Active clinical trials for "Colonic Neoplasms"

This study is to examine if there is improved sensitivity in detecting hepatic lesions using respiratory gating and if there is an improvement in confidence defining lesions as benign or malignant.

The prevalence of malnutrition in patients with colorectal cancer is recorded. We want to find out, if a malnourished patient has more complications after the elective surgery.

Primary Objectives: To test the feasibility of combined colon and endometrial cancer screening in women with increased risk for colon and endometrial cancer. To measure patient satisfaction for the combined procedure.

This study will examine what methods work best for encouraging Mexican-American family members to talk about their risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer. Within the Mexican-American community, the family culture provides an important setting in which individuals interpret and share their health information and formulate strategies to engage in health-promoting behaviors. The information from the study will be used to design risk communication approaches for Mexican-American households. Members of households with at least three adults 18 to 70 years of age who are part of the existing Mexican-American households recruited by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center may be eligible for this study. Participants are interviewed about their medical history, family history of disease, health behaviors, beliefs about disease and disease risk, experiences living in the United States, and relationships with family members and close friends. They are then provided information about their family risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer, based on the information they provided in the interview. Two additional interviews are conducted over the telephone that include questions about how the participants communicate with family members about their risk and health behaviors.

This study, conducted by NHGRI and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, will develop statistical approaches for modeling family social structure and apply these models to explore the role of family social structure in participation in genetic testing and counseling, disclosure of test results and adjustment to risk status. With recent genetic advances and the ability to test for hereditary illnesses, methods that provide an understanding of the family social structure and how that structure affects the dissemination of genetic risk information are increasingly important. The data for this study were collected by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as part of a study on family communication and family functioning with regard to genetic testing for hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC). Relatives of people with HNPCC are more likely than the general population to get colon cancer and other types of cancer if they have inherited the gene alteration (mutation) that predisposes to the disease. This alteration can be passed on from a parent to some or all of his or her children. In the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center study, telephone interviews were conducted with 80 adult members of 16 extended families with a known gene alteration predisposing for HNPCC. These participants included people who had been diagnosed with an HNPCC syndrome cancer, their unaffected family members who were at risk of carrying a gene mutation for HNPCC, and their spouses. Participants were interviewed about their feelings, moods, coping style, and relationships with their spouse, relatives, and friends, about their willingness to have genetic testing, and about their feelings and beliefs about colon cancer, cancer screening and genetic testing and counseling. Some participants were asked about their family communication style and how the family coped with the idea of genetic testing and with the results, if testing was done. The information obtained from the current study may help facilitate family participation, communication and psychological adjustment regarding risk information about genetic diseases.

The overall purpose of this study was to address the following questions by describing the trajectory of early survivorship in individuals who undergo both surgical and medical management of colon cancer. What are the changes in quality of life, demands of illness, sexual function, and peripheral neuropathy, following curative resection during the first year of treatment and recovery? Is there an interaction between exposures to chemotherapy and changes over time in these outcomes?

Cancers occur when the molecules that control normal cell growth (genes and proteins) are altered. Changes in the tumor genes and in the genes of normal cells are called "alterations." Many of these alterations can be detected by directly examining cancer cells in a tumor or circulating in blood. Several alterations that occur repeatedly in certain types of cancers have already been identified. These discoveries ahve led to the development of new drugs that "target" those alterations. More remain to be discovered. Some of the alterations are found in genes. Genes are composed of DNA "letters," which contain the instructions that tell the cells in our bodies how to grow and work. Genes make proteins which actually carry out the instructions in our cells. We would like to use your DNA to look for alterations in the genes in cancer cells and blood cells using a technology called "sequencing." Gene sequencing is a way of reading the DNA to identify errors in genes that may contribute to the behavior of cells. Some changes in genes occur only in cancer cells. Others occur in normal cels as well, in the genes that may have been passed from parent to child. This research study will examine both kinds of genes. The purpose of this research study is to perform gene sequencing (gene tests) on your cancer cells (obtained from biopsies or surgery) and normal tissues (usually blood). The results of the gene tests will be used to try to develop better ways to treat and prevent cancers. We will also study better ways to communicate the results of these complex gene tests to you and your doctors, and to help you and your doctors use this information to choose the best paths for treatment. As part of this work, we may also learn things about the genes in your normal cells; some of that information will also be shared wtih you and your doctors if you so choose. Importantly, this study will use tissue specimens that have already been collected and stored in the pathology department as part of your clinical care or as part of other research studies you may be participating in. In this study, gene tests will be performed on material only after the necessary clinical tests have been performed. In general, no additional invasive procedures will be required.

So far, the impact of sarcopenia has been analysed only in patients undergoing traditional surgical procedures (laparotomy) or those with metastatic spread. As the ERAS protocol combined with minimally invasive access decreases postoperative metabolic disorders, it seems possible that it can limit the deleterious impact of sarcopenia as well. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of ERAS protocol in colorectal cancer patients influences the postoperative risk due to sarcopenia.

The aim of the study is to compare ADR for colonoscopies from various indications and to find correlations between ADR of screening and all examinations.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major public health problem in France and worldwide. CRC is the third most common cancer in incidence and mortality in France. The vast majority of these cancers are adenocarcinomas that arise sporadically and develop from precursor lesions: adenoma. All CRC with the same disease stage do not have the same prognosis. Various parameters have been identified as factors influencing the prognosis and allows adjustment of the treatment. The poor histoprognostic factors are vessels and nerves invasion by the tumor or the mucinous adenocarcinoma subtype. At the molecular level, the presence of microsatellite instability (MSI) improves the prognosis, while the presence of a BRAF mutation is an independent poor prognostic factor. The different molecular pathways of colonic carcinogenesis are the chromosomal instability pathway, the microsatellite instability pathway inducing errors in DNA mismatch repair and the CpG Island Methylator Phenotype (CIMP). The hypermethylation of CpG islands of genes promoters leads to an over or most frequently under gene expression. CIMP is observed in near 15% of CRC and is associated with specific clinical and pathological features: older patients, female predominance, right colonic involvement, poorly differentiated or mucinous adenocarcinomas. From a molecular point of view, the high CIMP phenotype is strongly associated with the presence of BRAFV600E mutation, the absence of RAS mutation and the presence of microsatellite instability. The prognostic value of CIMP is actually controversial. A recent meta-analysis found that the CIMP phenotype was associated with a poor prognosis. Methylation of some genes promoters as CDKN2A is associated with a poor prognosis. LRP-1 (low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1) is a multifunctional endocytic receptor that belongs to the LDL receptors the family. It mediates the clearance of many extracellular enzymes involved in the spread of cancer cells: metalloproteinases and serine proteinases. Decrease of LRP-1 activity or loss of LRP-1 expression correlates with increased aggressiveness of cancer cells in certain types of cancer. The expression of LRP-1 has almost never been studied in CRC. Only one immunohistochemical study of LRP-1 protein expression in colonic adenocarcinoma has been published to date. This study shows that tumor cells express LRP-1, but in nearly half the cases, weaker than in normal cells colic. The mechanisms involved in the decrease of expression are not known. An epigenetic mechanism might be involved as hypermethylation of the of LRP-1 gene promoter, especially as the promoter of this gene is rich in CpG islands (methylation targets). Clinical and prognostic significance of the LRP-1 gene expression and promoter methylation is actually unknown.