The Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Network (ACTION) is a distributed network-based learning health system (LHS) of care centers, clinicians, researchers and industry representatives partnering with patients who have heart failure and their caregivers with the ultimate aim of achieving health, longevity and quality of life equivalent to the general population. See https://www.actionlearningnetwork.org for more information. The initial focus will be to apply structured quality improvement methods, advanced information technology systems, and sharing of best practices to track and continuously improve health-related outcomes for children with heart failure requiring advanced therapies. In the future, we plan to collaborate with other established registries and learning network (i.e. UNOS, PHTS and Cardiac Networks United) to create an integrated network that improves care throughout all phases of a patient's illness including chronic heart failure, acute decompensated heart failure, ventricular assist device support and transplant.
This study is for patients with pancreatic cancer. The purpose is to see if researchers can increase the chance of pancreatic cancer staying away by giving them chemotherapy before and after surger
This study is for patients who have been diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that has returned (recurrent) or spread after previous treatment (metastatic). The investigational drug in this study is lenvatinib. The study will also use lenvatinib in combination with pembrolizumab, which is also experimental. The purposes of this study are to: test the safety of the study drugs, lenvatinib alone, pembro and lenvatinib together, and standard chemotherapies alone in the treatment of HNSCC; see how well the combination of pembro and lenvatinib works, compared to standard chemotherapies; and see if participants who get pembro and lenvatinib live longer than those who are treated with standard chemotherapies. Participants can expect to be on this study for about 48 months.
This is a study to find out if a device that temporarily alters brain activity (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, rTMS) might be used to change how people with anxiety or related concerns cope with emotional situations. The study is recruiting people who recently started treatment for anxiety or a related concern. The study involves 3 visits to MUSC. At the first visit, participants do interviews and surveys asking about anxiety and related concerns, and they also do tasks where they see and react to emotional pictures while their brain activation is measured. At the next two visits, participants receive rTMS that uses a magnet placed on top of the head to alter brain activity temporarily (for about an hour). After rTMS, participants do two tasks where they see and react to emotional situations while wearing sensors on their hand, arms, face, and head.
Each visit in this study is expected to last between 2 – 3 hours. This study is not a treatment study, but it could help improve treatment in the future. Participants in this study are paid for their time.
This study is for patients that have been diagnosed with recurrent or new head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Patients either have had a recurrence (the tumor has comeback) or a new head and neck cancer in a different area of the head and neck (second primary) which has been removed by surgery. The study drug used is called pembrolizumab. The purpose of this study is to see if adding pembrolizumab to radiation or if using pembrolizumab by itself after surgery compared to the usual approaches with chemotherapy and radiation will increase life expectancy. Participants can expect to be on this study for up to 12 months and then followed for 5 years.
We plan to obtain skin biopsies from patients with systemic sclerosis and healthy donors to grow cells from biopsies. With those cells, we will use them in experiments to see why the cells from systemic sclerosis patients have more fibrosis compared to patients without systemic sclerosis.
This study is for patients that have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The usual approach for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who are not in a study, is lenalidomide and dexamethasone in combination with bortezomib or daratumumab. This approach is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The purpose of this study is to see if patients who have a small amount of cancer left after initial treatment (called minimal residual disease (MRD)), could benefit from adding a new drug to the usual treatment. The study approach, using a combination of four drugs, is investigational and not approved by the FDA. Patients can expect to be on this study for up to 2 years. Patients will then be followed by their doctor for up to 15 years after completion of the study or until disease progression..
This study is for patients who have cancer and are experiencing loss of weight and appetite. The study wants to find out if this taking olanzapine for four weeks will increase your appetite as compared to megestrol acetate. The study is looking to see if that approach is better or worse than the usual approach for your loss of appetite and weight. The usual approach is defined as care most people get for loss of appetite.
This study is for newly diagnosed or previously untreated low-grade glioma (LGG). The overall goal of this study is to see if selumetinib works just as well as the standard treatment using carboplatin and vincristine (called CV) for subjects with LGG. Selumetinib is a drug that works by blocking a protein (a basic building block of the human body) that lets cancer cells grow without stopping. Participants can expect to receive treatment on this study for about 1–2 years. After study completion, participants will continue to be followed for up to 10 years.
This study is for patients that have been diagnosed with non-germinomatous germ cell tumor (NGGCT). The goal of this study is to see if radiation therapy (RT) to the spine and a portion of the brain works just as well as the standard treatment, which includes RT to the whole brain and spine, for people with NGGCT who agree to take part in this study, and whose disease responds well to induction chemotherapy, or who have no signs of disease following surgery. Participants can expect to receive treatment on this study for about 6 to 11 months, depending on which therapy they receive. After study completion, participants will continue to be followed for up to 10 years.