All Clinical Trials in Canada

The goal of this prospective phase II unicentric Canadian clinical trial is to clarify the feasibility of modified early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (mEPIC) following cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in the clinical context of peritoneal carcinomatosis from colorectal and appendicular neoplasms. The primary objective of this study is to confirm the feasibility of mEPIC by evaluating its completion rate compared to the one of historical standard early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC) cohorts. The secondary objectives of the study are to evaluate the safety of the mEPIC protocol by monitoring adverse events arising during the protocol and to assess logistical implementation barriers for the nursing and Oncology pharmacy teams, respectively. Participants will undergo a modified schedule of EPIC (mEPIC) designed to maximize therapeutic benefit by exploiting the known pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics properties of fluorouracil (5-FU) while limiting the logistical issues of the standard protocol. mEPIC consists in shortening the original protocol from five to two days of postoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Additionally, instead of solely administering a singular 5-FU bolus per 24 hours-period, mEPIC is based on the De Gramont intravenous regimen and consists of administering one intraperitoneal bolus of 5-FU (400 mg/m2) followed by a 24 hours-intraperitoneal infusion of 5-FU (1200 mg/m2) on postoperative days 1 and 2. Read Less

Many patients, doctors and others worry that tired doctors provide worse patient care, may not learn well and become burnt-out. In response to these concerns, some countries changed their laws to limit work-hours for doctors in training ('residents'). In Canada, most residents work six or seven 24-30h shifts each month. A recent Canadian report ordered by Health Canada said that making good decisions about resident work-hour rules was "significantly limited by quality evidence, especially evidence directly attributable to the Canadian context." Creating this evidence is the main goal of this research. The pilot study in 2 intensive care units(ICU) found that shorter shifts may be worse for patients, and for residents were more tiring than expected but improved wellbeing. Learning was not assessed. Previous studies on resident work-hours report similar findings: conflicting effects for patients, benefits for resident wellbeing, inconsistent and under-studied effects on learning. Overall, these results are not conclusive and confirm the need for a larger study. The current study will provide high-quality Canadian evidence. The investigators will compare two common ICU schedules used in Canada: resident shifts of 16h and 24h. ICU patients are very sick, there is little margin for error: they need doctors who know them well and are thinking clearly. The effects of each schedule on patients and residents will be measured. For patients, mortality rates and harm caused by care in ICU will be studied. For resident education, their learning about managing common illnesses in ICU, to do basic ICU procedures, and communicate with families will be studied. For resident wellbeing measures will include sleepiness, other fatigue symptoms, and burnout. Investigators will study both resident and patient outcomes so that Canadians can understand trade-offs linked to changing schedules. With this knowledge, Canadians can expect safer care for today's patients and better-trained doctors for the patients of tomorrow. Read Less

Childhood arthritis is a chronic disabling disease. New medications called biologic therapies are now available to treat arthritis that target key biologic molecules that cause inflammation. Biologic therapies, while very effective in treating arthritis in children, may have serious side effects including infections and potentially cancers, and are very expensive and doctors don't know, which one to choose for which child. The investigators will develop tests that enable them to learn about the biology of each child's arthritis and be able to predict when and which biologic therapy to start and when to stop. Read Less

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate, places pressure on the urethra and causes urination and bladder problems. Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) remains the gold standard treatment in most centres for BPH. However, morbidity after TURP is high, especially bleeding requiring blood transfusion and late postoperative bleeding. Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) is a safe and effective procedure which has demonstrated comparable results to TURP. HOLEP also offers patients the alternative of being treated endoscopically with minimal blood loss, short catheterization time, and decreased hospital stay. The main reason HoLEP has yet to become the new standard for treatment of symptomatic BPH is due the complexity of this procedure as compared to TURP. Furthermore, the HoLEP can be used with the MOSESTM system, a system that allows for more efficiency and ease of use of the HoLEP. Thulium fiber laser (TFL) enucleation of the prostate is an emerging technology for endoscopic prostate enucleation that is notable for its high wavelength and pulsed mode of action. Recent studies have shown TFL enucleation of the prostate to be a safe and highly efficacious treatment modality for the management of large volume (\> 80 cm3) glands in BPH. Due to its novelty, further studies are needed to broaden the investigators' understanding of the TFL and comprehend the full implications and benefits of this new technology, as well its limitations. The aim of this study is to whether Thulium Fiber laser enucleation of the prostate (ThuFLEP) and Holmium laser enucleation using MOSES™ (M-HoLEP) have comparable length of hospital stay, as well as intraoperative and postoperative outcomes. Read Less

Trigger finger is a common disease of the hand involving swelling and inflammation of the tendon which flexes a finger, causing catching, locking, and/or pain. Trigger finger is typically treated by hand surgeons with a steroid injection through the front/palm side of the hand into the area near the tendon (i.e., at the base of the affected finger). This steroid injection is often combined with a local anesthetic (numbing agent) to help reduce short-term pain from the injection. However, the front/palm side of the hand is known to be very sensitive, and the steroid injection can be quite painful as the needle pierces the front/palm skin. To reduce the pain of steroid injections for trigger finger, a different approach involves performing the injection from the back/dorsal side of the hand, which is thought to be less sensitive (and therefore less painful) than the front/palm side of the hand. This technique is sometimes used and has been previously studied, but it is not clear if it can offer less injection-related pain than standard treatment. Accordingly, this study will be comparing short-term injection-associated pain between front/palm side and back/dorsal side steroid injections for trigger finger. The study will also seek to understand what area of the hand is numbed by the anesthetic when doing a front/palm side injection versus a back/dorsal side injection of the hand. Overall, the investigators hypothesize that back/dorsal side injections will be less painful than front/palm side injections for trigger fingers and that the area of numbing from the anesthetic will be equivalent between both types of injections. Read Less

This is a randomized controlled trial comparing a web-based psychosocial screening application to usual care in a cohort of surgically-treated head and neck cancer patients to determine its efficacy in monitoring depression and distress, and prompting necessary psychiatry/psychology referrals. In addition, treatment adherence, rehabilitation and return to work, primary care utilization, and survival will be monitored. Read Less

Evaluation of the Tolerance and Benefits of Mandibular Advanced Device (MAD) for Snoring and Sleep Apnea in Patients with Oropharyngeal Cancer (OPC): Mixed Design Study. Read Less

Resistance exercise training (RET) in children and adolescents has become a popular area of research, with a growing body of evidence supporting its use. Position and consensus statements about RET for children indicate that it is safe and effective at increasing muscular strength, improving sport performance, and mitigating injury risk. Neural and muscular mechanisms can improve muscle strength following RET. Neural factors include improved recruitment and firing of an individual's motor units, and muscular factors primarily include an increase in the size of the muscle (hypertrophy). In children, little is known about how these mechanisms relate to muscle strength. There is very little evidence of morphological changes following RET in children. Therefore, conventional wisdom is that children rely only on neural factors to improve strength following RET. Nevertheless, some studies have suggested RET-induced muscle hypertrophy in children and adolescents, indicating that with certain training protocols, children may achieve muscle growth. Hypertrophy of muscle fibres occurs when the rate of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is greater than the rate of protein breakdown, and is enhanced with the ingestion of dietary amino acids. Due to ethical concerns with obtaining muscle samples (i.e., from muscle biopsies) in pediatric populations, MPS rates have not been previously assessed following RET in children. Recent advancements in stable-isotope methodology (specifically, leucine) allow for the estimation of MPS in a non-invasive breath test. The objective of the proposed research is to examine the effects of an acute bout of RET on leucine retention (a proxy for MPS) in children, adolescents, and adults using a non-invasive breath test. Read Less

Milk and dairy products contain significant amounts of nutrients that contribute to optimal health - nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and high-quality protein. Fermented milk products or fermented dairy products are dairy foods that have been fermented with certain bacteria. Yogurt is a fermented dairy product containing millions of beneficial bacteria. In this study, the invesgitagtors will look at the effect of milk (a non-fermented dairy product) and yogurt (a fermented dairy product) supplementation on bone health and the amount of fat and muscle mass in Canadian young adults over a 24-month period. While dairy products contain significant amounts of nutrients, the scientific community does not know the impact of long-term supplementation of fermented (i.e., yogurt) or non-fermented (i.e., milk) dairy food on bone health and the amount of fat and muscle mass in young adults. To fill this knowledge gap, the investigators will recruit participants with low calcium intake and assign them to three different groups: 1) milk (intervention) group; 2) yogurt (intervention) group; and 3) control group. The investigators will ask the participants in the milk group to drink 1.5 servings (375 mL) of milk per day for 24 months. Participants in the yogurt group will consume 2 servings (350 g) of yogurt per day for 24 months. Those in the control group will continue their usual diets. Using a randomized controlled trial design, the investigators will measure bone health parameters, hormonal indices related to bone metabolism, body composition (e.g., muscle mass, fat mass), and the number and composition of bacteria living in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The hypothesis is that supplementation with yogurt will have more positive effects on bone health indices, particularly femoral neck BMD as the primary outcome, than milk in Canadian adults aged 19-30 years. The secondary hypothesis is that supplementation with yogurt, as a fermented milk product, will have a more beneficial effect than milk on body composition measures. The data will provide valuable information for developing targeted health initiatives and marketing strategies regarding the benefits of fermented and non-fermented dairy product consumption. Read Less

The objectives of this study and registry are to offer the best management possible for patients with brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) (ruptured or unruptured) in terms of long-term outcomes, despite the presence of uncertainty. Management may include interventional therapy (with endovascular procedures, neurosurgery, or radiotherapy, alone or in combination) or conservative management. The trial has been designed to test a) whether medical management or interventional therapy will reduce the risk of death or debilitating stroke (due to hemorrhage or infarction) by an absolute magnitude of about 15% (over 10 years) for unruptured AVMs (from 30% to 15%); and, b) to test if endovascular treatment can improve the safety and efficacy of surgery or radiation therapy by at least 10% (80% to 90%). As for the nested trial on the role of embolization in the treatment of Brain AVMs by other means: the pre-surgical or pre-radiosurgery embolization of cerebral AVMs can decrease the number of treatment failures from 20% to 10%. In addition,embolization of cerebral AVMs can be accomplished with an acceptable risk, defined as permanent disabling neurological complications of 8%. Read Less

Intracranial bifurcation aneurysms are commonly repaired with surgical and with endovascular techniques. Wide-necked bifurcation aneurysms (WNBA) are a difficult subset of aneurysms to successfully repair endovascularly, and a number of treatment adjuncts have been designed. One particularly promising innovation is the WEB (Woven EndoBridge), which permits placement of an intra-saccular flow diverting mesh across the aneurysm neck, but which does not require anti-platelet agent therapy. Currently, which treatment option leads to the best outcome for patients with WNBA remains unknown. There is a need to offer treatment with the WEB within the context of a randomized care trial, to patients currently presenting with aneurysms thought to be suitable for the WEB. Read Less

DO-IT is an international, prospective observational registry evaluating whether the administration of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is safe and improves functional outcome in ischemic stroke patients with recent direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) intake. For this purpose, information on 2800 adult participants experiencing an acute ischemic stroke will be obtained at several high-volume international stroke centers and divided into three groups: IVT with recent DOACs intake (DOAC+IVT), and recent DOAC intake not receiving IVT (DOAC) as well as anonymized patients without DOAC receiving IVT. The patients are followed up for 90 days after the index event. treatment recommendations from the described observations. The investigators hypothesize that also more liberal decisions for IVT in patients with recent DOAC intake are not associated with an increased risk for symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) and result in better functional outcome at 3 month. Read Less