ferumoxytol in magnetic resonance imaging of pediatric patients with brain tumors

Conditions: Brain Neoplasm

Summary: this phase ii trial studies ferumoxytol in the magnetic resonance imaging of pediatric patients with brain tumors. magnetic resonance imaging using ferumoxytol may help in viewing a brain tumor and blood vessels in and around the tumor in a different way than the standard gadolinium-based contrast agent. imaging with this experimental contrast agent may give doctors more information about tumor blood supply and the extent of the tumor itself.

primary objective: i. testing the superiority of ferumoxytol-based steady state (ss)-cerebral blood volume (cbv) maps over gadolinium-based contrast agent (gbca)-based dynamic susceptibility weighted (dsc)-cbv maps in visualizing pediatric brain tumor blood volume maps. secondary objectives: i. correlation of relative cerebral blood volume (rcbv) with histology and genetic markers. ii. assessment of therapeutic response. iii. assessment of late ferumoxytol enhancement at various stages of disease. outline: patients undergo magnetic resonance imaging (mri) with gbca per standard of care over 45-60 minutes and then receive ferumoxytol intravenously (iv) followed by mri over 10 minutes on day 1. patients may optionally undergo mri over 30 minutes without any contrast agent on day 2. each study visit consisting of 2 days may repeat no more frequently than 4 weeks for up to 5 study visits at different stages of the disease as determined by the investigator. after completion of study, patients are followed up at 2 and 6 weeks and then periodically for 5 years.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * subjects with a presumed diagnosis of brain tumor (based on imaging) or a confirmed brain tumor (based on pathology) before or after any oncologic treatment (surgery/chemotherapy/radiation) * all subjects, or their legal guardians, must sign a written informed consent and health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa) authorization in accordance with institutional guidelines * subjects with a calculated glomerular filtration rate (gfr) \> 60 ml/min/1.73 m\^2 * sexually active women of child-bearing potential and men must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; surgical intervention i.e. tubal ligation or vasectomy; post-menopausal \> 6 months or abstinence) for at least two months after each cycle of the study; should a female become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately exclusion criteria: * subjects with clinically significant signs of uncal herniation, such as acute pupillary enlargement, rapidly developing motor changes (over hours), or rapidly decreasing level of consciousness, are not eligible * subjects with known allergic or hypersensitivity reactions to parenteral iron, parenteral dextran, parenteral iron-dextran, or parenteral iron-polysaccharide preparations (ferumoxytol investigator's drug brochure, 2009); subjects with significant drug or other allergies or autoimmune diseases may be enrolled at the investigator's discretion * subjects who are pregnant or lactating or who suspect they might be pregnant * subjects who have a contraindication for 3tesla (3t) mri: metal in their bodies (a cardiac pacemaker or other incompatible device), are severely agitated, or have an allergy to gadolinium containing contrast material * subjects with known iron overload (genetic hemochromatosis); in subjects with a family history of hemochromatosis, hemochromatosis must be ruled out prior to study entry with normal values of the following blood tests: transferrin saturation (ts) test and serum ferritin (sf) test; all associated costs will be paid by the study * subject who have received ferumoxytol within 4 weeks of study entry