Clinical Trial Open: Tomotherapy for Limited Cancer Mets

Cancer patients with only a few tumors that have spread to other parts of their bodies (metastases) will be part of a clinical trial to test precisely focused, high-dose radiation treatment called helical tomotherapy.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center want to know if helical tomography, focused on metastatic tumors, can destroy them and keep them from returning in patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically or who are not willing to have surgery.

The trial is being conducted by the National Cancer Institute on the NIH Clinical Center campus in Bethesda, MD.

Conformal Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Metastatic Cancer Outside the Brain

Eligible Patients

• Measurable cancer metastases outside the brain
• No more than four tumors less than 5 centimeters in size
• Additional entry criteria include specific requirements for lung tumors and those located near or in liver or kidneys.
• Patients whose tumors could be removed surgically but don’t want that option are eligible for the trial.

Excluded are patients

• who also have brain tumors.
• where sites to be treated have already had radiotherapy.
• who need emergency treatment of their tumors.
• have fractures or potential fractures.

For more information about the trial or to be considered for enrollment, contact:

Deborah Citrin, MD, Principal investigator
Ph: 301-496-5457
Email: citrind@mail.nih.gov

Or call the NCI Clinical Trials Referral Office at 1-888-NCI-1937. The call is toll free and confidential.

There is no cost for medical treatment at the NIH Clinical Center. Patients do have to pay for transportation for their initial screening visit, but in most cases, once enrolled in a trial travel costs are paid for them.  In addition, there is a small allowance for meals and lodging for outpatients.