Background:
Research samples and data collected on a treatment-intent protocol are discrete items
associated with that protocol up until the patient comes off study, usually due to
disease progression. These data are not stored in the patient s medical records, but are
essential to understand tumor response to different drugs over time. Patients in the
Developmental Therapeutics Clinic (DTC) often start other clinical trials; this protocol
provides a mechanism to connect research data about that patient from one trial to the
next as long as the patient remains eligible and has given his or her informed consent.
No new analysis will be performed under this protocol.
There is research interest in collecting pre- and post-dose research biopsies and other
samples such as circulating tumor cells to measure dynamic drug-specific target effects
(e.g., changes in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, DNA damage response, or
immunotherapeutic cell infiltration), and then to evaluate molecular changes before and
during disease progression to understand why the tumors initially respond but then became
resistant to treatment.
To accomplish this, we will connect research results from consecutive trials with limited
patient information (age, sex, disease, prior therapies, protocol number/drug regimen,
response, and duration of treatment).
Each patient who consents to participate in this non-treatment, longitudinal sample
protocol agrees to allow his or her Medical Record Number (MRN) to be used to track
participation on DTC clinical trials.
Objectives:
Patients will be entered onto this "master" longitudinal protocol to connect research
sample and treatment data across consecutive DTC clinical trials.
Biopsy samples collected at time of disease progression on one research trial will be
evaluated for use as the baseline sample for the next research trial, potentially
obviating the need for additional biopsies.
Eligibility:
Adult patients who are being evaluated for and/or treated for cancer or benign tumors at
the DTC.
Design:
No samples will be collected under this longitudinal protocol, no treatment decisions
will be made based on data collected, and no new analysis will be performed.
Specimens for research purposes, as outlined in this protocol, will be those obtained
from tests and procedures that are done as required by the primary research protocols
that a given patient is enrolled in. Tissue collected under DTC tissue procurement
protocol 06-C-0213 will not be used or tracked.
Sample location and use will be managed in the Repository at the Frederick National
Laboratory for Cancer Research using LabMatrix software.
Patients may remain on this longitudinal protocol for the duration of their consent.