View clinical trials related to Breast Diseases.
Filter by:The primary hypothesis of this project is that using molecular breast imaging (MBI) in evaluating women with equivocal mammographic or sonographic findings will demonstrate high specificity in distinguishing benign from malignant breast disease and, as a result, decrease the number of biopsies.
This trial is going to evaluate the value of blood-oxygen functional imaging technology in the diagnosis of breast diseases.
General anesthesia and morphine based pain medicine analgesia has been the mainstay of practice in breast cancer surgery at Women's College Hospital. There is evidence to suggest that patients have a better recovery, with less pain and nausea and vomiting when nerve blocks or freezing of nerves are given in addition to a general anesthetic. Specifically for breast cancer surgery, evidence has suggested that the use of paravertebral blocks provide patients with a better quality of recovery after surgery. The aim of this study is to examine whether patients who receive the nerve blocks using an ultrasound machine in addition to general anesthesia have a better quality of recovery than patients who receive a general anesthetic alone. The hypothesis is that patients receiving ultrasound-guided paravertebral blocks (PVB) with propofol-based general anesthesia (GA) will have a better quality of recovery than patients receiving general anesthesia-opioid-analgesia. Quality of recovery will be assessed using a modification of the QoR-27, a validated instrument to assess postoperative recovery in an ambulatory surgical population.
Each year, the number of breast cancer survivors who choose post-mastectomy breast reconstruction keeps rising. Among women who elect to pursue breast reconstruction, approximately 75% will choose prosthetic breast reconstruction. Implant-based breast reconstruction is frequently achieved in two-stages. The first stage consists of the placement of a tissue expander after mastectomy. This is followed by a period of biweekly tissue expansions that can last several months. In the second stage, the tissue expander is removed in a surgical procedure and replaced with a permanent breast implant. Tissue expansion is a well-established breast reconstruction technique characterized by high success rates and high patient satisfaction. Despite the well-recognized advantages of this successful breast reconstruction technique, the subpectoral placement of a tissue expander is associated with significant pain and discomfort in the immediate post-operative period and during the phase of tissue expansion. Pectoralis major muscle spasm is a frequently reported problem during tissue expansion. Legeby et al. recently showed that women who underwent prosthetic breast reconstruction had higher pain scores and took more analgesics that those who did not choose post-mastectomy reconstruction. In the past 10 years, publications on the use of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) for pain relief in a wide array of clinical conditions have increased tremendously. BTX-A is one of the neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria. By reversibly inhibiting neurotransmitter release, BTX-A has both analgesic and paralytic properties. The analgesic action of BTX-A was initially thought to be related to its effects on muscular contraction. However, a recent in vitro study of embryonic rat dorsal neurons did confirm that BTX-A inhibits release of substance P, a neurotransmitter associated with pain and inflammatory reactions. The presence of analgesic properties of BTX-A is increasingly supported by several clinical observations: pain relief with BTX-A injections has been reported for migraine headaches, chronic pelvic, chronic tennis elbow, and post-operative pain control for lower limb lengthening correction, among others. This aspect has never been studied in breast cancer survivors who elect to pursue breast reconstruction with tissue expanders. Furthermore, physical function outcomes are important to consider with BTX-A use because the link between temporary muscle paralysis and improvements in participation in daily activities is not a given. The investigators propose to complete a double-blinded prospective randomized controlled trial of women undergoing unilateral and bilateral mastectomies with immediate placement of tissue expanders, to establish the efficacy and safety of BTX-A in alleviating pain and in improving physical well-being during the expansion period.
About a third of patients with breast cancer are usually treated by hormone pills called tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors. Aromatase inhibitors are drugs that stop female hormone production. Female hormone or estrogen is an important hormone for the growth of breast cancer cells. Letrozole is one of the aromatase inhibitors that is approved by the FDA and has been used to treat breast cancer since 1997. However, hormone pills usually work for about 6-10 months in most patients. Later on, breast cancer will start to grow again. This condition when hormone pills or endocrine therapy no longer work is called "endocrine resistant" breast cancer. The scientists here at University of Maryland have discovered how these cancer cells can become resistant to hormone pills. In our laboratory tests, the investigators found that lapatinib and everolimus can reverse this resistance and make letrozole work again. However, it is not known if the drugs can reverse the resistance in humans. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the combination of letrozole, lapatinib, and everolimus is effective in women with breast cancer when hormone pills no longer work. Lapatinib is an anti-cancer drug that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is the standard of care for the treatment of a particular type of breast cancer called human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. HER2 is a protein involved in the growth of some cancer cells. This study will also include patients with HER2-negative breast cancer. This means that the cancer cells in these patients do not depend on the HER2 protein. The use of lapatinib in these patients is considered experimental. Everolimus is also an anti-cancer drug that is approved by the FDA for kidney cancer. Initial studies in mice and later studies in women with breast cancer have shown that everolimus may also slow the growth of breast cancer. The use of everolimus is experimental in this study.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association of zoledronic acid with standard treatment with anthracycline followed taxane plus trastuzumab in locally advanced breast cancer HER 2 positive.
Specific Aim: To assess the quality of recovery of patients following early discharge (18 hrs) after pedicled TRAM flap breast reconstruction. Quality of recovery will be assessed using a 27-item validated questionnaire, QoR-27 at discharge, and on Post Operative Days (POD) 2, 4 and 7. In addition a 100 mm Visual Analog Score (VAS) for Pain will be completed on discharge from the recovery room, discharge from hospital and on POD 2, 4 and 7. Clinical Relevance: Postoperative recovery is a complex process related to various outcomes such as physiological endpoints, incidence of adverse events and change in psychological status. Previous studies of recovery after surgery and anesthesia have focused primarily on the physiological endpoints and the incidence of adverse events. Much of the work has occurred in specialties dealing with chronic disease states such as cancer, rheumatology and musculoskeletal disorders. There is clearly a need to focus on recovery outcome measures in the ambulatory population for postoperative recovery. Here the investigators propose to measure postoperative recovery outcomes within the first week following a TRAM flap reconstructive procedure using a validated postoperative quality of recovery instrument (QoR-27) and a 100 mm VAS for pain.
Breast reconstruction is a common procedure with over 86,000 breast reconstruction procedures performed in the United States in 2009. This is a 1.5-fold increase since 2007. Of these breast reconstructions, 65% use a tissue expander/implant technique. Although satisfactory results can be achieved with a single-stage technique, a two-stage approach is considered more reliable, allowing for precise positioning of the inframammary fold and an opportune time to perform a capsulotomy to increase the breast skin flap by releasing the soft tissue. The placement of the tissue expander and implant under the chest muscles is thought to minimize the incidence of capsular contracture, expander exposure, and in addition, produce acceptable aesthetic results. However, discomfort is often associated with this submuscular placement of a tissue expander or implant, specifically during the expansion phase. Patients undergoing immediate reconstruction using submuscular implants have been shown to have higher analgesic requirements and to have higher pain scores post-operatively, compared to non-reconstructed patients. An uncomfortable reconstruction can lead to under-filling of the expander, a longer expansion process, abandonment of reconstruction, and a compromised quality of life. The use of Botulinum Toxin A (Botox) injections into the chest muscles at the time of surgery may help ease the discomfort that is often associated with this procedure. The investigators propose a prospective double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial of patients undergoing tissue expander/implant reconstruction. The information gathered from this analysis will provide a greater understanding of the effects of Botox in the setting of two-stage tissue expander/implant breast reconstruction, with the goal to improve patient satisfaction and quality of life.
Primary hypotheses In a hospital-based CRCT, cell phone lactational counseling starting in the third trimester of pregnancy to 24 weeks after delivery will improve the prevalence of EBF by 7.5 % (7.5% increase in EBF by retraining in BFHI alone in both groups from baseline and a additional 7.5% improvement in intervention group as compared to the control) compared with women with from hospitals with only retraining BFHI. Secondary hypotheses As compared to women from hospitals receiving only retraining in BFHI, those with additional cell phone lactational counseling will experience the following - Increase in the percentage of EBF(breast milk and no other foods or milk based liquids) at 24 weeks after delivery, - Increase in the mean duration of any breastfeeding, - Increase in the percentage with TIBF, - Reduction in use of pre lacteal feeds - Reduction in percentage of infants being bottle fed(any liquid or semi-solid food from a bottle with nipple/teat) any time before or at 24 weeks - Increase in the percentage of infants at 26 weeks after delivery who receive TICF, - Increase in growth velocity (weight, length and head circumference) - Reduction in the number hospitalizations or mortality in the mother-infant dyad till 26 weeks after delivery - Increase in adherence to visit schedules - Greater ratio of effectiveness as compared to costs incurred for cell phone counseling.
In this study, participants, who are scheduled to have a breast biopsy, will have several extra spot mammogram images taken of the suspicious area. These images will be acquired with varying levels of compression. The images will then be analyzed to determine whether the type of lesion (malignant or benign) can be determined from the image data alone. The biopsy results will be used as a gold standard to determine the true malignancy status