There are about 21062 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Italy. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
Colonoscopy is clinically used as the gold standard for detection of colon cancer (CRC) and removal of adenomatous polyps. Despite the success of colonoscopy in reducing cancer-related deaths, there exists a disappointing level of adenomas missed at colonoscopy. "Back-to-back" colonoscopies have indicated significant miss rates of 27% for small adenomas (< 5 mm) and 6% for adenomas of more than 10 mm in diameter. Studies performing both CT colonography and colonoscopy estimate that the colonoscopy miss rate for polyps over 10 mm in size may be as high as 12%. The clinical importance of missed lesions should be emphasized because these lesions may ultimately progress to CRC. Limitations in human visual perception and other human biases such as fatigue, distraction, level of alertness during examination increases recognition errors and way of mitigating them may be the key to improve polyp detection and further reduction in mortality from CRC. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning (DL), and computer vision have permitted to develop several AI platforms which have already proved their efficacy in increasing adenoma detection during colonoscopy9,10. As a matter of fact, the improvement in detection due to AI systems is only related to the increased capacity of detecting lesions within the visual field, that is dependent on the amount of mucosa exposed by the endoscopist during the scope withdrawal. Increasing the mucosa exposure would theoretically be a complementary strategy to further improve polyps detection. A number of distal attachments have been tested to increase the mucosal exposure by flattening mucosal folds, including a transparent cap, cuff or rings. The additional diagnostic yield obtained by the second generation of cuff (Endocuff Vision; Olympus America, Center Valley, Pa, USA) was recently investigated by a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, showing a significant improvement in adenoma detection rate, and adenomas per colonoscopy, with a reduction in the mean withdrawal time without any increase in adverse events compared with standard high-definition colonoscopy without any distal attachment. In conclusion, technologies providing either mucosal image enhancement (Artificial Intelligence assisted colonoscopy) or mucosal exposure device (Endocuff Vision assisted colonoscopy) significantly improved adenoma detection rate (ADR). However, the diagnostic yield obtained by combining the different strategies is still unknown.
Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, Phase 3 study to investigate the efficacy and safety of odevixibat compared to placebo in Patients with Alagille Syndrome.
This is a phase 3 study to compare the efficacy and safety of HBI-8000 or Placebo combined with nivolumab on patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma and eligible patients who are not adolescents or patients with new, progressive brain metastasis will be stratified by PD-L1 expression and LDH level.
Intrathecal administration of Nusinersen, an antisense oligonucleotide capable of increasing Survival Motor Neuron protein production, has been tested in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) to improve motor function and survival. A feature of adult SMA patients is a progressive neuromyopathic scoliosis, so spinal nusinersen administration can be challenging. Landmark identification using a pre-procedure ultrasound (US) facilitates technical performance of spinal anesthesia and allows for the elimination of radiation exposure. The aim of this randomized prospectic study is to determine if the US assistance for spinal administration of nusinersen is able to increase the proportion at successful 1st needle insertion of the needle. Secondary outcome measures are procedure time, patient satisfaction and prevalence of postdural puncture headache. Patients will be randomlized to receive a US-assisted nusinersen administration or a landmark based nusinersen administration.
The primary objective of this study was to compare the therapeutic efficacy of clobetasol propionate 0.05% oral gel versus an anti-inflammatory mouthwash in an oral solution for the management of patients suffering from symptomatic OLP. The secondary objective was to analyze which one of the two treatments induced a greater risk of developing side effects.
The aim of the present study is to assess if it is possible to offer intersphincteric rectal resection (IRR) to selected patients older than 70 years affected by ultra-low rectal cancer. The study, involving patients with rectal cancer at less than 5 cm from the anal verge, will compare elderly patients refusing standard sphincteric demolition and undergoing IRR, with some control groups (younger patients undergoing IRR, >70 years old patients undergoing abdominoperineal resection + colostomy in left iliac fossa, >70 years old patients undergoing abdominoperineal resection + perineal colostomy). The groups will be compared in terms of quality of life, quality of life associated to incontinence, overall survival, disease free survival and post-operative complications. This will be helpful to identify conditions for extending IRR to elderly patients. The study is run by Colo-rectal Surgery Unit at Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia (Italy) from 2009 to 2016, directly led by Dr. Sandro Zonta (principal investigator) and funded by the hospital itself.
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.
Spasticity has been defined as a disorder of the sensorimotor system characterized by a velocity-dependent increase in tonic stretch reflexes (muscle tone) with exaggerated tendon jerks, resulting from hyperexcitability of the stretch reflex. The treatment goal of spasticity is Medical treatment generally combines physiotherapy with medications, depending on spasticity distribution. Systemic treatments such as oral or intrathecal baclofen are generally considered in case of generalized spasticity, whereas local treatments are considered in case of focal spasticity. Local treatments such as Botulinum Toxin type A, phenol, and alcohol present several advantages, allowing to treat of selected muscles without the risk of sedation. As stated above, they are indicated for focal spasticity but might be helpful even in the presence of generalized spasticity with identified focal goals (Bethoux et al., 2015). In particular, Botulinum Toxin type A (BoNT-A) is considered the gold standard treatment for focal spasticity, showing a level A evidence for spasticity reduction in upper- and lower-limb spasticity (Simpson et al., 2016). However, current evidence is mainly focused on post-stroke spasticity (Franceschini et al., 2014), whereas it is still limited in spasticity as a consequence of other aetiologies, such as spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or multiple sclerosis (MS). Interestingly, spasticity is a major concern for the rehabilitation of these patients. The aim of this observational study is the evaluation of the clinical efficacy of BoNT-A in spasticity reduction in patients affected by neurological conditions different from post-stroke spasticity, such as SCI, TBI, and MS.
This double blind, randomized study is aiming to evaluate the efficacy of three doses (1gr/day) of methylpredisolone added to standard therapy in patients, with documented COVID-19 pneumonia, requiring hospitalization but not mechanical ventilation.
The objective of this study is to compile real-world outcomes of Boston Scientific commercially approved radiofrequency (RF) ablation systems in the treatment of patients diagnosed with pain and in use for central nervous system (CNS) applications for other disorders.