Clinical Research Directory

Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment With Adcetris and Levact in the Old Patient

Treatment outcome with ABVD in elderly patients remains inferior to adults. Moreover, Bleomycin-induced lung toxicity in the elderly has been reported as high as 46%. For these reasons, questions arise whether ABVD could be still considered the standard treatment in HL patients aged \> than 60. Regimens containing other alkylators such as CHOP proved even superior to ABVD, with a 3-y PFS of 67%. Frontline treatment of advanced-stage HL with Brentuximab Vedotin (BV) in association with AVD (Doxorubicin, Vinblastine, Dacarbazine) proved very active in a pioneer study, reporting the preliminary results of a phase 1 multicentre trial, in which the percentage of patients achieving CR was as high as 92%. For all these reason the investigators decided to test the association of an alkylator with an innovative mechanism of action and a very safe toxicity profile in the elderly such as Bendamustine (Be) with BV in untreated elderly HL patients. The combination of BV and Be, investigated in this study, might represent an innovative treatment alternative for HL patients older than 60 years of age, especially for those of them in whom ABVD chemotherapy, the current standard front-line treatment, is not suitable. However, even when ABVD is given as upfront treatment for elderly HL patients, it is associated with substantial dose reduction, treatment delay, toxicity, and treatment-related mortality, with treatment outcomes remaining much inferior to those obtained in younger patients. This drug association is expected to be safe, well-tolerated and to demonstrate higher efficiency compared with ABVD. In this setting, it is expected that this therapy could be offered to the large majority of elderly patients with a full treatment completion reached in up to 80% of these patients. Thus, the aim of this study will be to assess safety and efficacy of the above association.

Lf-rTMS Attenuates Visceral Pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Diarrhea

Objectives: To identify a central hub of visceral pain in IBS-D and elucidate the mechanism by which repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) confers analgesic effects. Methods: A total of 42 IBS-D patients were recruited and randomly assigned (1:1) to the sham rTMS or the rTMS group. A nested cohort of 21 IBS-D participants who completed baseline fMRI assessments prior to randomization was included. Consistent with the randomization procedure，these individuals were evenly distributed between the two groups. Both participants and outcome assessors remained blinded to treatment allocation throughout the study. All patients completed the two-week intervention and were included in the final analysis.