Neuroendocrine Neoplasm clinical trials at UCSF

Background: Pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma are rare tumors. They usually form inside and near the adrenal gland or in the neck region. Not all these tumors can be removed with surgery, and there are no good treatments if the disease has spread. Researchers think a new drug may be able to help. Objective: To learn the safety and tolerability of Lu-177-DOTATATE. Also, to see if it improves the length of time it takes for the cancer to return. Eligibility: Adults who have an inoperable tumor of the study cancer that can be detected with Ga-68-DOTATATE PET/CT imaging Design: Participants will be screened with a medical history, physical exam, and blood tests. Eligible participants will be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center. Participants will get the study drug in an intravenous infusion. They will get 4 doses, given about 8 weeks apart. Between 4 and 24 hours after each study drug dose, participants will have scans taken. They will lie on their back on a scanner table. Participants will have vital signs taken. They will give blood and urine samples. During the study, participants will have other scans taken. Some scans will use a radioactive tracer. Participants will complete quality of life questionnaires. Participants will be contacted by phone 1-3 days after they leave the Clinical Center. They will then be followed every 3 to 6 months for 3 years or until their disease gets worse.

This pilot phase II trial studies how effective pembrolizumab and liver-directed therapy or peptide receptor radionuclide therapy are at treating patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors and symptomatic and/or progressive tumors that have spread to the liver (liver metastases). Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Liver-directed therapies such as radiofrequency ablation, transarterial embolization, yttrium-90 microsphere radioembolization, and cryoablation may help activate the immune system in order to shrink tumors that are not being directly targeted. Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy is a form of targeted treatment that is performed by the use of a small molecule, which carries a radioactive component attached to a peptide. Once injected into the body, this small molecule binds to some specific sites on tumor cells called receptors and emit medium energy radiation that can destroy cells. Because this radionuclide is attached to the peptide, which binds receptors on tumor lesions, the radiation can preferably be targeted to the tumor cells in order to destroy them. Giving pembrolizumab in combination with liver-directed therapy or peptide receptor radionuclide therapy may work better than pembrolizumab alone.

This phase III trial studies cabozantinib to see how well it works compared with placebo in treating patients with neuroendocrine or carcinoid tumors that may have spread from where it first started to nearby tissue, lymph nodes, or distant parts of the body (advanced). Cabozantinib is a chemotherapy drug known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and it targets specific tyrosine kinase receptors, that when blocked, may slow tumor growth.