Active clinical trials for "Radiation Injuries"

The purpose of this study is to determine if certain MRI imaging sequences (pictures) are more helpful to the physicians in determining if a brain tumor has recurred or if the person has radiation injury following their treatment.

Female patients with either uterine/cervical malignancies will be evaluated for vaginal elasticity using vaginal tactile imaging both before and after radiation treatment.

Therapeutic irradiation to the head and neck for cancer damages salivary glands present in the radiation field. Despite long recognition of radiation-induced salivary hypofunction, and the associated oral morbidities, the specific damage mechanism(s) is not known and the structure and functional integrity of the surviving parenchymal tissue has not been well-documented. Detailed knowledge of the latter is particularly necessary in order to design appropriate corrective therapies. It is the purpose of this study to provide such a detailed structural and functional assessment of human parotid glands following irradiation. The study will examine 20 patients beginning just prior to therapeutic irradiation and continuing at intervals for 3 years for a total of 5 study visits. Study visits (prior to irradiation and at 4 weeks, 12 weeks, 12 months and 36 months post-irradiation) will include the following procedures: i) detailed oral exam and structured interview; ii) salivary gland functional assessment; iii) sialography of each parotid gland; iv) 99mTcO4 scan of the salivary glands; and v) a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the parotid glands. Based on previous single observation studies in humans, and more detailed animal studies, we hypothesize that ionizing radiation will lead to reduced parotid gland function and diminished salivary parenchymal tissue (with a preferential loss in acinar versus ductal cells). Further, we hypothesize that the parenchymal loss will increase with time (replaced by fat and connective tissue) and lead to progressive irreversible salivary dysfunction.

The purpose of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Registry (HBOTR) is to provide real world patient outcome and side effect information from electronic health records submitted to a specialty specific hyperbaric registry as part of "Stage 2 of Meaningful Use," including data provided to meet PQRS requirements via the registry's QCDR mission. Goals include understanding the value of HBOT among patients treated for a variety of conditions in relation to the frequency and severity of HBOT side effects. While randomized, controlled trials can establish the efficacy of treatments like HBOT, because they routinely exclude patients with co-morbid conditions common to those patients seen in usual clinical practice, the results of RCTs are usually non-generalizable. Real world data can be used to better understand the effectiveness of HBOT among typical patients, as well as the risks associated with treatment.

The effect of radiation on normal tissue varies widely between individuals. Consequently, a test to measure tissue response to radiation could be clinically useful by permitting more accurate titration of dosage in patients undergoing radiotherapy. Also, in view of emerging concerns about possible nuclear terrorism a test for exposure to radiation might also be useful in evaluating victims of a "dirty bomb" explosion. A number of different techniques have been previously reported in epidemiological studies for the estimation of prior radiation exposure. This study explores one approach to estimating radiation exposure by measurement of increased oxidative stress which can be detected by a breath test. In this study subjects undergoing significant exposure to therapeutic radiation will provide breath samples for analysis in a central laboratory. The hypothesis of the study is that the analysis of these samples will lead to the identification of a set of markers of radiation exposure.

Rapid and accurate assessment of radiation injury dose is the key to success in early treatment and an urgent issue to be solved in clinical medicine.Researches showed that the expression of the microRNAs in human peripheral blood had much correlation with radiation injury resulted from different dosages of radiation.In this study,acute leukemic patients who will be pretreated by whole-body radiation are taked as the object of study,and biochip technology are adopted to detect the expression levels of the microRNAs in subject peripheral blood before-and-after radiation,and different expression is tested and Bioinformatics prediction,to evaluate the correlation between radiation injury dose and expression levels of the microRNAs in human peripheral blood.

This study will examine, for the first time, the independent contribution of a patient's own genetic makeup to the development of post-radiation complications, permitting the future development of predictive tests to avoid radiation injury. To do this, the investigators will examine gene markers in a series of breast, prostate, brain and lung cancer survivors who have received conformal radiotherapy between 1996 and 2003 at the Cross Cancer Institute and Tom Baker Cancer Centre.