Massachusetts Paid Clinical Trials

The goal of this research study is to investigate the feasibility of implementing a prehabilitation program that aims to improve a patient's physical, nutritional, and sleep health before surgery in an older, at-risk group with esophageal cancer. Read Less

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome with clinical symptoms involving multiple systems. The efficacy of current treatments is inadequate, and more alternative modalities are needed for the management of FM patients. The parasympathetic vagus nerve innervates and integrates sensory, motor, and autonomic systems and has been suggested to play a role in pain modulation. The role of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as a treatment option for FM patients is yet to be investigated. The investigators propose to examine the hypothesis that vagus nerve stimulation could improve pain and related comorbid symptoms for FM patients. Read Less

The primary objectives of the study are: to describe the characteristics of the current international MLIV population; to define the median age at which patients with MLIV achieve or lose developmental milestones; to define the natural history of MLIV for the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) (Morris and Bartlett, 2004) and the MLIV specific scale and test the validity of retrospectively applying these scales to medical record data; to define the rate of visual decline in patients with MLIV. Read Less

This is a first in human study in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors known to have an MTAP deletion. The first part of the study is an open-label, dose escalation and the second part is an open label dose expansion in specific MTAP-deleted tumor types. The study drug, TNG462, is a selective PRMT5 inhibitor administered orally. The study is planned to treat up to 225 participants. Read Less

Study of the patient's subsidence after revision hip arthroplasty by assessing gross stem subsidence in the femoral canal. Read Less

This is research study is assessing the effects of 6-g daily use of freeze-dried instant coffee on liver fat and fibrosis and the gut microbiome and metabolome in patients who have completed routine treatment (including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) for stage I-III colorectal cancer. Read Less

This project aims to optimize a critical but understudied ingredient of language intervention provided to children with developmental language disorder (DLD) - feedback. The project will bridge a gap between previous findings in our lab of inefficient feedback processing in DLD and clinical practice by identifying the conditions under which feedback-based learning can be improved in DLD. The investigators hypothesize that the effectiveness of feedback can be significantly enhanced for children with DLD when it is tailored to their unique learning strengths. The rationale for this project is based on evidence that feedback-based learning can be improved by enhancing the dominance of an intact learning system. The project will achieve its aim by manipulating (1) the timing of the feedback (immediate vs. delayed) and (2) the level of the learner's involvement in error correction dictated by feedback (active vs. passive correction). Aim 1 will determine the effect of manipulating feedback timing on learning in 140 school-age children (8-12 years) with DLD. While immediate feedback is processed by the striatum, which is also implicated in implicit learning, delaying the feedback by a few seconds shifts feedback processing to the mediate temporal lobe (MTL)-based declarative learning system. Evidence that delaying feedback improves learning in DLD would support the hypothesis of the implicit deficit theory that intervention should capitalize on declarative learning mechanisms. The project will test a novel alternative feedback-learning parity hypothesis whereby feedback-based learning is optimized when the timing of the feedback is aligned with the dominant learning system at a given time (i.e., immediate feedback during striatal-based probabilistic learning; delayed feedback during MTL-based declarative learning). Within the same group of children, Aim 2 will compare feedback-based learning in children with DLD when feedback (a) prompts active self-correction or (b) passively exposes learners to error corrections (corrective recast). Children will engage in two nonword-object paired-associate learning tasks. In one task, feedback will promote active self-correction, which is in line with declarative learning. In the other task, feedback will passively expose the learner to corrective feedback in a manner consistent with teaching approaches aiming at reducing awareness of errors. The project will determine whether children with DLD learn better when feedback prompts self-correction or when they are exposed to passive corrections. Electrophysiological measures will indicate whether passive corrections (corrective recast) are processed as negative feedback by children with DLD. For both aims, behavioral indicators of response to feedback will be complemented by electrophysiological measures of feedback processing that can determine the involvement of the striatum and MTL brain systems during the learning process. This work is scientifically and clinically significant because elucidating what manipulations optimize feedback-based learning will enhance our understanding of the impaired learning mechanism in DLD and will provide clinical guidance on what type of feedback to use during an intervention. Read Less

Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA) is a rare condition in which the body stops producing enough new blood cells. SAA can be cured with immune suppressive therapy or a bone marrow transplant. Regular treatment for patients with aplastic anemia who have a matched sibling (brother or sister), or family donor is a bone marrow transplant. Patients without a matched family donor normally are treated with immune suppressive therapy (IST). Match unrelated donor (URD) bone marrow transplant (BMT) is used as a secondary treatment in patients who did not get better with IST, had their disease come back, or a new worse disease replaced it (like leukemia). This trial will compare time from randomization to failure of treatment or death from any cause of IST versus URD BMT when used as initial therapy to treat SAA. The trial will also assess whether health-related quality of life and early markers of fertility differ between those randomized to URD BMT or IST, as well as assess the presence of marrow failure-related genes and presence of gene mutations associated with MDS or leukemia and the change in gene signatures after treatment in both study arms. This study treatment does not include any investigational drugs. The medicines and procedures in this study are standard for treatment of SAA. Read Less

In this research study the investigators want to learn more about an alternate, local treatment for skin schwannomas. Specifically, local doxycycline intra-tumoral injection will be performed as a potential treatment for NF2-related skin schwannomas, ultimately reducing the risks and costs associated with standard surgical removal of such skin tumors if successful. Read Less

This study will conduct a randomized controlled trial of Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I) as an augmentation to treatment as usual for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). CBM-I is a digital intervention designed to directly manipulate interpretation bias through repeated practice on a training task, thereby inducing cognitive changes in a relatively automatic or implicit manner. Specifically, this study will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and clinical outcomes associated with CBM-I. Adults with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) will be recruited from a treatment program for this disorder and participants will be randomly assigned to either receive: 1) up to 12 sessions of CBM-I, or or up to 12 sessions of psychoeducation as a control condition. Read Less

Hemophilia A (HA) is a genetic bleeding disorder resulting from a deficiency or absence of factor VIII (FVIII), which is necessary in the clotting process. This disorder occurs mostly in males and in severe cases causes frequent bleeding episodes in joints and muscles which can lead to progressive damage that affects mobility and quality of life. Prophylactic FVIII administered intravenously every other day has been the standard of care treatment for HA for the past few decades. Sports and physical activity are generally encouraged in patients with hemophilia on appropriate prophylactic treatment to increase strength, prevent or decrease obesity, accrue and maintain bone density and encourage normal socialization. To ensure safety with participation in sports in persons with hemophilia A (PWHA), timing of FVIII administration is often adjusted to maximize FVIII at the time of sports. The exact factor level that is needed to safely participate in sports and minimize bleeding risk is not yet known. Based on clinical practice, infusion of FVIII to near the lower limit of normal right before participation in sports generally works to prevent bleeding. The study is looking at how well the newly approved medication Emicizumab works compared to Factor VIII to prevent bleeding in patients with Hemophilia A who play sports. The study will enroll children and adolescents who are already on Emicizumab or Factor VIII who are currently playing sports. Read Less

Lack of perceived control, particularly during stress, has been critically implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD) and anhedonic symptoms, especially among female adolescents; yet the neural underpinnings of perceived control disruptions in MDD remain poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging with a novel "value of control task" in conjunction with a prospective design, this study will provide a comprehensive understanding of stress and perceived control related mechanisms in female adolescents with MDD and will examine stress-induced disruptions in perceived control as a predictor of "real world" expressions of maladaptive coping and anhedonia. Read Less