Active clinical trials for "Gastrointestinal Neoplasms"

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the study of how genes affect a person's response to drugs. PGx testing for certain genes can help predict the risk of side effects from chemotherapy agents. Testing is not regularly performed in clinical practice due to long wait times for results and challenges with integrating test results in the electronic health record. Investigators leading this study hope to find out if providing cancer care providers with the ability to order a PGx test and electronically receive results with dosing recommendations will increase the use of these tests to guide treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes. This is a non-randomized implementation study, which means that all participants in this study will undergo genotyping for a pharmacogenetic test. The investigators will primarily measure the feasibility of using this test to guide cancer care.

The purpose of the study is to assess the feasibility and participant satisfaction with the Support through Remote Observation and Nutrition Guidance (STRONG) program. The program provides nutrition support for participants living with gastrointestinal cancer who are receiving chemotherapy and surgical treatment.

Appendiceal cancer is a rare disease that does not cause many symptoms. As such, doctors are not sure if chemotherapy actually has an effect on the disease. The goal of this clinical research study is to learn more about the effects that chemotherapy may have on appendiceal cancer.

Deficits in the management of common symptoms cause substantial morbidity for cancer patients.Because the health care delivery system is structured to be reactive and not proactive, there are missed opportunities to optimize symptom control. Growth in Internet access and proliferation of smartphones has created an opportunity to re-engineer cancer care delivery. Electronic symptom tracking and feedback is a promising strategy to improve symptom control. Electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) monitoring of cancer symptoms has been shown to decrease symptom burden, improve quality of life, reduce acute care and even extend survival. SIMPRO will use functioning ePRO prototypes to create and refine the electronic symptom management system eSyM

This pilot clinical trial studies how well Walking for Recovery from Surgery works in improving quality of life in older adults with lung or gastrointestinal cancer and their family caregivers. A walking program, such as Walking for Recovery from Surgery may help support overall well-being as a caregiver, and may help improve family member or friend's recovery from surgery.

The purpose of this study is to learn about the impact of the Oncology Nurse Navigation program on the frequency of Emergency Department, urgent care visits and inpatient hospital admissions; and overall survival rate at 6 months. The investigators aim to understand if prompt and effective coordination of care provided by Oncology Nurse Navigation (ONN) service will reduce the number of avoidable, unplanned ED visits and hospitalizations, as well as adding measurable value to cancer care, and improve patient overall survival.

This clinical trial studies massage therapy in reducing chemotherapy-induced nerve problems (peripheral neuropathy) that may cause pain, numbness, tingling, swelling, or muscle weakness in different parts of the body in patients with gastrointestinal or breast malignancies. Massage therapy may help reduce chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms and improve quality of life.

The purpose of this study is to increase serious illness conversations (SICs) about patients goals and preferences regarding their healthcare between patients with cancer and their oncology clinicians and improved care provided near the end of life.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction(POCD). is a central nervous system complication in cancer patients with a 8.9-46.1% incidence. It is mainly manifested as impaired memory, descending information handling ability and decline or damage of attention, perception, abstract thinking, executive, language, and body movement. However, it is difficult to identify and it can last for months or years or even become a dementia state, which can severely affect patients' postoperative recovery, prolong the hospitalization time, reduce the quality of life, increase the mortality and the consumption of family and social medical resources, and intensifies the national economic and social burden. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a new type of acupoint stimulation therapy that inputs low-frequency pulse current into human acupoints through electrodes pasted on the skin surface to achieve therapeutic purposes, which combined the preponderances of both acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). TEAS is non-invasive, easy to operate and acceptable to patients. Study showed that TEAS treatment can reduce the consumption of intraoperative anesthetic and improve postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and postoperative recovery. Also, studies have shown that TEAS treatment may improve the cognitive function of geriatric patients. Most studies have shown that TEAS treatment 10~30 minutes before operation or from entering the operating room to the end of operation can reduce the incidence of POCD in elderly patients. Some studies showed that preoperative combined with postoperative or simple postoperative TEAS treatment can significantly improve patients' postoperative cognitive function. Our previous research showed that perioperative TEAS treatment can reduce the postoperative inflammatory response and increased the postoperative cognitive function score and decrease the incidence of POCD in geriatric patients with gastrointestinal tumor. Moreover, studies showed that long-term electroacupuncture treatment is easy to cause "tolerance effect', leading to the activation of the negative feedback mechanism of the body, and reduction of the number of receptors, and the weakening of the treatment effect. So, what is the best time period for TEAS to improve POCD and reduce the use of resources? Therefore, the objective of this study is to discuss different time of TEAS on POCD in geriatric patients with gastrointestinal tumor.

Background: The NCI Surgery Branch has developed experimental therapies that involve taking white blood cells from patients' tumor or from their blood, growing them in the laboratory in large numbers, and then giving the cells back to the patient. Objective: This study will collect white blood cells from normal volunteers and white blood cells and/or tumor cells, from patients who have been screened for and are eligible for a NCI Surgery Branch treatment protocol. The cells collected from normal volunteers will be used as growth factors for the cells during the period of laboratory growth. The cells and/or tumor from patients will be used to make the cell treatment product. Eligibility: Patients must be eligible for a NCI Surgery Branch Treatment Protocol Normal Volunteers must meet the criteria for blood donation Design Both patients and normal Volunteers will undergo apheresis. Patients will then undergo further testing as required by the treatment protocol. There is no required follow up for normal volunteers.