Active clinical trials for "Breast Neoplasms"

This study will assess the impact of CYP450 2D6 genotype pharmacogenetic testing and the corresponding prescribing impact for postmenopausal women using tamoxifen in a patient care setting for prevention of recurrent breast cancer.

Breast cancer patients experience functional limitations related to the cancer and treatment side effects. Early functional limitations affect short- and long-term quality of life, and may lead to long-term complications. Patients living in rural areas are at particular risk because they do not have easy access to services. Therefore, early intervention is indicated to have an impact on the overall public health. Problem solving training (PST) is a standardized manual driven intervention that may be ideally suited to assist breast cancer patients to preserve their valued activities and to comply with recommended symptom management regimens (e.g., physical therapy, aerobic exercise and relaxation/guided imagery) that improve function. Telephone-based PST provided from a centralized location (such as the comprehensive cancer center) may improve access and outcomes in a cost-effective manner. We propose to conduct a feasibility study of a PST intervention with 30 rural breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant treatment randomly assigned to PST or to usual care. The intervention group will receive weekly phone-based PST sessions for six consecutive weeks. The specific aims of this R03 small grant application are to:1) Test the feasibility of enrolling and retaining newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in a clinical trial to assess telephone-based PST. 2) Collect preliminary data on outcome measures of function to determine effect size estimates that will inform power analyses for a full scale randomized controlled study. Primary outcome measures will be acceptance rates for enrollment in the study, retention rates across both intervention arms, and satisfaction levels with the PST intervention. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, and at six weeks (end of PST intervention) and 3 months following baseline. The long-term goal of this line of investigation is to develop practical, widely applicable rehabilitation models of care to preserve function and decrease distress in cancer patients undergoing treatment.

Women with strong family histories of breast cancer are at increased risk to have breast cancer. Women whose close relatives have had breast cancer often have more breast cancer screening than other women their age. To increase the chance that any breast cancer will be caught early, women at risk often take part in special screening programs. These programs involve more frequent visits to the doctor for breast exams, yearly mammography, and new types of exam like breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Studies are going on to find out whether these programs are better than standard screening. The purpose of this study is to find out how these programs impact women's quality of life. The study will also try to learn what factors make it hard to take part in the programs. We hope to be able to design new programs that are easier to follow.

The goal of this behavioral research study is to learn if participating in a Tibetan meditation program helps to improve quality of life for women after chemotherapy and during recovery from breast cancer. Whether the meditation program helps to improve brain function and sleep quality will also be studied.

RATIONALE: Gathering information about pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood exposures may help doctors identify cancer risk factors, and may help the study of cancer. PURPOSE: This natural history study is looking at the effects of fetal, infant, and early childhood exposures on adult cancer risk in women.

RATIONALE: Gathering information about strength and range of motion over time from women undergoing surgery for breast cancer may help doctors learn more about recovery from surgery and on-going care. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is collecting information about strength and range of motion over time from women undergoing surgery for breast cancer.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than when one examines CAM use by patients diagnosed with cancer. As with the general population, patients with cancer typically use CAM-based modalities alongside their conventional cancer treatments. Patients are often seeking a holistic approach to managing and preventing disease. Although most patients will combine alternative approaches with conventional medicine, some patients do in fact decline curative conventional treatments in favor of more non-toxic alternative approaches. One such approach that patients combine with conventional medicine or use in place of conventional medicine is qigong. Qigong is a bioenergy therapy with a long history of therapeutic use for many diseases, including cancer. Preliminary experiments and a review of the literature show that qigong might improve the outcome for cancer patients. However, none of this research has been confirmed in the peer-reviewed Western scientific literature. Although it is unlikely that EQT will result in significant decreases in tumor size, patients are using qigong either as a complementary approach, and sometimes even in place of conventional medicine, it is, therefore, important for us to determine whether there is any merit to this treatment modality. The goal of this pilot trial is to examine one form of medical qigong (external qi therapy (EQT)) to determine feasibility. In an exploratory nature we will also examine any changes in tumor size in women with breast cancer who are awaiting surgery.

Women with BRCA germline mutations face a very high risk of developing breast cancer during their lives. It was shown that for carrier patients, breast conservation, comprising of lumpectomy followed by whole breast radiation, was not associated with increased risk of ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence as compared with non carriers (10-15% over 10 years), especially if they also underwent prophylactic oophorectomy. Yet their risk of subsequent contralateral breast cancer was significantly increased, reported as high as 25-30% over 10 years and 40% over 15 years, as compared to 3% and 7% respectively in non carriers. The reduction in ipsilateral disease was attributed to radiation of the affected breast. We propose that for breast cancer patients with BRCA germline mutation that choose to have breast-conserving therapy and refuse prophylactic contralateral mastectomy, prophylactic radiation to the contralateral breast may reduce the rate of subsequent contralateral breast cancer and offer an option for risk reduction.

The purpose of this study is to gain greater understanding of the problems breast cancer survivors experience related to difficulty sleeping and insomnia. Poor sleep can affect a person's mood, increase feelings of fatigue, as well as pain. A greater knowledge and understanding of sleep disturbances can lead to more effective treatment of sleep problems and significantly improve quality of life.

This is a registry for patients who have a risk-reduction mastectomy ("prophylactic mastectomy") due to being at high risk for developing breast cancer, followed by breast reconstruction. Eligible patients include those who have a breast cancer-related gene, a strong family history of breast cancer, or a personal history of high-risk conditions such as cancer in the other breast or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Patients are enrolled in the registry before surgery, and are followed for up to ten years afterwards. In addition to studying medical outcomes, we will periodically survey patients for quality-of-life issues and psychological well-being. There is no compensation for being enrolled in this registry. This registry is conducted through the Department of Plastic Surgery at Georgetown University Hospital, and is a sub-registry to the Fisher Familial Cancer Registry at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University.