9 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieves high cure rate, but is potentially neurotoxic. Long-term neurologic morbidity in survivors and its effect on function are inadequately studied. Neurologic outcomes will be assessed through an investigator administered questionnaire followed by comprehensive neurologic examination by the study neurologist.
Sickle Cell Anemia (SCA) occurs in 300,000 newborns per year in the world, with 150,000 affected births in Nigeria, alone. With improvement in survival for children with SCA in both high- and low-resource countries, neurological morbidity is an emerging significant public health challenge, particularly in countries with a high rate of sickle cell disease (SCD). Both silent cerebral infarcts (SCI) and overt strokes result in significant neurological morbidity and premature death. Five NIH-funded randomized controlled trials (RCT) demonstrated that regular blood transfusion or hydroxyurea therapy are efficacious treatments for primary and secondary stroke prevention in children with SCA. Despite the observation that at least 99% of children with SCA in high-resource settings reach adulthood, and approximately 60% of adults will experience one or more strokes (\~50% with SCI and \~10% with overt strokes) and the high disease-burden in Nigeria, the prevalence and incidence rates of new and recurrent stroke (overt and silent strokes)have not been collected systematically in children and young adults (16-25 years old) with SCA. In the last decade, there has been growing use of stroke registries in economically advanced nations, particularly for epidemiological purposes of trend analysis, clinical effectiveness, compliance to guidelines, assessment of implementation, adoption of novel techniques, and quality improvement process. For the first time in clinical centers in Nigeria, the Investigators will conduct an observational epidemiological study to document the prevalence and track the incidence of new and recurrent strokes in children and young adults with SCD. The Investigators will create a stroke registry referred to as the Afolabi Stroke Registry for Children and Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease in Nigeria. The overall purpose of the stroke registry is to document the natural history of SCD in a low-resource setting and to improve the quality of the care of children and young adults with SCD living in Nigeria.
Previous evidence has indicated that resection for recurrent glioblastoma might benefit the prognosis of these patients in terms of overall survival. However, the demonstrated safety profile of this approach is contradictory in the literature and the specific benefits in distinct clinical and molecular patient subgroups remains ill-defined. The aim of this study, therefore, is to compare the effects of resection and best oncological treatment for recurrent glioblastoma as a whole and in clinically important subgroups. This study is an international, multicenter, prospective observational cohort study. Recurrent glioblastoma patients will undergo tumor resection or best oncological treatment at a 1:1 ratio as decided by the tumor board. Primary endpoints are: 1) proportion of patients with NIHSS (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale) deterioration at 6 weeks after surgery and 2) overall survival. Secondary endpoints are: 1) progression-free survival (PFS), 2) NIHSS deterioration at 3 months and 6 months after surgery, 3) health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery, and 4) frequency and severity of Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) in each arm. Estimated total duration of the study is 5 years. Patient inclusion is 4 years, follow-up is 1 year. The study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee (METC Zuid-West Holland/Erasmus Medical Center; MEC-2020-0812). The results will be published in peer-reviewed academic journals and disseminated to patient organisations and media.
Resection of glioblastoma in or near functional brain tissue is challenging because of the proximity of important structures to the tumor site. To pursue maximal resection in a safe manner, mapping methods have been developed to test for motor and language function during the operation. Previous evidence suggests that these techniques are beneficial for maximum safe resection in newly diagnosed grade 2-4 astrocytoma, grade 2-3 oligodendroglioma, and recently, glioblastoma. However, their effects in recurrent glioblastoma are still poorly understood. The aim of this study, therefore, is to compare the effects of awake mapping and asleep mapping with no mapping in resections for recurrent glioblastoma. This study is an international, multicenter, prospective 3-arm cohort study of observational nature. Recurrent glioblastoma patients will be operated with mapping or no mapping techniques with a 1:1 ratio. Primary endpoints are: 1) proportion of patients with NIHSS (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale) deterioration at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery and 2) residual tumor volume of the contrast-enhancing and non-contrast-enhancing part as assessed by a neuroradiologist on postoperative contrast MRI scans. Secondary endpoints are: 1) overall survival (OS), 2) progression-free survival (PFS), 4) health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery, and 4) frequency and severity of Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) in each arm. Estimated total duration of the study is 5 years. Patient inclusion is 4 years, follow-up is 1 year. The study will be carried out by the centers affiliated with the European and North American Consortium and Registry for Intraoperative Mapping (ENCRAM).
A greater extent of resection of the contrast-enhancing (CE) tumor part has been associated with improved outcomes in high-grade glioma patients. Recent results suggest that resection of the non-contrast-enhancing (NCE) part might yield even better survival outcomes (supramaximal resection, SMR). Therefore, this study evaluates the efficacy and safety of SMR with and without mapping techniques in HGG patients in terms of survival, functional, neurological, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes. Furthermore, it evaluates which patients benefit the most from SMR, and how they could be identified preoperatively. This study is an international, multicenter, prospective, 2-arm cohort study of observational nature. Consecutive HGG patients will be operated with supramaximal resection or maximal resection at a 1:3 ratio. Primary endpoints are: 1) overall survival and 2) proportion of patients with NIHSS (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale) deterioration at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postoperatively. Secondary endpoints are 1) residual CE and NCE tumor volume on postoperative T1-contrast and FLAIR MRI scans 2) progression-free survival; 3) onco-functional outcome, and 4) quality of life at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postoperatively. The study will be carried out by the centers affiliated with the European and North American Consortium and Registry for Intraoperative Mapping (ENCRAM).
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a serious brain injury in infants, occurs in 2-9 per 1,000 infants after delivery. Up to 60% of infants diagnosed with HIE die and 25% of the survivors have long-term neurologic deficits. Risk factors for HIE include abnormal fetal heart tracings and intrauterine infection. Therapeutic whole-body cooling of infants with HIE is standard of care after delivery, with only 7-9 at-risk infants needing to be treated to prevent one infant from suffering long-term neurologic deficits. However, animal studies show that therapeutic cooling may be more beneficial when given in utero at the time of an insult, rather than after delivery. Though therapeutic cooling in utero has yet to be explored in humans, an established in utero fluid delivery system during labor-amnioinfusion-provides a unique opportunity for in utero intervention. We propose a pilot randomized controlled trial to test the feasibility and preliminary effects of room temperature amnioinfusion on tissue injury including HIE.
The principal objective to this randomized trial is to compare the efficacy of two strategies of intra-operative hemodynamic management during cardiopulmonary bypass among patients undergoing primary elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery in preventing peri-operative cardiac, cognitive and neurologic morbidity and mortality and post-operative deterioration in the patient's quality of life as measured by the seven domains of SF-36 Health Survey (bodily pain, health perceptions, energy, and mental, physical, social and role function).
This study attempts to learn more about the activity levels of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients or survivors at risk for cardiovascular morbidity and frailty by using a smartphone application called Beiwe. Collecting activity level data on AYA cancer patients or survivors may help patients achieve better quality of life.
The objective of this study is the development, implementation and management of a registry of patient data that captures clinically meaningful, real-world, data on the diagnosis, nature, course of infection, treatment(s) and outcomes in patients with complex disease globally.