Breast Cancer Clinical Trials in Canada

The goal of this research study is to evaluate the performance of two experimental tests, namely Liquid Biopsy and Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) in women at high risk of breast cancer. The plan for this study is to assess whether findings from the combination or each individual test can assist radiologists in visualizing and characterizing beast abnormalities. Liquid Biopsy is a blood test that can detect early tumours in patients with malignancies, while PEM is an imaging tool equipped with a high-resolution camera that uses a low dose of injected positron emitting isotope to locate breast tumours. Participation in this study entails a blood draw for Liquid Biopsy test and a PEM imaging exam before undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - guided biopsy for a suspicious breast lesion. If PEM and/or Liquid Biopsy provide accurate information to assist radiologists in visualizing and characterizing breast abnormalities, this method may serve as the first step towards establishing these genomic and new imaging technologies as new diagnostic modalities and ultimately reduce the unnecessary biopsies and anxiety in high-risk populations. Read Less

The chemotherapy medications used for breast cancer treatment are important for achieving a cure, but a potential side effect is that they can cause a decline in functional capacity (reduced exercise tolerance and impaired physical function) and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. The risks of decreased functional capacity and cardiovascular disease are highest in breast cancer survivors as they grow older. The factors causing the decline in functional capacity are not well understood, however they may be related to a reduction in cardiac function (e.g. decreased pumping ability of the heart) or skeletal muscle function (reduced muscle blood flow and oxygenation). Exercise training is used for other populations at risk for cardiovascular disease (such as cardiac rehabilitation), but is not routinely offered to breast cancer survivors. Therefore this research study wants to test whether exercise training can improve heart and muscle health, and increase functional capacity in up to 60 older breast cancer survivors aged \>60 years old who previously received chemotherapy drugs that can affect the heart. The purpose of this study is to compare two rehabilitation approaches: a 12-week structured exercise training program or a 12-week stretching-yoga program. The investigators want to compare whether these programs can improve functional capacity, and heart and skeletal muscle function. To do this, some of the participants in this study will be randomly enrolled in the structured exercise training program and others will be randomly enrolled in the stretching-yoga program. Read Less

The goal of this randomized controlled pilot study is to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of the PACHA program designed for women having an adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) after hormone-sensitive breast cancer. PACHA (programme en Pharmacie pour l'ACcompagnement des femmes ayant de l'Hormonothérapie Adjuvante) is a community pharmacy-based program aimed at optimizing the experience of AET and its use. The main questions it aims to answer are : * Does the program have an effect on factors expected to influence AET adherence? * Is the program acceptable? * Is the implementation of the program feasible? * What is the feasibility of procedures for carrying out a full-scale study? Participating community pharmacies will be randomized. Pharmacists working in pharmacies assigned to the PACHA group (33 pharmacies) will receive web-based training and manuals to use during their consultations with women having an AET. Recruited women attending these pharmacies will also have access to information and resources about AET (videos, evidence-based booklet). Pharmacists practicing in pharmacies assigned to the control group (33 pharmacies) will provide usual care. Read Less

The objective of this protocol is to develop an institution-wide liquid biopsy protocol that will establish a common process for collecting blood and corresponding archived tumor specimens for future research studies at the University Health Network's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfNA), including cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and cell-free RNA (cfRNA), are non-invasive, real-time biomarkers that can provide diagnostic and prognostic information before cancer diagnosis, during cancer treatment, and at disease progression. Cancer research scientists and clinicians at the Princess Margaret are interested in incorporating the collection of peripheral blood samples ("liquid biopsies") into research protocols as a means of non-invasively assessing tumor progression and response to treatment at multiple time points during a patient's course of disease. Read Less

This study will investigate the effects of atezolizumab on select cancer types in people whose analysis of tumour DNA and RNA indicates they may be sensitive to atezolizumab. This study aims to determine if the information from the cancer genome analysis corresponds with the effects of atezolizumab on individuals and their cancer. This is a Phase 2 study, which is undertaken after preliminary safety testing on a drug is completed, and will involve approximately 200 participants. Participants are assigned to one of 8 cohorts based on their primary tumour type: breast, lung, gastrointestinal (GI), primary unknown, genitourinary (GU), sarcoma, gynecological, and 'other' cancer types. Participants in all cohorts will receive the same dose of atezolizumab (1200 mg every 3 weeks). In the first stage for each cohort, 8 participants will be enrolled and if no participants respond to treatment, enrollment to that cohort will be closed. If 1 or more participants respond to treatment, up to 16 additional participants will be enrolled to that cohort. Participants continue on treatment until they no longer may benefit from the treatment or they decide to stop treatment. Read Less

This study will look at whether females who have previously had breast surgery and radiation and are undergoing repeat breast surgery require any post operative interventions. The reason the investigators are conducting this study is because females who have undergone breast radiation are at higher risk of wound complications following breast surgery. The investigators will randomize recruited female participants into three arms, one which is post operative antibiotics for one week, one which is a wound VAC, and one which is no intervention. The investigators goal is to identify whether these patients will require any postoperative interventions. Read Less

Although chest wall recurrence of breast cancer is uncommon, it represents a difficult clinical scenario. The role of full thickness chest wall resection (FTCWR) for breast cancer recurrence in the chest wall is controversial and is complicated by the fact that no prospective evidence exists evaluating the utility of FTCWR in prolonging survival or improving health related quality of life (HRQOL) and thus, there is a lack of evidence to guide treatment decisions. Gathering HRQOL, local-regional recurrence (LRR) and survival data in a prospective fashion is thus critical in this population. Therefore, we designed a prospective trial to evaluate the outcomes for FTCWR in terms of LRC and HRQOL, and short-term morbidity and mortality, with secondary focus on potential long-term overall survival benefit. Read Less

The hypothesis is that the daily use of brass mesh bolus achieves a comparable dose to every-other-day use of Superflab bolus (current standard of care) in chest wall post-mastectomy patients treated with rotational 6 MV photon delivery. Read Less

This is a prospective, single institution, phase I-II study of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for unresected breast cancer. Twenty-four patients with advanced breast cancer who are not candidates for surgery (metastatic disease, unresectable, medically inoperable) or decline surgery will be enrolled in a prospective study using SBRT (4 fractions of radiation therapy over 12-15 days) as the primary treatment modality. Read Less

Women with breast cancer treated using anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) following treatment completion. Exercise is known to reduce CVD risk in healthy and several clinical populations, but, whether existing cardiac rehabilitation programs can be leveraged to reduce CVD risk in breast cancer survivors is unknown. This study aims to: i) understand the feasibility of virtual versus in-person cardiac rehabilitation in breast cancer survivors; and ii) compare the effect of virtual versus in-person cardiac rehabilitation on cardiovascular function and injury biomarkers, physical fitness, and psychosocial health. 50 breast cancer survivors with increased CVD risk will be recruited and randomized to either the in-person or virtual arm of the cardiac rehabilitation program at Women's College Hospital (WCH). Data will be collected at baseline, following program completion, and 6-months after program completion. The primary outcomes are measures of study feasibility. Other clinically relevant outcomes to be collected include: i) imaging and blood-based biomarkers of cardiovascular function; ii) physical fitness; iii) objective and self-reported physical activity levels; and iv) self-reported measures of psychosocial wellbeing. These findings will be used to inform the design of a larger-scale cardio-oncology trial and will facilitate development of more comprehensive CVD risk management strategies for breast cancer survivors at WCH. Read Less

This research is a continuation of a usability study with the MARVIN chatbot. The investigators aim to adapt the MARVIN chatbot to open it to other health domains (e.g. breast cancer) and populations (e.g. pharmacists). Therefore, this protocol constitutes a master research protocol that will englobe different research projects with individual chatbots. The investigators adopt an adaptive platform trial design, which will allow flexibility in handling multiple interventions adapted to different populations while retaining the characteristics of a platform trial design allowing early withdrawal of ineffective trial arms based on interim data (implementation outcomes) and introduction of new trial arms. Read Less

The goal of this research study is to evaluate an online inter-professional pain management program for survivors of breast cancer. The main questions it aims to answer: 1. whether this treatment will help address the pain management concerns of patients, 2. whether it is feasible to offer this treatment in the future as multi-centre randomized controlled trial (RCT). Participants will be asked to attend a 6-week online pain management group sessions (1h/week). Participants will also be asked to fill out questionnaires before and after the program completion. Read Less