Brigham Research Institute (BRI) - Brigham and Women's Hospital

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive malignancy of the central nervous system. Older adults with GBM have a unique constellation of medical, psychosocial, and supportive care needs. To address these challenges, prior work has evaluated the feasibility of hypofractionation, a treatment approach delivering fewer, larger radiation dosages over a shorter time period. Common hypofractionated regimens deliver a lower biologically equivalent radiation dose than the conventional regimens used for younger adults. Whether dose escalated hypofractionation can further improve outcomes in older adults remains unclear. This will be a hybrid randomized control trial comparing the efficacy and safety of dose-escalated and standard hypofractionated radiotherapy among older adults with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma compared to standard three-week course. This research study involves the administration of radiation therapy. Radiation will either be delivered at the standard daily dose or at an increased daily dose over a three weeks course of radiation treatment. Research study procedures will include a screening evaluation to assess eligibility, as well as clinical visits for radiation delivery and to assess symptoms during treatment and at scheduled follow-up times. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two arms of the trial: 1. Standard hypofractionated radiation over 3 weeks 2. Dose-escalated hypofractionated radiation over 3 weeks

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2025

open study

The is a pilot, 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) newly initiating buprenorphine to receive either weekly injections of semaglutide (n=23) or matching placebo (n=23). The primary aim is to determine the effects of semaglutide on cue-reactivity among individuals with OUD. The secondary aim is to assess the preliminary efficacy, safety, and tolerability of semaglutide for OUD.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2025

open study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of Suzetrigine (SUZ) in participants with pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2024

open study

This research study is evaluating whether a new care delivery program that provides access to home blood transfusions in hospice (i.e, HEME-Hospice) compared to regular standard of care improves quality of life, mood, and end-of-life health care utilization for patients with hematologic malignancies.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2025

open study

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether an upfront invasive strategy of TEVAR plus medical therapy reduces the occurrence of a composite endpoint of all-cause death or major aortic complications compared to an upfront conservative strategy of medical therapy with surveillance for deterioration in patients with uncomplicated type B aortic dissection.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2024

open study

This phase II/III trial examines whether patients who have undergone surgical removal of bladder, kidney, ureter or urethra, but require an additional treatment called immunotherapy to help prevent their urinary tract (urothelial) cancer from coming back, can be identified by a blood test. Many types of tumors tend to lose cells or release different types of cellular products including their DNA which is referred to as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) into the bloodstream before changes can be seen on scans. Health care providers can measure the level of ctDNA in blood or other bodily fluids to determine which patients are at higher risk for disease progression or relapse. In this study, a blood test is used to measure ctDNA and see if there is still cancer somewhere in the body after surgery and if giving a treatment will help eliminate the cancer. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab and relatlimab, can help the body's immune system to attack the cancer, and can interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. This trial may help doctors determine if ctDNA measurement in blood can better identify patients that need additional treatment, if treatment with nivolumab prolongs patients' life and whether the additional immunotherapy treatment with relatlimab extends time without disease progression or prolongs life of urothelial cancer patients who have undergone surgical removal of their bladder, kidney, ureter or urethra.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2024

open study

The primary objective of this research is to collect pilot data that demonstrates that proposed neural, psychophysiological and subjective markers measured before, during, and after treatment change over the course of Prolonged Exposure therapy (PE) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aims of the study are to: (1) examine theoretically informed mechanisms as pretreatment predictors of PE treatment efficacy, (2) characterize how neural, psychophysiological, and subjective markers measured before, during, and after treatment change over the course of PE, and (3) examine proposed mechanisms of change as measures of PE treatment efficacy. This is a longitudinal study of predictors of exposure therapy efficacy that will be conducted within the context of a standard 10 session PE treatment trial, with independent multimodal assessment batteries administered at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at 1-month follow-up. This data will be used to support a future NIMH and/or VA grant submission.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2023

open study

The primary aim is to test whether abatacept, as compared to placebo, is associated with a reduction in major adverse cardiac events (MACE) among participants hospitalized with myocarditis secondary to an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI). The primary outcome, MACE, is a composite of first occurrence of cardiovascular death, non-fatal sudden cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, significant ventricular arrythmias, significant bradyarrythmias, or incident heart failure.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2022

open study

The primary objective of this study is to determine if the correction of functional iron deficiency by administering a single dose of intravenous iron (ferric derimaltose or Monoferric®) in participants with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) will improve exercise capacity as measured by the change in peak oxygen uptake (peak VO2) from baseline to 12 weeks.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Nov 2021

open study

Ketamine, an NMDA antagonist, has been shown to have rapid anti- suicidal effects. However, its safety and efficacy and special populations has not been investigated and documented. Several reports in adults suggest rapid decrease of suicidal ideation. In the last decade there is an alarming increase of the number of suicide attempts in patients ages 14-30. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in this population. Patients with previous history of suicide attempt, are even in a higher risk category. The present study focus in this high risk group of suicide attempters. This will be a randomized controlled trial enrolling 60 youth between the ages 14-30 after a suicide attempt; patients will be randomized to receive Ketamine 0.5 mg/kg over 40 minutes or normal saline. Patients will receive all Ketamine or placebo infusions while admitted in the Inpatient Psychiatry Service. Patients will receive up to 6 ketamine or placebo infusions until, for 3 consecutive sessions, they have a clinician rated Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI) score of<4, and >50% decrease from baseline, and clinical assessment of patient not being suicidal, or they have been discharged from the inpatient unit. Patients will participate in weekly sessions of Collaborative Assessment for the management of Suicidality (CAMS), from the first week of the study while admitted to the hospital and will continue it on a weekly basis post-discharge until the patient has three consecutive outpatient CAMS sessions with an overall risk < 2 (# 6 on the SSF Core Assessment) along with a positive response regarding their thoughts/feelings and clinician indicating behavioral stability (suicidal behavior).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2022

open study

The aim of the proposed pilot study is to investigate patient tolerability and efficacy of moderate term, repeated exposure of Pulsed Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (PLIFUS) in patients with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2019

open study

This research study involves the study of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) in patients with MGMT-methylated glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) that are undergoing standard chemoradiation. The study aims to evaluate G-CSF's effects on brain health and cognitive function. The name of the study drugs involved in this study are: - G-CSF (also called Filgrastim) - Temozolomide (TMZ), a standard of care chemotherapy drug

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2025

open study

The goal of the study is to examine multiple markers of anthropometrics, body composition, sarcopenia and frailty and compare them to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) output, which is considered the current clinical gold-standard tool to measure body composition. The result of this study will provide detailed data regarding the nutrition and body composition within this Cystic Fibrosis population and also provide a baseline evaluation for use of these biomarkers in the future studies including evaluation of nutritional intervention. Further, the study will also include psychosocial and other patient-reported outcomes and medical contributors to understand their contributions to the nutritional failure in the adult advanced lung disease population. Finally, the study will evaluate both established and emerging nutritional and body composition parameters and link them to clinical outcomes in adults with CF across the spectrum of pulmonary function.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Apr 2023

open study

To assess the feasibility of an expedited referral process for the obese endometrial cancer or EIN patient from her gynecologic oncologist to the Brigham Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (CMBS) in order to undergo concurrent weight loss surgery and hysterectomy within 8 weeks of first appointment with a gynecologic oncologist (or 12 weeks for EIN patients).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2021

open study

This study aims to examine the clinical profile/anatomical characteristics and natural history of patients who subsequently fail screening for transcatheter mitral valve intervention (TMVI).

Type: Observational [Patient Registry]

Start Date: Aug 2021

open study

The purpose of this study is to determine if a combination of two drugs sacituzumab govitecan and atezolizumab works as a treatment for residual cancer in the breast or lymph nodes and have circulating tumor DNA in the blood. This research study involves the following investigational drugs: - Sacituzumab govitecan - Atezolizumab

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2020

open study

The primary purpose of this registry is to obtain real-world clinical experience of Paroxysmal (PAF) and Persistent (PsAF) Atrial Fibrillation ablation radiofrequency (RF) technologies. Data from the registry will be used to assess clinical outcomes, including procedural efficiency, safety, and long-term, effectiveness of catheter ablation with novel RF technologies in PAF and PsAF patients.

Type: Observational [Patient Registry]

Start Date: Jan 2018

open study

The purpose of this research study is to try to see whether an experimental drug, PUL 042 Inhalation Solution (PUL 042), is effective in reducing the severity of lung infections in patients with hematologic malignancies and recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with documented viral infections due to PIV, hMPV, or RSV. PUL-042 or a placebo will be administered 3 times over a 6-day period. The total duration of the study will be approximately 30 days.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2025

open study

Migraine, a chronic intermittent headache disorder, ranks in the top five causes of years lived with disability. One promising non-pharmacologic and integrative treatment for migraine may be chiropractic care due to the co-occurrence of migraine and musculoskeletal complaints. The goal of this application is to perform a pilot study of chiropractic care for episodic migraine to help inform the design of a future, full-scale pragmatic effectiveness trial.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

A prospective, multinational, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a novel atrioventricular interval modulation (AVIM) algorithm downloaded into a dual-chamber Medtronic Astra/Azure pacemaker.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2023

open study

The goal of this study is to learn more about the genes that control puberty and reproduction in humans.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Jan 2021

open study

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is the most common healthcare-associated pathogen, causing >500,000 infections and >29,000 deaths per year in the US. Traditional approaches to reduce hospital-onset CDI focus on identifying, isolating, and treating symptomatic patients to prevent transmission to other patients. Recent genomic epidemiology studies, however, suggest that most hospital-onset CDI cases are attributable to asymptomatic carriers who either progress from colonization to active infection themselves or transmit C. difficile to other patients while asymptomatic. This trial will evaluate an intervention to pre-emptively identify asymptomatic C. difficile carriers and then implement a patient-tailored prevention package to protect the carrier from progression to active infection and to prevent transmission from the carrier to other patients.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2022

open study

This research study is designed to allow health care professionals and researchers to answer many questions about whether a new type of physical therapy called blood flow restriction training (called BFRT) will improve recovery for those with patellar instability.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2020

open study

The aim of this research study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a combination of immunotherapy, using a drug called toripalimab, with chemotherapy drugs, Carboplatin and Docetaxel, as a possible treatment before surgery for sinonasal cancers. The names of the study drugs used in this research study are: - Toripalimab (a type of monoclonal antibody) - Carboplatin (a type of antineoplastic agent) - Docetaxel (a type of antineoplastic agent) - Cisplatin (a type of antineoplastic agent)

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2025

open study

Immunotherapies have improved cancer outcomes, but have a unique profile of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Biorepositories have been established to collect data and samples to help improve our understanding of irAEs, however identifying patients who are eligible for these biorepositories in a timely fashion can be challenging. The goal of this study is to determine if an informatics system for automated irAE detection can improve registration to a prospective irAE biorepository (NCT04242095). The informatics system automatically "reads" participants' electronic health records (EHRs) and determines whether that patient may be experiencing an irAE. The main questions it aims to answer are: - Is it feasible to implement an informatics system for daily analysis of EHR data to detect irAEs? - Does the automated irAE detection system improve registration rates to an irAE biorepository at our institution following an eligible irAE? Researchers will compare standard irAE monitoring to informatics-assisted irAE monitoring to see if using the informatics system increases the registration rate and improves data entry efficiency and quality. Participants will: - Be randomly assigned to standard monitoring or informatics-assisted monitoring for irAE detection. - Have their EHR reviewed to collect demographic, medical, and cancer treatment history. - Be monitored for irAEs through daily automated analysis of their EHR data for up to 12 months or until registration in the biorepository.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2025

open study