Active clinical trials for "Hematologic Neoplasms"

BACKGROUND Neurocognitive symptoms have a high prevalence in cancer patients, resulting in a significant impact on daily life and tolerance to therapy. It's estimated that about 30% of cancer patients present a cognitive impairment before treatment, about 75% present this cognitive impairment during the treatment, and about 35% continue to present cognitive difficulties in the following months/years. There is growing evidence that cognitive symptoms have a biological mechanism linked to the activation of immunological cytokines that exert important effects on the brain functions. For example, interferon α is known to increase the levels of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α, and this increase is associated with memory deficits, executive function and mood alterations. A neurotoxic action induced by cytokines has been demonstrated both in the early stages of the tumor and after chemotherapy. Several imaging studies suggest that the cognitive impairment pattern in cancer patients, during the treatment and in remission, is related to structural and functional brain changes. Longitudinal studies in women with breast cancer treated with chemoterapy have shown a reduction in the volume of cerebral gray matter, mainly in the bilateral frontal cortex and hippocampus. In parallel, diffusion tensor imaging studies have shown an alteration of the integrity of the frontal, parietal and occipital cerebral white matter, demyelination and axonal degeneration processes. Finally, functional magnetic resonance studies in cancer patients have shown alterations in the connectivity of the default mode network compared to control subjects. Studies carried out to date, show a prevalent impairment of executive functions and working memory. Cognitive impairment has been studied mainly as a possible adverse effect in women treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer, while there are few studies in the literature on patients with haematological malignancies. STUDY DESIGN The study is targeted to patients ages ≥ 70 years, whith haematological malignancy, who need to start a treatment within 3 months. Once the eligibility criteria have been assessed, the hematologist proposes the enrollment in the study. Once the patient's informed consent has been acquired, a neurological examination is carried out, functional tests required by the protocol are administered. The patient begins, as per clinical practice, the treatment provided for his/her haematological malignancy. Test's evaluation is repeated at 6 months and 12 months after the enrollment. In conjunction with neurological tests, will be performed a venipuncture as per clinical practice, and a blood sample is taken to measure the cytokines involved in inflammatory processes. It is expected that a patient can perform up to a maximum of 3 blood samples for the biological study. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS This is a non-pharmacological, prospective, uncontrolled, open-label single-center interventional pilot study, aimed to describ the progress of cognitive function under treatment for haematological disease. Due to the pilot and exploratory nature of the study and the substantial absence of a specific literature relating to the elderly onco-haematological patient, it is not believed that the conditions exist to be able to formally define the size of the sample. The sample size is arbitrarily fixed at 60 patients. The observation time will be 12 months from enrollment.

We are interested in studying whether and how medical problems other than primary cancer before hematopoietic cell transplantation would impact the profiles of quality of life and toxicities post-transplantation for patients with blood cancers. We want to see if by assessing comorbidities (such as diabetes) early on, we can identify those patients who will have more toxicities or limitations in their quality of life after transplant. The generated information could set the stage for future intervention studies aiming to improve quality of life for patients with blood cancers after transplantation.

The purpose of this study is to test how practical it is to use the Ultrasonic Cardiac Output Monitor (USCOM), an FDA-approved device, on oncology patients (specifically those with blood cancers). Additionally, the researchers will learn if the USCOM gives additional information about patients' conditions when their blood pressures drop and they are treated with intravenous fluids.

In the study PROVIVO, a patient reported outcome instrument consisting of items from the PRO-CTCAE item bank measuring symptom experience of long-term survivors after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) will be developed. The instrument development is based on cognitive patient interviews, a survey of hematology experts and a literature review. In a subsequent cross-sectional study phase, the instrument will be validated in a sample of 300 allogeneic stem cell recipients and by the use of additional self report instruments it will be possible to explore how subjective symptom experience, problems in self-management and presence of late effects are connected.

This study will examine the risks of workplace exposure to benzene, a substance known to lead to cancer of the blood and possibly of the lungs. It is used widely in industries and is a contaminant in the environment. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the China Center for Disease Control (formerly Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine) had done previous studies of workers in manufacturing industries in China of people who worked at least 1 day from 1972 to 1987 in 12 cities in that country. Data were collected of approximately 75,000 workers exposed to benzene and 35,000 who were not, with the purpose of investigating the relationship between benzene exposure and cancer risk. For workers exposed to benzene, there was a significant risk of cancer affecting the blood cells and a 1.8-fold excess of lung cancer among them. This study will expand those findings and also identify the effects of benzene amounts and whether there is a genetic tendency for benzene poisoning. About 3,860 benzene-exposed workers from the 12 cities will be interviewed. Next-of-kin of deceased workers, and a subcohort (additional grouping) of participants will serve as a control group in the research. Patients who have worked at places where there was exposure to benzene will have a brief physical exam and samples of cells from a mouth rinse and samples from blood will be collected to study the genetic influence on developing blood diseases from workplace exposures. All participants or next-of-kin, for deceased, will be given a questionnaire about their work history, use of cigarettes and hair dyes, medications they take, and family history of cancer. Interviews of about 40 minutes long will be conducted at participants homes or workplaces, at a time convenient to them, and the interviews will be audiotaped.

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate safety and effectiveness of the treatment of multiple myeloma with bortezomib in daily practice in the Netherlands.

The retrospective cohort study INFINITY will be an instrument to analyze the current practice of precision oncology in the real-world setting. It will provide insight into real-world biomarker-directed treatment of cancer patients not eligible for standard therapies. The study will retrospectively collect medical records' data of patients who received a targeted treatment based on a potentially actionable alteration or biomarker identified by molecular diagnostics. Data of deceased patients will be included. The study will analyze how molecular test results guided clinical decision making. The compiled treatment and outcome data will be a valuable resource to analyze the use and effectiveness of targeted therapy approaches in biomarker-defined and entity-defined subpopulations of cancer patients. These signals might generate new insights and foster progress of targeted cancer treatment. The associated biomarker profiling module aims to set up a decentral biobank for future research on molecular alterations or central re-testing.

The primary endpoint of this study is to compare the humoral response (titre and neutralizing capacity of induced antibodies) against SARS-CoV-2 following vaccination with BNT162b2 (Pfizer BioNTech) in immunocompromised persons, in comparison to healthy subject. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the humoral response in the nasal mucosa, and the capacity of antibodies to neutralize emerging variants of concerns and to prevent COVID-19.

The goal of this research study is to find out if a novel phone-based positive psychology intervention that focuses on improving health behaviors and positive emotions can help improve mood, health related quality of life, and overall function in patients who have just undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as part of blood cancer treatment.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a potentially curative treatment for a variety of hematologic malignancies. Bacterial infections remain a common complication of allo-HSCT, especially in the pre-engraftment phase. Pre-engraftment neutropenia typically lasts for up to 2 weeks in autologous HSCT but is considerably longer in allogeneic HSCT recipients who receive myeloablative conditioning regimens. This is a prospective, randomized, controlled, phase II/III clinical trial that aims to investigate the beneficial and harmful effects of prophylactic use of imipenem in patients with hematological malignancies before allo-HSCT. All patients aged above 14 years, diagnosed with hematological malignancies and ready to undergo allo-HSCT, no active infection within 3 weeks before allo-HSCT, with a normal CT scan-chest before entering the transplantation cabin and willing to participate in the trial will be enrolled.