The overall goal of this study is to develop a pre-clinical platform of melanoma and head and neck squamous cell cancer that will allow the investigators to learn more about these diseases and discover better and more individualized treatments.
The main objective of this study is to establish a humanized animal model. Investigators will consent patients who have melanoma and head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) and agree to take part in this research study. They will obtain peripheral hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), blood and tumor tissue at baseline from blood and tumor samples from these patients for use in establishing tumor explants in humanized mice. Therapy results on humanized mice will be correlated with existing or newly acquired efficacy results from those same immune-based or other therapies in patients. A secondary objective is to identify pharmacodynamic markers associated with each drug and biomarkers for evidence of efficacy or lack of thereof. Where possible, subjects receiving therapy with FDA-approved drugs of interest will be asked to provide sequential blood and tumor biopsies to study the molecular and immune events that may occur as a result of drug therapy.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
9
Patients will receive 10 μg/kg/day of filgrastim subcutaneously in a 4-day mobilization schedule
University of Colorado Cancer Center
Aurora, Colorado, United States
Tissue and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Collection
Tissue and hematopoietic/mesenchymal stem cell will be collected from patients with melanoma and squamous head and neck cancer. These will be used to establish humanized animal model.
Time frame: Baseline
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