Active clinical trials for "Gastrointestinal Neoplasms"

The purpose of the study is to evaluate a tele-resistance training exercise program for individuals undergoing chemotherapy for advanced upper gastrointestinal cancer.

Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme supplementation plays an essential role in the elimination of toxic metabolites and reduction of reactive oxygen species bioactivation, which can protect and relieve chemotherapy-related fatigue (CRF) in cancer patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ALDH enzyme in CRF with advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients. The primary endpoint is the change of FACIT-F (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue) score on day 15 compared to baseline after chemotherapy. The secondary endpoint including change of FACIT-F on day 29 compared to day 15, change of ESAS (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System) on day 15 compared to baseline, safety and toxicities, and exploratory biomarkers.

There has been a dramatic paradigm shift over the last 25 years within cancer care due to the onset of many new targeted therapies and a transition from inpatient to outpatient care. Hand in hand with this shift has been the increased development and use of oral anti-cancer drugs, including cytotoxic chemotherapies that patients self-administer at home versus administration of an intravenous product at an infusion center. One of the main drivers for the growth and popularity of oral chemotherapy has been patient preference. However, an incorrect assumption exists among patients that oral therapy is associated with minimal side effects. According to the 2008 NCCN Task Force Report on Oral Chemotherapy, "some patients may incorrectly assume that oral chemotherapy is not "real" chemotherapy and is more akin to taking a vitamin or antibiotic. Furthermore, patients must understand that oral equivalents of cytotoxic therapies, such as capecitabine, have side effects that are similar to their parenteral counterparts in this case, fluorouracil. The need to monitor for side effects and titrate dosages increases the complexity of oral chemotherapy regimens". Self-administration of these complex oral therapies causes patients to become more autonomous in their care, without medical supervision of doses between office visits. Due to the lack of oversight, there is a concern of compromised efficacy if patients take less than the prescribed doses, or increased, sometimes life-threatening, toxicity, often between office visits, if more than the prescribed dose is taken. Both daily dose and schedule can be complicated for patients to comprehend and follow. Capecitabine is a particularly complex oral chemotherapy, with 2 pill dose sizes, dosing by Body Surface Area (BSA), twice a day dosing, and days of on therapy and days off of therapy. For this reason, capecitabine has been chosen as the backbone for regimens that will be studied. As noted in section 5.3 capecitabine might be combined with other oral chemotherapies, Parenteral chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The investigators believe there is an opportunity in this space to improve oral chemotherapy adherence by walking patients through how and when to take their oral therapies remotely, as well as to better manage toxicity by gathering more information from the patient during their treatment.

A prospective, multi-center, open label, study to evaluate safety and performance of Seal-G and Seal-G MIST in reinforcing colonic anastomosis, in subjects undergoing Colon Resection surgery

This study expands on protocol (NCT01908504"PET adaptive RT") designed to evaluate the utility of adaptive PET-CT planning for radiation therapy (RT). Radiation therapy is used in many malignant diseases as a curative treatment modality. However, critical normal tissue is often in close approximation to disease, and portions of such tissue must receive high doses of radiation for appropriate treatment. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) adapted radiation therapy, as defined in the current protocol, may allow for a means of determining the eventual response to therapy, at a time point when adaptation of treatment plan may be possible to improve outcomes. This protocol will build upon the findings the previous protocol (NCT01908504 "PET adaptive RT") that evaluated the utility of intra-treatment PET imaging in multiple types of cancers. The current focus will be more specific to certain types of gastrointestinal and gynecologic cancers treated with RT, identified from the prior study to warrant further research.

Phase 2 randomized controlled study using a waitlist control group. Study Duration 2.5 years Study Agent/ Intervention/ Procedure Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and Management (GAM) combined with online chair-based exercise (CBE) and health education for 12 weeks.

The study hypothesizes that the addition of oral nutrition supplement concurrent chemotherapy treatment to the GI cancer patients will improve the prognosis of cancer cachexia, improve health state quality of life and increase chemotherapy tolerance

This feasibility pilot study is designed to learn whether patients and their care partners (e.g., family members) are willing and able to complete two study visits at Dartmouth College while receiving cancer care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

The aim of the study is to demonstrate, under clinical conditions, the effectiveness of the standard product 'Nutridrink' enriched with a mixture of plant extracts rich in polyphenolic compounds in the aspect of supporting the recovery of oncology patients undergoing surgical resection of tumours.

Doctors leading this study hope to find out if giving study participants' genetic information to cancer care providers will help personalize chemotherapy dosing decisions and decrease common chemotherapy side effects. Doctors leading the study will collect genetic information from study participants using pharmacogenomics/genotyping. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how the differences in our genes can affect our unique response to medications. This is a randomized study, which means that participants in this study will be randomly assigned (as if "by flip of a coin") to one of two different groups: a "pharmacogenomics group" or "control group".