Clinical Corner
UF Health Cancer and Palliative Pain Collaborative
Novel UF Health collaborative uses better communication to treat cancer pain
Julie Bondurant’s tumor pain changed her life. She took a medical leave from her job early in 2018, started taking antidepressants, lost 50 pounds from inactivity, and began to give up.
“The pain consumed me,” said Bondurant, 33, who had been the general manager of an Olive Garden restaurant. “I literally spent every second of every day in my recliner hurting and only getting up to go to the bathroom and doctors’ appointments.”
Bondurant was diagnosed with a rare tumor called a desmoid on her shoulder. While benign, these tumors are treated with chemotherapy and radiation if they continue to grow. The tumor can infiltrate anything in its way, including connective tissues and nerves.
Click here to read more.
Clinical Trial Highlight: Refractory Cancers
This issue of the UFHCC Connection highlights clinical trials currently recruiting patients with refractory malignancies.
Questions about how to send a patient? Please contact the Clinical Trials Office at cancer-center@ufl.edu or 352.273.8675
Phase II Trial of Atezolizumab in BCG-Unresponsive Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer
Patients with non-muscle invasive localized bladder cancer that has not responded to treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) are treated with Atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1 antibody) to determine the response rate and survival. This agent has activity in advanced and metastatic disease.
Principal Investigator: Paul Crispen, M.D., cell: 859.494.6157
This open-label, single arm study is investigating the use of niraparib (an oral PARP inhibitor) in patients with tumors known to have mutations in BAP1 and a variety of other DNA damage response pathway genes. The primary aim is to determine the objective response rate of patients with BAP1 and other DDR repair pathway deficiencies. Cohorts include the histologies above (regardless of mutation) as well as any tumor histology with a confirmed DDR repair pathway mutation.
Principal Investigator: Thomas George, M.D., cell: 352.339.6672
This is an investigator-initiated clinical trial that is based on the discovery of the importance of the Metnase complex in repairing chemotherapy-related DNA damage in leukemia. Ciprofloxacin has been identified as a metnase inhibitor that chemosensitizes leukemic myeloblasts to etoposide chemotherapy. The primary aims are to determine the maximum tolerated dose of ciprofloxacin that can be given in combination with a fixed dose of etoposide and determine the efficacy of the combination treatment in adults with resistant AML.
Principal Investigator: Randy Brown, M.D., cell: 859.221.6828
Adjuvant Pembrolizumab in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
This phase III RCT assigns triple negative breast cancer patients with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy to one year of adjuvant Pembrolizumab versus standard of care. Adjuvant Capecitabine is allowed.
Principal Investigator: Karen Daily, D.O., cell: 352.222.1423