may work better together.
This phase 3 trial will help determine whether radiation therapy using proton beams is better than traditional photon radiation therapy for patients with liver cancer. Doctors want to see if proton therapy leads to longer survival in patients with unresectable or locally recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma.
Patients in this phase 2 trial will be randomly assigned to one of two combinations of chemotherapy given before surgery to remove pancreatic cancer. Doctors want to see if one combination is better than the other at helping patients live at least 2 years after surgery.
