Clinical trials

his prospective observational study will evaluate whether body mass index (BMI) is associated with serum estradiol levels in premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Participants will already be receiving standard adjuvant treatment with an aromatase inhibitor and pharmacologic ovarian suppression as part of their routine clinical care. The study will not assign or modify cancer treatment. Approximately 172 participants will be enrolled at multiple study sites in Brazil. They will be classified into two main groups: normal BMI and overweight or obesity. Clinical information, medication use, physical activity, weight, height, and serum estradiol levels will be recorded. Estradiol will be measured using an ultrasensitive laboratory method, with the main assessment occurring after approximately three months of treatment. The primary objective is to compare the proportion of participants with serum estradiol levels above 2.72 pg/mL between the two BMI groups. The study will also examine the relationship between BMI and absolute estradiol levels and explore whether clinical characteristics, previous chemotherapy, physical activity, or use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists are associated with inadequate estrogen suppression.

This prospective multicenter observational study evaluates the performance of a structured hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance program in patients at increased risk of developing liver cancer. Participants will undergo routine surveillance with semiannual abdominal ultrasound reported using the Ultrasound Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (US LI-RADS) and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) testing as part of standard clinical care. The study aims to assess HCC detection rates, stage at diagnosis, detection of other hepatic malignancies, and the time intervals between detection, diagnosis, and treatment in a real-world setting. Approximately 300 participants will be enrolled and followed for up to 36 months.

This is a phase II clinical study testing a more personalized and lighter chemotherapy approach for women with stage I or II triple-negative breast cancer. The treatment is adjusted based on signs from the immune system (called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs) and imaging results during treatment. Patients with stage I triple-negative breast cancer (regardless of TIL levels) and those with stage II disease and high TILs (50% or more) will receive a combination of two chemotherapy drugs (carboplatin and a taxane) for four cycles. If imaging shows the tumor has completely disappeared after this treatment, the patient will go straight to surgery. If the tumor is still visible, the treatment will be strengthened with additional chemotherapy drugs (anthracycline and cyclophosphamide), with or without a medicine called pembrolizumab, which helps the immune system fight cancer. The main goal of the study is to see how many patients have a complete disappearance of the cancer after treatment. Other goals include understanding how imaging results relate to what is found during surgery and tracking how long patients live without the cancer coming back.

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether oral creatine supplementation can prevent chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment in patients with early-stage breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does creatine supplementation reduce the occurrence and severity of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment, as measured by patient-reported cognitive function? * Does creatine supplementation preserve objective cognitive performance compared with placebo during and after chemotherapy? Researchers will compare creatine supplementation (5 g/day) with placebo to assess differences in cognitive outcomes, safety, and exploratory biological markers. Participants will: * Receive oral creatine or placebo starting 7 days before chemotherapy and continuing until 12 months after chemotherapy completion * Complete patient-reported cognitive assessments and objective neuropsychological tests at predefined time points * Undergo clinical follow-up for safety and oncologic outcomes * Provide blood samples for biomarker analyses and stool samples for gut microbiota assessment * Undergo brain magnetic resonance imaging at selected study visits

Fluoropyrimidines (FLU) are drugs widely used in chemotherapy for various tumors, such as breast, colon, rectal, and gastric cancers. FLU is a drug that inhibits thymine synthesis and, consequently, DNA synthesis, leading to tumor cell death. However, up to 30% of patients treated with FLU experience severe toxicities, depending on the dose and regimen received. The most common symptoms include mucositis, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and neutropenia. The enzyme dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) plays a key role in FLU metabolism. Patients with mutations in the DPYD gene (which encodes DPD) are at high risk of experiencing severe toxicities from FLU. Uridine triacetate (UT) is a drug that can be used as an antidote for 5-FU in patients who develop severe toxicities. However, despite its efficacy, it is expensive and not commercially available in Brazil. Currently, the Brazilian population has no access to an antidote for the treatment of FLU-related toxicities. This Phase I/II study will evaluate the dose, safety, and efficacy of compound the association of two molecules as an antidote for grade 3 or higher toxicities resulting from the use of FLU.

Advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in the last decade have been significant. Currently, there are several first-line therapeutic options. The molecular biology of the disease, biomarkers and the patient's clinical characteristics can assist in decision making. The study in question aims to retrospectively evaluate the patterns of choice in the first line treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer without driver mutations, from 2019 to 2022 in 7 centers in Brazil.

Intensive care units (ICUs) are environments specialized in the care of critically ill patients. Despite significant advances, ICUs are often seen as a dehumanized environment. Among the various stressors in ICUs, anxiety, pain, psychomotor agitation and mental confusion, need for mechanical restraint, lack of privacy, noise, restricted visiting time with family members and excessive lighting stand out. The tripod composed of pain, anxiety and delirium (often associated with the presence of psychomotor agitation, mental confusion and altered level of consciousness) has a high incidence and morbidity. A set of prevention, intensity reduction and treatment measures has been proposed for these conditions, with a growing number of scientific evidence supporting their routine use. Elderly patients tend to be particularly susceptible to the stressors described above. This aspect represents an additional source of concern for ICUs, since the elderly today represent the majority of patients admitted to ICUs. Hospitalization in ICUs after surgical procedures is often an unknown moment for the individual and, consequently, associated with the development of numerous unpleasant sensations, directly interfering with the patient's recovery. Music as a therapy tool in medical practice has been used since 1890. After a little more than two decades, in 1914 it was applied in a surgical procedure by physician Evan Kane as a way of "calming patients and diverting attention from fear". associated with combined therapy with local anesthesia. In this context, being a low-cost tool, with minimal adverse effects and high acceptability, the use of music has proven to be a great ally in the arsenal of non-pharmacological therapies for the prevention of delirium, anxiety and pain. We intend, through a randomized multicenter clinical trial, to investigate whether the use of music as therapy is capable of reducing the incidence of anxiety, pain and delirium in elderly patients undergoing surgical procedures and hospitalized during the postoperative period in intensive care units.

This study evaluates the feasibility and preliminary impacts of a new parenting program consisting of a series of educational videos, automatically delivered via a popular texting platform. The program content for the feasibility study is focused on teaching parents strategies to better manage one of the commonly reported challenges that children face, a transition to a non-preferred activity. Parents with young children experiencing behavior difficulties with daily transition routines are invited to participate in the study.