Clinical Research Directory

Benefits of Early Collaboration Between Oncologists and Palliative Care Physicians in Cases of Unplanned Hospitalization for Patients With Metastatic Cancer

This is a multicenter, national, interventional, cluster-randomized study, "stepped wedge" design. This study includes patients with metastatic or locally advanced digestive, gynecological, ENT, or sarcoma cancer, currently undergoing systemic palliative treatment and hospitalized on an unscheduled basis. The study will aim to evaluate the impact of early palliative care implementation for patients with metastatic or advanced cancer identified during an unplanned hospitalization.

Impact of Prior Identification and Education of Patients Requiring a Digestive Stoma for Fecal Diversion

There are many indications for performing a fecal diversion stoma. In both scheduled and emergency situations, and whatever the context (indication or type of fecal diversion stoma), stomal complications can occur early (10-60%) or late (25%), and may require repeat surgery. The most frequent complications are necrosis, retraction, bleeding, evisceration, occlusion, abscess, hyperflow with hydroelectrolytic consequences, skin lesions, prolapse or eventration. What's more, a temporary stoma can become permanent. The positioning and fabrication of the digestive stoma for fecal diversion must therefore comply with well-defined criteria to reduce the risk of stomal complications and the difficulties of fitting the stoma, and thus improve the autonomy and therefore the quality of life of the ostomate patient. The guide to good stoma therapy practice recommends that the site of the future stoma should be marked out preoperatively. What's more, the psychological impact of a stoma is such that preoperative and regular postoperative education is essential. This identification and initiation of education is carried out by stoma nurses and/or surgeons. The impact of preoperative stoma identification and education on stoma complications, quality of life and patient autonomy has been reported in a few comparative series. The impact of preoperative education on quality of life has also been reported. However, despite this "Evidence Based Medicine", and the guide to good stoma therapy practice, the identification and education of the future fecal diversion stoma are not always carried out preoperatively. Reasons for this may include lack of time, lack of human resources, in the general context of a shrinking public hospital, or in the current context of distancing and dehumanization of the profession, or lack of conviction on the part of practitioners. To this end, the investigators would like to propose a prospective observational study aimed at evaluating the impact of identification and education prior to the performance of a fecal diversion stoma in a programmed situation on the one hand, and an emergency situation on the other. The main objective will be to compare quality of life specifically related to the stoma at 30 days postoperatively with the StomaQOL score, between 2 groups of patients: * unexposed group: no preoperative stoma identification and education * exposed group: preoperative stoma identification and education. This comparison will be stratified according to whether surgery is scheduled or emergency surgery. Total 100 patients : * In scheduled surgery: 30 exposed and 30 unexposed patients * In emergency surgery: 10 exposed and 30 unexposed patients Timeline: Inclusion period: 12 months Follow-up period: 12 months Total duration: 24 months

DESIR. Evaluation of the Pre-therapeutic Activity of Dihydropyrimidine dEShydrogenase (DPD) in Patients With Cancer and/or Renal Failure

Fluoropyrimidine drugs (5-Fluorouracil or 5-FU and its prodrug capecitabine) are a widely used in the treatment of numerous solid tumors in adults. Approximately 85% of administered 5-FU is rapidly catabolized in the liver into inactive dihydrofluorouracil (5-FUH2) by dihydro-pyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), leaving only a small fraction of the initial drug for an eventual transformation into cytotoxic metabolites. Impeded DPD activity is associated to an increase of cytotoxic metabolites leading to potentially very severe toxicities. To prevent these toxicities, a pre-therapeutic measurement of plasma uracil can help assess DPD activity. Indeed, uracil is an endogenous substrate of DPD and an increase in its plasma concentration may be associated with a decrease in DPD activity. In this case, a reduction of the fluoropyrimidine dose is suggested. However, the investigators observed that uracilemia increased concomitantly to the severity of renal impairment. There are two possible explanations for this observation. Either the renal impairment reduces the renal elimination of uracil from blood, or DPD activity is actually impaired. In both cases, this can explain an increase in plasma uracil concentration. However, the impact on fluoropyrimidine dosage is different in the two cases. If the increase in uracilemia is due to renal impairment, DPD activity remains unaffected and there is no need to reduce the fluoropyrimidine dose. If DPD activity is actually impaired, a reduction in the fluoropyrimidine dose is required. In cases of renal impairment, uracilemia may therefore not be as relevant for DPD assessment as in the absence of renal impairment. To assess if DPD activity is actually impede during renal impairment, the DPD activity of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) will be assessed together with uracilemia in patients with or without renal impairment. As uracilemia decreases after dialysis, the DPD activity of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) will also be assessed in patient before and after dialysis. Four groups of 50 patients will be studied: patients with normal renal function with hyperuracilemia (uracilemia ≥ 16 ng/mL) or normal uracilemia (uracilemia \< 16 ng/mL) ; and patients with renal impairment with hyperuracilemia (uracilemia ≥ 16 ng/mL) or normal uracilemia (uracilemia \< 16 ng/mL). The main objective of the study is to describe the distribution of DPD activity in these four populations. The secondary objectives are to determine in normorenal patients the optimal threshold for DPD activity in non-deficient patients, allowing differentiation between deficient and non-deficient patients based on uracilemia ; and to describe in patients with impaired renal function the distribution of uracilemia with respect to the threshold previously described with the aim of verifying the relevance of uracilemia as a marker of DPD activity in such patients.

Somesthesia in Cancer Patients: Variability and Influence on Eating Experience

Patients with cancer are at high risk of denutrition, in France 39% of these patients suffer of malnutrition. This can affect the immunity, the mental balance and impact the treatment response and the quality of life. Cancer treatments cause many side effects related to food intake as well as sensory alteration, important factor contributing to reduced appetite and inadequate food intake to cancer patients. SOMEST'ALIM2 is a prospective, non-randomized, monocentric, multisite study that aims to evaluate the appreciation of patients with different types of cancer (digestive, gynecological, breast, ear, nose and throat (ENT) or lung) of two different food versions (sweet and salty), in standard and enhanced version. Patients must be under treatment from at least two months, and before food testing their sensory capacity and quantity and the quality of their saliva will be tested. They will also be asked to answer to different questionnaires: socio-demographics, appreciation of food samples, self-assessment of oral symptoms and sensory perceptions, MD, Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) and food quality of life questionnaire. In a context of sensory alterations patients should appreciate more the enhanced food versions. Patients perception of food will be evaluated using a visual analogue scale and results will be correlated with saliva characteristics, subjective sensory perceptions and oral symptoms.

Spanish Registry of Digestive Tumours RETUD

The aim of this observational study is to assess the current state of digestive tumours in Spain. By doing so, it seeks to enhance the quality of care, optimize the diagnosis and treatment of digestive tumours, and identify opportunities for improvement that can benefit patients. The study will investigate the epidemiological, biological, and clinical characteristics of digestive tumors diagnosed in patients aged 18 and older across healthcare centres in Spain. It also aims to generate knowledge and scientific evidence for events and situations that may impact on patients with digestive tumours (e.g. COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic). Furthermore, subject to the patient's consent, biological samples may be collected for use in translational research projects and for the identification of molecular markers that may be useful in healthcare decision-making.