Feature Channels: Clinical Trials

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Patients with non-metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (STS) who need pre-operative radiation therapy can safely receive hypofractionated treatment over three weeks instead of five, with comparable tumor control and no increased risk of major complications in wound healing, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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The results of numerous high-impact clinical trials that could affect kidney-related medical care will be presented in-person and online at ASN Kidney Week 2022 November 3–November 6.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts.

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A targeted therapy for children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma significantly reduced relapse rates, a large multicenter clinical trial conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group shows. The study results have been reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Investigators from Cedars-Sinai Cancer have identified an investigational therapeutic approach that could be effective against treatment-resistant prostate cancer. Results of their Phase II clinical trial, published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Therapy, have led to a larger, multicenter trial that will soon be underway.

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A recent analysis indicates that dapagliflozin is a cost-effective treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease in addition to standard of care.

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Drug companies and university-based teams are working urgently to find and test new medications that could prevent or slow the decline of brain function in older adults. But a new study suggests they’ll need to work harder to find volunteers for their clinical trials.

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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) has released Continuing Medical Education (CME) for dermatologists and nephrologists to help them learn more about clinical trials for lupus patients in their treatment areas and the importance of getting more of African American/Black patients enrolled.

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New research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows the use of drug-coated balloons is an optimal approach compared to bare metal stents in treating femoropopliteal lesions.

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New study is the first of its kind to focus on Hispanic children, who often have more severe disease. A novel clinical trial at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is investigating whether butyrate—a short-chain fatty acid typically produced by gut bacteria—can be a potential therapy for children with ulcerative colitis.

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A drug approved to treat breast cancer patients with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes may also benefit people who have other genetic mutations.

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Shafali Spurling Jeste, MD, shares early findings—and a critical challenge—from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials. How do you know if a treatment for autism is effective? That’s a question that has no easy answer—due in large part to the heterogeneous nature of autism spectrum disorder.

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Cedars-Sinai has been awarded a five-year, $8 million grant from California’s stem cell agency to launch an innovative new clinic that will expand patients’ access to stem cell and gene therapies, increase research and training in regenerative medicine, foster greater collaboration with eight similar clinics across the state and help educate the public about stem cell and related therapies.

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An article published in Science Advances suggests that a type of cancer treatment known as immune checkpoint blockade may be beneficial in certain cases of severe COVID-19.

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UC San Diego will be one of multiple sites assessing the safety and efficacy of tecovirimat as a potential treatment for human monkeypox. Marketed as TPOXX, tecovirimat is an antiviral currently approved for treatment of human smallpox in adults and children caused by the variola virus.

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The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) will hold Kidney Week, the world’s premier kidney meeting, in Orlando, FL, November 3–6, 2022. The results of scientific studies and high-impact clinical trials that will advance kidney-related research and medical care will be presented in-person and online.

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Six Mayo Clinic staff are award recipients in Cohort II of the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Award. The two-year program aims to train, develop and mentor diverse and community-oriented researchers and physicians to help increase the diversity of patients enrolled in clinical trials, and ultimately to enhance the development of therapeutics for all populations.

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Free online event for cancer patients and caregivers featuring immunotherapy experts and patient advocates taking place Nov. 11-12, 2022.

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Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated that adding metastasis-directed radiation therapy to intermittent hormone therapy improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer. Findings from the multicenter EXTEND trial were presented today at the 2022 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

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A new approach to cancer immunotherapy that uses one type of immune cell to kill another—rather than directly attacking the cancer—provokes a robust anti-tumor immune response that shrinks ovarian, lung, and pancreatic tumors in preclinical disease models, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The findings were published October 11, 2022 in the journal Cancer Immunology Research [https://doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-21-1075]. The study involved a twist on a type of therapy that uses immune cells known as CAR T cells. CAR T cells in current clinical use are engineered to recognize cancer cells directly and have successfully treated several blood cancers. But there have been challenges that prevent their effective use in many solid tumors.

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Researchers at University Hospitals (UH) Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio and a biotech start-up company have developed a streamlined way to manufacture CAR T-cells for immunotherapy treatment in just 24 hours – an improvement over the team’s previous benchmark of eight days and commercial suppliers that typically take three weeks. The team is one of the first in the country to test this manufacturing approach.

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A three-week course of radiation therapy is as safe and effective as four to six weeks of treatment for patients with early-stage breast cancer who have a higher risk of having their tumors recur, results of a randomized phase III clinical trial show. Delivering fewer, but higher, doses of radiation following lumpectomy, while concurrently delivering a radiation boost to the surgical site, led to similar outcomes as a longer course of treatment.

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In the face of conflicting evidence over the risks and benefits of routine prostate cancer screenings, a large, longitudinal analysis found Veterans Health Administration (VA) medical centers with lower prostate screening rates had higher rates of metastatic prostate cancer cases in subsequent years than centers with higher screening rates.

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Adding radiation therapy to systemic therapy for patients with advanced liver cancer can extend overall survival and delay tumor progression without compromising patients’ quality of life, a randomized phase III clinical trial shows.

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Using a novel response-adapted ultra-low dose radiation therapy strategy, MD Anderson researchers observed a 90% complete response rate in patients with orbital indolent B-cell lymphoma. The results were presented today at the 2022 ASTRO Annual Meeting.

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Treating high-risk, asymptomatic bone metastases with radiation may reduce painful complications and hospitalizations and possibly extend overall survival in people whose cancer has spread to multiple sites, a phase II clinical trial suggests. Results of the multicenter, randomized trial (NCT03523351) will be presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

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Meeting with a medical physicist who can explain how radiation therapy is planned and delivered reduces patient anxiety and increases patient satisfaction throughout the treatment process, according to a new study published today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics. Findings of the randomized, prospective phase III clinical trial also will be presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.

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A new randomized study confirms that men with high-risk prostate cancer can be treated with five versus eight weeks of radiation therapy.

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In a large analysis of over 7,000 men treated internationally across 12 randomized trials, study shows that it is almost universally optimal for men to begin androgen deprivation therapy when starting radiation.

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Women at risk of pregnancy loss who need a specialist surgical procedure could benefit from a single-stranded suture thread to reduce risk of infection, results from the C-STICH clinical trial found.

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The GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences is recruiting participants for the final stage of a clinical trial to evaluate two Omicron-specific vaccines. The study, known as the COVID-19 Variant Immunologic Landscape (COVAIL) trial, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences has received funding support as an agreement under NIH contract number 75N91019D00024 to Leidos Biomedical Research in Frederick, Maryland.

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A new study by researchers at UC Davis Children’s Hospital uses the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate PC-CARE’s effectiveness for children with challenging behaviors and their parents or caregivers. The study’s findings were recently published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry Human Development.

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University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers opened recruitment this month to assess whether a novel remote therapeutic monitoring system can help people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) adhere to their medication regimen, and ultimately improve their symptoms and prevent dangerous flare-ups.

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Approximately 500 healthy volunteers with no history of cancer are being sought to contribute blood cells that may be used in the development of cancer clinical trials.

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Patients who have surgery to repair bone fractures typically receive a type of injectable blood thinner, low-molecular-weight heparin, to prevent life-threatening blood clots, but a new clinical trial found that over-the-counter aspirin is just as effective.

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A device known as a bionic pancreas, which uses next-generation technology to automatically deliver insulin, was more effective at maintaining blood glucose (sugar) levels within normal range than standard-of-care management among people with type 1 diabetes, a new multicenter clinical trial has found.