ANZCTR search results

This study is trying to determine whether giving palliative radiation therapy to all known sites of cancer in the body for patients with metastatic cancer can slow down the growth of disease, reduce the rate of new sites developing, improve overall survival and/or improve quality of life. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 18 years or older and have been diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, including oesophageal, pancreatic, head and neck cancer, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and skin cancer and you are not currently undertaking any oral and/or intravenous therapies for your cancer. Study details Participants who choose to enrol in this study will undergo at least one radiotherapy treatment course which will involve attending 5 radiotherapy sessions scheduled 2-3x per week over 2 weeks. Radiotherapy will be delivered to specific sites of the body depending upon each individual's metastases. At the end of the treatment course, participants will be asked to undergo different types of CT scans and/or a PET scan to review the effect of the radiotherapy on the metastases. If required, participants may undergo an additional treatment course of 5 sessions after a four week break. This treatment process will then be repeated until all known cancer sites have been treated. At 12 months, 2 and 3 years after enrolling into the study, participants will also be asked to attend different CT scans and/or PET scan to review their cancer status and will also be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their quality of life. It is hoped this research will determine whether the use of radiotherapy alone is effective in the treatment of cancer metastases in patients who are not able to receive oral and/or intravenous therapies.

This research aims to translate evidence-based cognitive interventions into regional clinical practice as post-diagnostic support for people at risk of dementia in regional Australia. It adapts an existing training package to build clinician capacity, while evaluating changes in clinician knowledge, skills, and confidence, as well as patient outcomes, and implementation barriers and facilitators to service delivery.

Despite decades of advancements in lens technology to improve wearability and safety, contact lens (CL) discomfort remains a persistent challenge (at ~50% discontinuation). The primary reason is due to CL wear discomfort. The underlying mechanisms leading to CL wear discomfort remains poorly understood, although inflammatory processes have been implicated. Using advanced imaging techniques, with the Heidelberg HRT3 with Rostock Corneal Module, known as static and Functional In Vivo Confocal Microscopy (Fun-IVCM), this study will characterise the features of human corneal immune cells during soft silicone hydrogel CL wear, during typical daily wear (i.e., at timepoints over a diurnal cycle). This will be achieved by quantifying the density, morphology and dynamics of corneal immune cells in habitual asymptomatic and symptomatic CL wearers, as well as healthy controls who do not regularly wear CLs. The main aim of the study is to determine the relationship between corneal immune cell features and soft CL discomfort. The intervention will also be applied to assess whether there is a difference in the diurnal features of corneal immune cells with short-term lens wear (i.e., among a group of non-contact lens wearers who will wear the intervention for one day) relative to habitual contact lens wearers (comprising both individuals who are asymptomatic and symptomatic when wearing their existing/own contact lens products). The study will also assess whether anaesthetic, used as a standard procedure for in vivo confocal imaging, affects corneal immune cells. We will recruit 45 adult participants, aged 18-45 years, comprising healthy controls who do not wear CLs (n=15), as well as habitual asymptomatic (n=15) and habitual symptomatic soft CL wearers (n=15).

This is a Phase 1, open-label, randomised, 3-period, 2-sequence crossover study of paltusotine tablets with two different drug formulations in a total of approximately 20 healthy male and female participants. This study is evaluating 2 formulations of paltusotine. Paltusotine is being developed as a potential new treatment for Acromegaly and Carcinoid Syndrome. Participants will be assigned to one of two treatment sequences with a minimum 10-day washout between each Period. In each dosing period, enrolled participants will receive a single dose of the following treatments per their assigned treatment sequence. -Treatment A (Reference): Participants will receive a single dose of 60 mg paltusotine, administered as 2 × 30 mg tablets after an overnight fast with a 4-hour postdose fast -Treatment B (Test): Participants will receive a single dose of 60 mg paltusotine, administered as 1 × 60 mg tablet after an overnight fast with a 4-hour postdose fast. Blood samples will be collected at multiple timepoints to assess plasma concentrations and calculate PK parameters. Safety and tolerability will be monitored through adverse events, laboratory tests, vital signs, ECGs, and physical examinations.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common condition affecting the hip and knee. Due to factors such as the ageing population and the increasing prevalence of obesity, the incidence of severe osteoarthritis is increasing. Severe osteoarthritis can warrant referral to an orthopaedic surgeon for an opinion on the appropriateness of total joint replacement as a management option. People with severe osteoarthritis often wait for long periods of time in the public health system before being seen by an orthopaedic surgeon. Before surgical intervention is considered, exercise programs to improve strength and function can help to alleviate symptoms and potentially improve outcomes following eventual arthroplasty surgery. The duration, quality, and effectiveness of currently available programs is varied. The literature suggests that exercise programs are more effective if they are supervised and if they are at least 12 weeks in duration given the time required for neuromuscular adaptation to take place. Kieser Australia has developed a 14-week supervised exercise program for people with hip or knee osteoarthritis on the waitlist to be seen by an orthopaedic surgeon for consideration of total joint replacement surgery. Aim - to determine the feasibility of the supervised exercise program in terms of recruitment rate, participant adherence, and participant retention.

This project is a campaign called 'Brain Station' which will be launched as a mixed method quasi-experimental pre-post study taking place in multiple public locations. The primary aim is to empirically evaluate the impact of co-designed, culturally congruent dementia risk reduction public health campaign for ethnic communities on dementia risk. Secondary aims are to assess the impact of this campaign on ethnically diverse adults' dementia awareness and motivation. The project will recruit participants aged 18+ from English-speaking, Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese cultural backgrounds (N= 250 per group). Methods include a cross-sectional survey (baseline and 10-12 weeks post campaign), and qualitative interviews (n=60 (15 per language group), 10-12 weeks post campaign). This project will provide pilot data to scale our approach at a national and international level to support dementia prevention in culturally diverse communities.

This trial is the second stage of a two-stage study of the EMVision First Responder Brain Scanner for patients suspected of suffering from an acute stroke in the Melbourne Stroke Unit (MSU). This stage will collect EMVision First Responder scan data matched with stand-of-care ground-truth radiological imaging. Scans are anonymised and enter the EMVision database to support the advancement of stroke-detection algorithms. This study hypothesises that meaningful scan data can be collected in the MSU for the purposes of algorithm advancement.

Paramedics working outside of a hospital do not have access to the same diagnostic and testing equipment that are found in an emergency department, such as x-ray or CT scanner machines. This makes assessing patients more challenging, as there is less information available to aid in determining the severity of illness of a patient. This is particularly problematic for patients with COVID-19, as the condition can vary in its severity. Being able to determine the severity of illness is useful when making a plan for a patient’s ongoing care, such as whether they need to be admitted to hospital or can be cared for in the community. Portable ultrasound devices (known as point-of-care ultrasound, or POCUS) can be used by paramedics to visualise some parts of the lung. As COVID-19 is primarily an infection of the lungs, there are well documented changes to the lung tissues that can be seen on ultrasound. These changes correspond to how severe a COVID-19 infection is. However, ultrasound is a relatively new tool for paramedics and is currently mainly used for assessing patients with traumatic injuries, rather than assessing patients with lung infections. This feasibility project aims to asses if paramedics who have already had training in the use of POCUS can accurately interpret lung ultrasound pictures of patients with COVID-19, when compared to an expert. The results from this study can then be used to inform further research into the development of POCUS as a tool to triage patients with COVID-19, and potentially other lung conditions, in the out-of-hospital environment. This study is being coordinated by a higher degree by research candidate at the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, University of South Australia.

This study will investigate whether a simple urine test, the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR), can help identify intensive care unit (ICU) patients who are developing acute kidney injury (AKI) or whose kidney injury is likely to persist or worsen. Adults admitted to the ICU at Austin Hospital with AKI or at high risk for AKI will have urine samples collected at admission and again at 24 hours. These samples will be tested for uACR and compared with kidney outcomes during the hospital stay. The aim is to determine if uACR can improve early detection and risk stratification of AKI in critically ill patients. Findings may guide future studies and help improve kidney care in the ICU.

Tonsil surgery is one of the most common childhood surgical procedures, however the postoperative recovery is often long and challenging for children and their families. Opioids are a common analgesic following tonsil surgery, and although effective, they have notable side effects including respiratory depression, nausea and vomiting and constipation. This study aims to explore if clonidine can provide comparable, non-opioid pain management to oxycodone for post-operative pain following tonsillotomy.