Clinical trials

Optimal patient-centered care is often not being delivered to cancer patients, especially to vulnerable populations like those living in underserved rural areas. This body of work will develop and pilot test a multicomponent intervention approach designed to improve the care and outcomes of cancer patients and their support persons (SPs) during and following their therapeutic journey. The intervention will involve the provision of social prescriptions and web-based micro-learning modules, as well as stepwise care based on ongoing monitoring of symptom burden and health. This project uses the strengths of innovative, individually tailored communication strategies and a comprehensive low-cost approach that are likely to support fair and equal patient access to optimal care beyond the funding period. By using a patient-driven approach in an interdisciplinary setting, it is anticipated that the intervention will improve the health outcomes of various patient populations, especially those living in rural areas. To achieve this, a methodologically robust mixed-methods approach and an effectiveness-implementation hybrid design will be employed to move effective strategies towards implementation into clinical practice. A number of standardized patient-reported outcome and experience measures will be used, including quality of life and knowledge of health and care. As a result of this research, an implementation toolbox will be developed that could be used by clinicians working in different healthcare settings and services, both nationally and internationally, to help provide highest quality cancer care.

A randomized, controlled three-arm study is planned to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of an accelerated home-based tDCS application (3 weeks of transcranial direct current stimulation at home, twice daily). A total of 30 patients with depression (10 per group), who are currently not taking and have no history of taking antidepressant medication, will be randomly assigned to either an active tDCS condition, a sham (placebo) tDCS condition, or a waitlist control group. The latter two groups will receive active tDCS treatment after completion of the control phase. This study represents a continuation of the pilot study GSUND DAHOAM (Ethics approval: 20-2091-101; Dragon et al., 2024).

HSCT is currently the only curative option for SCD but less than 20% of SCD patients have a MD donor available. So far, all curative approaches beyond a MSD HSCT at young age are non-satisfactory. With the lack of a suitable donor for the vast majority of patients, the major question of this trial is, if a haploidentical αß/CD19+ T-cell depleted HSCT can be a valid alternative to a MSD HSCT. The main challenge in non-malignant diseases is to offer a safe and GvHD-free HSCT without rejection.

Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Cytoreductive Surgery and HIPEC in Patients With Peritoneal Carcinomatoses