ANZCTR search results

The primary purpose of this trial is to evaluate the efficacy of a community-based exercise program, The Life Now Exercise Program, for improving physical and psychosocial wellbeing in cancer patients and survivors. The exercise program is hypothesized to improve wellbeing in people with cancer. Who is it for? You may be eligible to enroll in this trial if you are aged 18 or over and are currently receiving cancer treatment or completed cancer treatment within the previous two years. Study details All participants enrolled in this trial will complete the Life Now Exercise Program. This involves twice weekly supervised group exercise sessions for three months. Sessions will last approximately one hour and comprise of a combination of aerobic, strength and flexibility training. Participants will also be asked to complete home exercise of their choosing to a total of at least 150 minutes of exercise per week, including the supervised sessions. It is hoped that this trial will provide information on whether an exercise program can mitigate and rehabilitate the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment and improve physical and psychosocial wellbeing amongst current cancer patients and recent cancer survivors.

The human gut secretes a number of hormones to regulate food intake and blood sugar. Ghrelin is a hormone secreted from the stomach before meals, which promotes food intake. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is secreted from the small and large intestines after meals, and is known to suppress food intake and improve blood sugar control. In this trial, we want to investigate whether saline solutions administered into the small intestine will affect the secretion of ghrelin and GLP-1, and the sensation of hunger and satiety.

The primary purpose of this study is to identify supportive and palliative care needs from the perspective of bereaved family carers of deceased advanced melanoma patients from diagnosis of advanced disease to death. Who is it for? You may be eligible to participate in this study if you are aged 18 or over, are English-speaking and were the main carer of a person who died 2 to 18 months previously as a result of melanoma. Study details All participants in this study will complete a single 30-90 minute interview about supportive care needs from diagnosis to death of a family member with advanced melanoma. It is hoped that from these interviews, researchers will identify the supportive care needs of these individuals.

There are increasing concerns regarding the treatment efficacy of azithromycin 1g single dose for the treatment of rectal chlamydia infections with treatment failure rates up to 21% being reported. There is no pharmacokinetic data available to determine if low rectal tissue concentrations contribute to treatment failure. The purpose of this study is to provide the world first evidence of the pharmacokinetics of azithromycin 1g in rectal tissue

The primary purpose of this trial is to assess the impact of the Navigate online decision aid (DA) on the uptake of active surveillance as a management option for low risk prostate cancer patients. This can be achieved by assessing the impact of the online DA on decision making, confusion and distress, and decisional regret and by increasing the understanding of treatment options and side-effects for patients recently diagnosed with low risk prostate cancer (LRPC). Who is it for? You may be eligible to enrol in this trial if you are aged 18 years or over, and have been diagnosed with low risk prostate cancer within the last three months. Participants can be recruited Australia wide through an online self-referral or clinician-referral process (refer to website below). Study details All participants enrolled in this trial will be randomly allocated (by chance) to receive access to the Navigate DA, or to receive links to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) website, an existing information website for men with prostate cancer. Participants' partners will also have access to the allocated information resource. Participants and their partners will then be followed up at 1, 3 and 6 months to assess updake of active surveillance as the first line management option, preparedness for decision making, decisional conflict, regret, satisfaction, relationship outcomes and quality of life using questionnaires. It is hoped that this trial will provide information on the impact of the Navigate DA on the uptake of active surveillance, reducing confusion and distress associated with decision making regarding LRPC diagnosis.

Patients on dialysis lack the ability to excrete water adequately and accumulate water in-between dialysis sessions. This excess fluid accumulated needs removal on dialysis. Traditionally the amount of excess fluid accumulated by the patient is estimated by clinical examination. Whilst large fluid excess (volume overload) is relatively easy to detect on clinical examination, it is unreliable for detecting subtle fluid excess. Underestimation of the amount of fluid to be removed on dialysis leads to long term volume overload that results in a number of detrimental effects such as high blood pressure, heart failure and other disorders of the heart and blood vessels that eventually lead to increased mortality. Overestimation of the amount of fluid that needs to be removed on dialysis, results in volume deficit causing post-dialysis fatigue, low blood pressure, dizziness, cramps, seizure and dialysis interruptions that can result in under dialysis. The use of objective measures to supplement the clinical assessment of volume status in dialysis patients is gaining attention. Some of the techniques used have focused on measuring inferior vena cava diameter, bioimpedance and circulating blood volume. These techniques do not convey information on heart function that is critical to patients’ tolerance and response to fluid removal on dialysis. The measure of lung water, the accumulation of which reflects both heart function and the circulating blood volume appear to be much better at identifying patients at risk of adverse volume dependent clinical outcomes and to monitor effects of fluid removal aimed at preventing these adverse outcomes. Recently a quick, simple and easy to learn measure of lung water using ultrasonography has been validated in dialysis patients. The current study aims to assess the feasibility of introducing routine assessment, by the renal unit staff, of volume status in our dialysis patients by measuring their lung water using bedside ultrasonography. We will evaluate the acceptability of the procedure to the operators and patients along with the inter-observer variability. The sensitivity of the ultrasound changes to changes in body weight following dialysis, and the proportion of patients with lung water post-haemodialysis will also be assessed.

In patients with symptomatic medial compartment (inner side), knee osteoarthritis (OA) and associated genu varum (bowing of the lower limb) performing a high tibial osteotomy (HTO) can provide pain relief by changing the shape of the limb. The shape changes the point at which compressive load crosses the knee. This unloads the painful arthritic side of the knee and transfer load to the undamaged lateral compartment (outside)of the knee. There are two widely used HTO techniques. These are the medial opening wedge (MO) and the lateral closing wedge (LC) HTO. Intraoperative computer navigation can increase the accuracy and precision of the intended correction but has not been used for the LC technique. It is unclear in the literature, which approach yields the highest patient satisfaction as very few studies have been done that compare the two techniques. Additionally, there are even fewer studies that have examined the changes to gait mechanics that take effect as a result of the described procedures. To detect a difference between the two procedures, patients will undergo preoperative and postoperative radiographic (x-ray) and functional joint assessments. In addition, investigators will assess changes to the patients' gait by performing analysis at a Gait Laboratory. Aims and Hypothesis: 1) That the same correction achieved intraoperatively using two different osteotomy techniques will produce the same correction to standing limb shape and gait mechanics 2) Computer navigated LC wedge is as accurate as computer navigated MO wedge HTO. Research Design: The design of this project is a single centre, multi-surgeon, prospective, randomised controlled trial. (Evidence Level II) Materials and Methods: Patients planned to undergo a HTO procedure at the investigators' clinic who fit study inclusion criteria, may be approached to voluntarily participate in the study. Patients will be randomised to the MO wedge HTO group or LC wedge HTO group at time of consent. Alignment corrections associated with the procedure will be standardised to 3.5 degrees of valgus. Patients will undergo assessments preoperatively, and postoperatively for followup in clinic at six weeks, six months and yearly.

This is a non-randomized study that seeks to comprehensively evaluate the clinical and functional outcome of a consecutive series of patients undergoing gluteal tendon repair surgery augmented with a synthetic ligament. We hypothesize that symptomatic patients failing prior conservative treatment and with evidence of gluteal tendon tearing diagnosed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), will demonstrate significant clinical improvement up until 24 months post-surgery.

This study will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of cytisine in comparison with varenicline. A total of 1450 smokers will be recruited from state Quitline services. Participants will have an equal chance of being randomly allocated to either the intervention or control arm (1:1 ratio). Participants in the intervention arm will receive a 25-day supply of cytisine capsules (1.5 mg cytisine). Participants in the varenicline arm will receive a 12-week supply of varenicline tablet (0.5 mg/1.0 mg varenicline). All participants will also receive standard Quitline behavioural support. All participants will be followed-up for six months and the follow-up interviews will be held at one, three and six months after the quit date. The main outcome measures are abstinence from smoking at one, three and six months follow-ups.

The primary purpose of this trial is to evaluate whether treatment planning for prostate cancer radiotherapy can be completed using only MRI scans, in place of the standard care which involves both MRI and CT scans. Who is it for? You may be eligible to participate in this study if you are aged over 18 years and have been diagnosed with prostate cancer for which you are scheduled to undergo radiotherapy treatment. Study details All participants enrolled in this trial will have the standard care CT scan and MRI scan performed as part of their radiotherapy treatment planning, with an extra type of MRI scan added on to the existing MRI. This will add approximately six minutes to the duration of the MRI scan. A team of doctors, physicists and radiation therapists will work together to generate two treatment plans (CT plan and MRI plan). If the treatment plans are similar then the new MRI only treatment plan will be used for treatment. If the two treatment plans differ then the standard care CT and MRI plan will be used for treatment. Researchers will keep track of the number of times that the new MRI only treatment plan is used, the doses calculated and the locations of any gold markers used. It is hoped that the findings of this trial will provide information on whether radiotherapy treatment planning for prostate cancer can be completed using only MRI scans, without the need for CT scans. This would reduce the time and cost required for radiotherapy treatment planning in these patients.