ANZCTR search results

General practice recruitment aswell as A&E 12 month follow up.

Sometimes patients who have strong pain and take regular morphine or oxycodone (opioid drugs) to treat their pain, experience times when pain breaks through the normal control provided by regular doses of pain medication. This is called breakthrough pain. Usually, extra doses of morphine or oxycodone, called breakthrough doses, are prescribed to treat this pain. The dose of breakthrough medication that will have the best chance of relieving your pain, together with the least chance of causing unwanted side effects, is not known with certainty. Presently doctors determines the dose, by calculating each dose as a percent of the daily dose of regular pain medication. The calculated percent varies between doctors, we do not know if any calculated percent is better or worse than another percent. The purpose of this research study is to determine if there is a breakthrough dose calculation better for breakthrough pain and with fewer side effects. Who can participate in this study? Anyone over 18 years of age taking regular opioid medication for pain and who has taken at least one breakthrough dose in the last 7 days. You will then be provided with six doses of oral morphine or oxycodone solution (depending on your usual medication) to use when you have breakthrough pain over the 28 day study period.You will take a total of 3 different strengths of medication over the 6 doses. You can be assured that you will take a dose of medication that would normally be expected to give relief each time. Each dose will be individually packed and is a complete dose in itself. Each time you need a breakthrough dose for pain, for the first occurrence of pain for the day you will be asked to take one of the doses supplied by the study. After each study dose taken, you will need to answer some questions about your pain and other symptoms four times in the records packed with the doses. You will be in the study until all 6 study doses have been taken, for up to 28 days. During that time you will be contacted by telephone by the study nurse each week.

Aromatherapy essential oils were applied topically over a 28 day period to determine their efficacy in modulating immune alterations, including those associated with smoking; and to determine if they form a safe and well-tolerated treatment.

Calcium and magnesium in the form of a specific mineral supplement will reduce symptoms of premenstrual syndrome by 20% after 4 months of daily use. This calcium and magnesium supplement used in conjunction with a combination of micronutrients in the form of a specific multi vitamin, mineral and herbal tablet will reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome by 30 % after 4 months of daily use.The study also seeks to compare differences in bone densitometry parameters in women with and women without PMS. To achieve this aim 2 cohorts of subjects will be enrolled, Cohort A will be an initial enrolment of 180 women with self-report of PMS. (This number will allow for 30% exclusion due to insufficient premenstrual symptom score at visit 2). Cohort B will be an enrolment of 40 women who do not have PMS after assessment with Menstrual Health Questionnaire (This number will allow for 50% exclusion/drop out at visit 2).

Over 1,650 Australians are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year. In most cases, surgery will remove the tumour but it is possible that the cancer will return as a result of undetectable disease (micrometastases). The cancer will return and be incurable in the majority of patients, more than 1600 Australians die of the disease every year. This study compares the impact of adding chemotherapy to the surgery alone (the current standard of care). The study will also compare the effectiveness of two different types of chemotherapy. Surgical resection of a pancreas tumour is the current standard of care for this disease. It is possible that people treated with chemotherapy after their tumour has been surgically removed may live longer before their disease returns and may liver longer overall. This has been shown to be true in other in cancers; eg. breast and bowel. The side effects of chemotherapy are important and can be severe in some people. Recent studies in advanced pancreatic cancer have suggested that the new drug gemcitabine may be more effective than other drugs. For this reason, the trial compares the outcomes in people treated with gemcitabine to those treated with an older drug 5FU, which has been shown to improve survival in an earlier study by the European group. This trial will determine if chemotherapy in addition to surgery increases disease-free and overall survival. If it does, it should become standard practice. This study is an important international initiative that will provide unique information about effectiveness of these treatments and their impact on quality of life from the patient's perspective. This study and the previous European study are the largest of their type ever done. 900 people will take part. This study is being conducted in Australia by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials in collaboration with the Australian Hepatobilary Association and the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre.

Breast cancer usually first spreads to lymph nodes in the axilla (armpit). Sentinel node biopsy is a way of finding and removing the lymph nodes most likely to contain cancer. Women found to have cancer in their sentinel nodes usually undergo an axillary clearance. This involves removal of most lymph nodes in the armpit but can cause side effects such as lymphoedema (arm swelling) and other problems. This international phase III trial will determine if an axillary clearance is warranted for women who have only small clumps of cancer cells, called micrometastases, found in the sentinel lymph nodes.

The DaVINCI trial closed to recruitment on 31st January 2008. 89 patients were recruited from Australia and New Zealand