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Today's standard of care was yesterday's clinical trial. Consider clinical research.

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center's (UM SJMC) Cancer Institute is an active partner in advancing the understanding and treatment of cancer through clinical trials and research studies of people who have cancer. The goal of these studies is to find better ways to treat, diagnose and prevent cancer so that people can live better and longer.

Clinical trials are the engine of cancer research and can represent a patient's best chance for effective therapy. The clinical trials offered at UM St. Joseph Medical Center include preventive, treatment and observational research studies. They are based on nationally approved standards of cancer care and are designed to research how we can best improve our patients' cancer outcomes.

Patients have access to national, investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials. The UM SJMC research team can help determine if a treatment option is right for a particular patient. As with all clinical trials, patients who enroll must meet specific criteria. Clinical trials currently in process at UM SJMC's Cancer Institute are below.

"There are many great reasons to be part of a clinical trial," says Kimberly Schlesinger, MD, medical director of the Cancer Institute at UM St. Joseph Medical Center. "If you think a clinical trial may be right for you, talk to your doctor to learn more or visit clinicaltrials.gov."

Early Cancer Detection (Available to Patients with and Without Cancer)

Advanced Cancers

Breast Cancer

  • A221803 – Mepitel Film for the Reduction of Radiation Dermatitis in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Post-Mastectomy Radiation Therapy: A Randomized Phase III Clinical Trial
  • A191901 – Optimizing Endocrine Therapy Through Motivational Interviewing and Text Interventions – This study may help determine if using supportive text message reminders and/or telephone-based counseling can help encourage women to take their endocrine therapy medication as prescribed. Good medication adherence—or how well patients take the medication as directed by their doctors—may contribute to better health outcomes. Poor medication adherence has been shown to be a serious barrier to effective treatment for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients. 

  • Tailor RT Study: Regional Radiotherapy in Biomarker Low-Risk Node Positive and T3N0 Breast Cancer. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects on low-risk breast cancer receiving usual care that includes regional radiation therapy, with receiving no regional radiation therapy. Researchers want to see if not giving this type of radiation treatment works as well at preventing breast cancer from coming back.

  • Mepitel Study: Randomized Phase III Trial with Mepitel Film for the Prophylaxis of Radiation Dermatitis in Breast Cancer Patients. Breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant radiotherapy commonly experience radiation-induced skin reactions which adversely impact quality of life. Importantly, patients receiving chest wall radiation or patients with large breasts are more likely to have worse skin reactions. In the last decade, there have been no significant advances in preventing or treating radiation-induced skin toxicities. In response to the lack of evidence, Sunnybrook investigators previously conducted a pilot study (REB #294-2018) of Mepitel Film and preliminary results showed improvements in high-grade skin reactions. Mepitel Film has not been widely adopted in North America as more evidence is needed. The validate the efficacy of the film compared to the standard of care, a study testing the efficacy of the film is proposed. In the study, 216 patients will be randomized (2:1) to receive either the film or the institution's current skin treatments and all patients will have their skin assessed.

Colorectal Cancer

Lung Cancer

image of someone holding a vile that is labeled platelet count

Studies Currently in Active Follow-up

Please note: These studies are currently full and in active follow-up at UM St. Joseph. At this time, we are actively tracking study participants' progress and using what we learn to offer even safer, more effective and advanced treatment options for our patients.

Breast Cancer

  • A011202 – Comparison of Axillary Lymph Node Dissection With Axillary Radiation for Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer Treated With Chemotherapy – A randomized phase III trial comparing axillary lymph node dissection to axillary radiation in breast cancer patients (CTI-3 N1) who have positive sentinel lymph node disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • NSABP B-59 – Clinical Trial of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy with Atezolizumab or Placebo in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Followed after Surgery by Atezolizumab or Placebo – Patients in this study have a type of breast cancer called "triple-negative" and have not had any treatment or surgery to remove the cancer. Triple-negative means that your tumor is negative for the protein HER2 and is not sensitive to hormone treatment. This study may help determine if administering the experimental drug atezolizumab with chemotherapy, given before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) for breast cancer, is better than administering a placebo with the chemotherapy.
  • B-61 – A Phase III, Randomized, Open-Label, Multi-Center Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Adjuvant Giredestrant Compared with Physician's Choice of Adjuvant Endocrine Monotherapy in Patients with Estrogen Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative Early Breast Cancer. Endocrine therapy with tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors (AIs [with or without ovarian function suppression (OFS)]) are currently the main endocrine treatment options for estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) early breast cancer (EBC). Despite the effectiveness of available therapies, many patients ultimately experience disease relapse or develop resistance to these agents. In addition, treatment-associated toxicity is an important major barrier to the full application of the current cancer treatment leading to treatment discontinuation in many patients. Consequently, there is a critical need for more optimal adjuvant therapy in patients with ER+ EBC, particularly for patients who have a high likelihood of recurrence.

  • S-1207 – Hormone Therapy With or Without Everolimus in Treating Patients with Breast Cancer – The current standard treatment after chemotherapy is hormone treatment alone. This study may help determine whether treatment with everolimus plus hormone treatment after chemotherapy will keep patients cancer-free for longer. Everolimus is a drug approved for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic (or spreading) kidney or breast cancer.

  • S-1418 – Testing MK-3475 (Pembrolizumab) as Adjuvant Therapy for Triple Receptor-Negative Breast Cancer – The purpose of this study is to compare the usual approach (no more treatment or additional chemotherapy and radiation therapy after surgery or radiation therapy alone after surgery), with any effects (good or bad) of receiving one year of therapy with the experimental drug MK-3475 (also called pembrolizumab) after surgery. This study will allow the researchers to better understand whether treatment with pembrolizumab is better, the same or worse than the usual approach alone.

Lymphoma

  • RELEVANCE: Combined Rituximab and Lenalidomide Treatment for Untreated Patients with Follicular Lymphoma – Patients in this study have been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma (FL), which is a cancer of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. Recent studies suggest that rituximab plus chemotherapy followed by rituximab maintenance therapy is becoming a new standard of care for FL patients. This study involves the need to look for new treatments that may reduce the risk for recurrence or to prolong the disease-free time frame.

For more information about clinical trials at UM St. Joseph Medical Center and to learn more about how we can help patients access these important medical studies, please call our Office of Clinical Research at 410-427-5459.

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