Stanford APBI Trial
Clinical Trial
Overview
Accelerated, partial breast irradiation (APBI) is a potentially important new way to incorporate radiotherapy in the treatment of women with breast cancer.
Currently, women with breast cancer who undergo a lumpectomy typically have 6 1/2 weeks of radiation to the entire affected breast after surgery. Accelerated, partial breast irradiation (APBI) changes this approach in two ways. It shortens the treatment time from 6 1/2 weeks to between 1 to 5 days, and reduces the treatment area from the entire breast to the area of the breast immediately around the lumpectomy site. This is the part of the breast where most cancers are likely to recur.
In many ways APBI is to current whole breast radiotherapy what a lumpectomy is to a mastectomy. The goal is to use a less invasive more focused treatment without compromising survival.
APBI has been used in limited trials in several hundred patients over the last 10 years. These trials show that in properly selected breast cancer patients APBI worked just as well as whole breast radiotherapy. In the initial studies, investigators relied on the placement of many catheters in the breast tissue (interstial brachytherapy). Newer techniques will hopefully provide the same good results but will deliver the radiation in faster and/or more convenient ways. This could increase interest in APBI and allow additional clinical trials that test the safety and effectiveness of the newer approaches. These newer approaches could increase quality of life for many women with breast cancer.
Investigators at Stanford University Medical Center are currently offering an IRB approved clinical trial that uses three new approaches for APBI. These three approaches are:
Intraoperative Radiotherapy (IORT) - 1 day
Intracavitary Brachytherapy (MammoSite) - 5 days
3-D Conformal/External Beam Radiotherapy - 5 days
The Stanford trial is led by Dr. Frederick Dirbas, Assistant Professor of Surgery, and by Dr. Donald Goffinet, Professor of Radiation Oncology. For further information about the trial please contact Janelle Maxwell or Triona Dolphin at (650) 498-7740.
VISN Collaborative for Improving Hypertension Management With ATHENA-HTN
This project is a VA HSR&D-funded Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) project to translate into practice evidence about clinical management of primary hypertension. The project aims to contribute to quality improvement of care for patients with primary hypertension. The project implemented a clinical decision support (CDS) system for primary care clinicians and evaluated the implementation by studying the following: impact on the clinicians' prescribing and their patients' blood pressures; the clinician satisfaction with the CDS; and organizational factors in the implementation.
Stanford is currently not accepting patients for this trial.
Stanford Investigator(s):
Intervention(s):
- other: ATHENA-CDS-HTN plus Guideline Link
- other: Guideline Link Only
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Must be primary care clinicians (for example, physician or nurse practitioner) at one
of the participating VA medical centers. This study is NOT recruiting patients.
- The primary care clinician must have a panel of patients for whom he or she provides
direct care.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Anyone who does not meet inclusion criteria.
Ages Eligible for Study
N/A - N/A
Genders Eligible for Study
All
Not currently accepting new patients for this trial
Contact Information
Stanford University
School of Medicine
300 Pasteur Drive
Stanford,
CA
94305
Not Recruiting
What's New
Stanford’s APBI trial has now been expanded to include women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Please call 650-498-7740 for more information.