Active clinical trials for "Cachexia"

This study aims to identify if clarithromycin (CLM) has potential as a widely available and inexpensive treatment for cachexia (the loss of muscle mass) in people with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Half the participants will receive clarithromycin and half will receive a placebo.

Clinical background: Weight loss is a common problem in patients suffering from gastrointestinal cancer. It is demonstrated that the prognosis for cancer patients with weight loss is worse than that for weight stable patients. Malnutrition in cancer patients is associated with a poor prognosis and is an important predictor of mortality. Supplementation with home parenteral nutrition in aphagic and terminal patients has shown improved quality of life, energy balance, body composition and prolonged survival. Aim: The aim of this study is primarily to study the effects of supplementation with parenteral nutrition, to patients with advanced incurable gastrointestinal cancer on lean body-mass and body composition. Patients found to be at nutritional risk will be included in the study and will be randomized to either best supportive nutritional care or best supportive nutritional care and supplemental Parenteral Nutrition. Design: This study is a controlled, randomized trial with two parallel study arms. The study will include patients with advanced GI cancers at nutritional risk, performance status 0-2 and with an expected survival of a minimum of 3 months. A total of 100 patients are planned to be enrolled and randomized to either best supportive nutritional care or best supportive nutritional care and supplemental parenteral Nutrition. Primary endpoint is improvement of lean body mass, and by that improvement of quality of life, performance status and cancer treatment tolerance. Discussion: The planned study will provide important information about the effect of parenteral nutrition in a patient group with advanced gastrointestinal cancer. Palliative treatment strategies are set up to improve quality of life as well as prolongation of life. Parenteral nutrition in this patient group may indeed contribute to both these aspects of palliation.

To test the compliance, tolerance, safety and to get preliminary insights into the efficacy of a new oral nutritional supplement (containing n-3 fatty acids, amino acids and antioxidants) designed to prevent or delay cachexia and anorexia in lung cancer patients.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether prednisone, methotrexate, and cyclophosphamide are effective in the treatment of rapidly progressive hearing loss in both ears due to autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED).

Cancer cachexia is a multi-factorial syndrome defined by an ongoing loss of skeletal muscle mass (with or without loss of fat mass) that cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support and leads to progressive functional impairment. There is an urgency for improving management, but there is no consensus on the optimal treatment for cancer cachexia. Several single therapies for cancer cachexia have been examined in clinical trials, with disappointing overall results. As multiple factors are responsible for the development of cachexia, it has been argued that optimal cachexia interventions should target all components: multimodal therapy for a multimodal problem. The overall aim of this study is to early prevent the development of cachexia rather than treatment late in the disease trajectory. From a patient perspective a short term effect will be to improve physical and psychological function, to reduce symptom burden and to improve survival. In other words live a longer and better life during and after chemotherapy. Direct effects of the cachexia intervention are expected to be reduction of weight and muscle loss, and improved physical activity and quality of life.

Investigate whether supplementation with branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) has a positive effect on cancer cachexia, as measured by the maintenance or increase in weight and lean body mass (LBM) based on body weight in kilograms (kg) and bioelectrical impedance assessment (BIA).

The purpose of this study is to compare physical function and lean body mass in patients getting different doses of somatropin compared to patients not getting the drug.

Rationale: Megestrol acetate (Megace®) is a progestin analog that is FDA approved for the palliative treatment of breast and endometrial carcinoma. It is also commonly used as an appetite stimulant, particularly in HIV and cancer patients with poor appetite from their primary disease and/or their therapy. Megace is well absorbed orally, however, many patients, particularly younger ones have difficulty taking oral medications. Transdermal progestins are available and are FDA approved. For example, Ortho EvraTM is a transdermal contraceptive patch containing an estrogen (ethinyl estradiol) and a progestin (norelgestromin). Key Objectives: Compare the pharmacokinetics of orally administered vs. transdermal Megace and determine if there are any local side effects of the transdermal route.

This is a single-blind, randomized placebo-controlled, parallel study, where the study volunteers will be blinded to testosterone/placebo treatment. This study will test a relatively new, less invasive method for collecting muscle tissue to determine if this method is appropriate for collecting muscle samples for the assessment of the fractional synthetic rates (FSR) of muscle-derived proteins. This study will also investigate whether the FSR of proteins may serve as early biomarkers for muscle anabolism, a known anabolic agent (testosterone) will be administered to healthy, elderly male subjects over a 3 week period. The fractional synthetic rate of several muscle-derived proteins will be analyzed at Baseline and during the period of testosterone treatment using deuterium labelling of these proteins by the incorporation of deuterium from deuterated water (D2O).

The primary objective is to identify which patients undergoing a traditional pterional approach with 2 different surgical techniques for TMS (Temporal Muscle Suspension) will develop TH (Temporal Hollowing. Pre and post-operative CT scans will be reviewed and analysis with previously proven metrics will be performed.