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1. Implantable Microdevice In Primary Brain Tumors

This pilot study will assess the safety and feasibility of using an implantable microdevice to measure local intratumor response to chemotherapy and other clinically relevant drugs in malignant brain tumors.

2. Implantable Microdevice for Evaluating Drug Responses in Situ in Prostate Cancer

In this research study, is assessing the feasibility of using an MR-guided implantable microdevice to measure tumor response to chemotherapy and other clinically relevant drugs in participants that have prostate cancer and are scheduled for a radical prostatectomy.

3. Treatment of Recurrent Malignant Glioma with rQNestin34.5v.2

This research study is evaluating an investigational drug called rQNestin34.5v.2. This Phase I clinical trial tests the safety of an investigational drug and also tries to define the appropriate dose of the investigational drug as a possible treatment for this diagnosis of recurrent or progressive brain tumor.

4. Mass Spectrometry and Intraoperative MRI in Breast-Conserving Therapy

This study is to investigate the use of intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) during breast conserving surgery, and to determine if these tests are capable of accurately predicting the presence or absence of breast tumor in surgical specimens at the margins.

5. Image-Guided Gynecologic Brachytherapy

Standard therapy for gynecologic cancers involves the use of brachytherapy, also called internal radiation therapy or implant radiation. The treatment being studied consists of standard brachytherapy with the additional use of MRI to guide the insertion of radioactive applicators. The purpose of the study is to find out whether MRI-guided brachytherapy is practical and beneficial when compared to the standard CT-guided brachytherapy placement. The investigators are hoping that this MRI procedure will decrease the risk of giving too high a radiation dose to the bladder or bowel.

6. MRI-Guided Cryoablation of Head, Neck and Spine Nerves and Facets

The objective of this study is to provide pain relief to patients with facet joint disease or head and neck pain related to compression of a nerve root. The goal is to provide palliative care with superior efficacy and longer relief compared to current methods.

Completed Studies

1. Image-guided Cryoablation of Head, Neck and Spine Tumors

This research study is evaluating a procedure called cryoablation (the removal of diseased tissue using extreme freezing temperatures) as a possible treatment for head, neck and spine tumors.

2. Percutaneous Image Guided Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) Resection of Lung Lesions

This is a phase II protocol to determine the safety and feasibility of Intraoperative CT fluoroscopy guidance for lung resection for small nodules.

3. PET/CT-Assessment of Liver Tumor Ablation

In this research study, the investigators are evaluating whether ammonia PET scans or FDG PET perfusion scans are more useful in helping radiologists determine whether liver tumors were successfully destroyed by the heating or freezing procedures (ablations) than other scans currently available to radiologists, such as CT scans and MRI scans. The currently available scan (usually a CT scan with contrast dye) is not always effective in showing how completely the tumor has been destroyed. The ammonia PET scan is a different way of looking at how much tumor has been destroyed. This study will compare the standard scan (CT scan) with the ammonia PET scan.

4. Image-guided Breast Conserving Surgery

This research study is a pilot study designed to evaluate magnetic resonance imaging-guided therapy (MRT) as a possible treatment for breast cancer. In this pilot study, the investigators are studying if it is possible to use intra-operative MRI to guide surgery. The therapy takes place in the Advanced Multimodality Image Guided Operating (AMIGO) suite at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The purpose of this study is to investigate if it is possible to perform the breast conserving surgery with the help of intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging in the advanced multimodality image guided operating suite. It is hoped that intra operative MRI may improve the surgeon’s ability to know the exact margins of tumor. Currently, approximately 40% of women need to come back to the operating room and have the margins of the cancer re-excised.

5. Transsphenoidal Extent of Resection Study (TRANSSPHER)

This research study is to compare the extent of resection (EOR) in patients with nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas undergoing transsphenoidal surgery using a microsurgical technique to those patients who have undergone surgery with a fully endoscopic technique. Another goal is to compare surgical complications, endocrine outcomes, visual outcomes, length of surgery, length of hospital stay, and readmission rates between the two transsphenoidal surgery techniques. This is an observational data collection study with no experimental procedures or experimental medicines. Endonasal transsphenoidal removal of a pituitary tumor is a unique procedure and there is little information comparing the two surgical techniques.

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