View clinical trials related to Prostate Cancer.
Filter by:Web-Based Support for Informal Caregivers in Cancer Brief Summary (including hypothesis): Informal caregivers need information, skills and emotional support to address physical, spiritual, and emotional needs associated with chronic illnesses including late stage cancer. Unfortunately, current conditions force clinicians to reduce their interaction time with patients and informal caregivers. Complimentary methods must be developed to provide needed information and support to caregivers. The proposed research will measure and explain the impact of two computer-based support systems that meet caregiver needs and facilitate information exchange with clinicians. The system, CHESS (Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) is a non-commercial computer system that provides patients with disease specific information, emotional support and skill building tools. In the expanded form to be tested in this study, CHESS with Caregiver Support (CGCHESS) will also provide the caregiver with more information, support and skills training related to palliative care. CGCHESS will be further enhanced to communicate essential patient and caregiver information to clinicians prior to a scheduled clinic visit and when patient symptoms exceed a threshold. The investigators' primary hypothesis is that CGCHESS + Clinician Report (CR) will reduce caregiver burden more than CGCHESS because of the additional support caregivers and patients receive from clinicians who have access to the CHESS clinician report. Secondary analyses will study the mechanisms of the CHESS effect. Specifically the investigators anticipate that the CHESS effect on caregivers will be mediated by the CHESS effect on interaction patterns with clinicians, satisfaction with clinical visits and by the CHESS effect on four patient outcomes (quality of life, negative affect, average severity of nine common late-stage cancers).
The purpose of this study is to examine the clinical feasibility and efficacy of uing IMRT to escalate the biologically effective dose to the pelvic lymph nodes in a short course of radiation therapy. An increased total and biologically effective dose will be delivered to the pelvic lymph nodes (56 Gy at 2 Gy/fraction). The prostate will receive standard "short course" IMRT of radiation (70 Gy at 2.5 Gy/fraction).
The purpose of this study is to examine the clinical feasibility of using Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) combined with daily pretreatment prostate localization to deliver increasingly hypofractionated treatment courses. Progressively larger fraction sizes will be delivered in a phase I design based on both acute and long-term tolerances to the treatment. The dose-per-fraction escalation design utilizes schemas that maintain an isoeffective dose for late effects, while predicting that tumor control will actually improve. The delivery of fewer, larger fractions of radiation, if proven effective and safe, would result in significant cost saving and more efficient use of resources. Phase II will commence with Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) finding with up to 200 additional patients being enrolled during this phase of the study.
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer among men. It is also the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men. Two screening tests are available to try to detect prostate cancer early – the digital rectal examination (DRE) and the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Unfortunately, physicians aren’t sure whether or not these two screening tests help save lives, and there’s a lot of controversy about how to use them. Recently, a major government committee (the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force) recommended that physicians discuss the risks and potential benefits of prostate cancer screening with their patients, and allow patients to make their own decision. Because of the controversies, many physicians currently don’t discuss prostate cancer with their patients. The problem is that it takes time and effort to have these discussions, and the information is complicated. A lot of patients have trouble understanding it, especially if they have a limited educational background or trouble reading. When patients have difficulty obtaining, understanding, and acting on basic health information, we say that they have “low health literacy.” Other researchers have shown that patients with low health literacy don’t know as much about cancer screening and are less likely to get screened for various cancers. They also tend to be timid about discussing things with their doctor, and often go along with what the doctor says, rather than taking an active role in the decision making. In 2003, under IRB approval, we conducted a study with 2 goals: 1) to encourage patients to talk to their doctor about prostate cancer screening, and 2) to learn more about the impact of low health literacy on these conversations. To promote conversation, we used two handouts, given to patients in the waiting room before they saw the doctor. The first was a patient education handout about prostate cancer screening, written in very simple terms with useful illustrations. The second was a handout that simply encouraged patients to talk to their doctor about prostate cancer. Patients got one of the two handouts, or a nutritional handout that served as a control. After they saw their doctor, a research assistant briefly interviewed the patient to find out whether or not prostate cancer screening was discussed. We also measured the patients’ health literacy skills, and asked a few other questions about their decision to get screened for prostate cancer.
Interventions to Improve Shared Decision-Making: Prostate Cancer Screening is a prospective study of educational interventions to improve the interaction of physicians and their patients about prostate cancer screening. Educational material is provided in primary care practices using either standard paper information or a novel web-based interactive curriculum that explores the risks and benefits of screening measures for prostate cancer for older men. The impact of the intervention on shared decision-making with both actual and standardized patients will be assessed.
The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a computer-based decision aid (DA) for use by men considering PSA screening for prostate cancer. Major medical organizations recommend that men discuss the risks and benefits of this test with their physician before making the decision. This educational, interactive DA will help them prepare for that discussion.
Randomized clinical study of two CAM therapies, 1) Reiki and 2) Relaxation Response Therapy with Cognitive Restructuring counseling (RRT with CR), compared to an education-only control arm in patients about to begin an eight-week course of external beam radiotherapy (EBRx) for prostate cancer. Generally, we would like to examine the feasibility of studying Reiki and RRT with CR in patients with prostate cancer, and to obtain preliminary results on the effectiveness of these treatments compared to controls. Specific objectives: 1. Determine the proportion of eligible patients who agree to participate in the study 2. Measure compliance with CAM therapy interventions 3. Measure compliance with physiologic and psychological outcome measurement assessments 4. Assess differences between experimental and control groups on measures on depression, anxiety, quality of life, salivary cortisol levels and an immunomarkers
The purpose of this study is to help doctors and patients make better decisions about prostate cancer treatment. This research is being done because we do not know how patient preferences for health states related to prostate cancer affect the final treatment decision.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of bevacizumab plus erlotinib following radical prostatectomy.
To improve the management of patients with early stage prostate cancer.