Stanford APBI Trial

Clinical Trial

Overview

Intraoperative Radiotherapy (IORT) is one of three approaches used for accelerated, partial breast irradiation at Stanford.

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.

Parent Intervention for Psychiatrically-Hospitalized Youth

The purpose of the present study is to conduct a pilot randomized clinical trial (RCT) of a parent coaching intervention for parents of youth hospitalized for suicidal ideation, suicide attempt(s), or non-suicidal self-injury. Parents will receive either the parent coaching intervention (which includes safety planning and behavioral parenting skills training with a clinician and assistance with linkage to follow-up care by a case manager) or treatment as usual (TAU) for the inpatient unit. The long-term goal of the research is to determine if augmenting standard inpatient treatment with additional parenting intervention improves youth treatment response on suicide-related outcomes (i.e., suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicide attempts). The goal of this pilot RCT is to collect preliminary data needed for a larger RCT, including feasibility, acceptability, safety, tolerability, engagement of the presumed mechanism of change (changes in parent emotions and behaviors), and signal detection of any changes in youth suicide-related outcomes.

Stanford is currently accepting patients for this trial.

Stanford Investigator(s):

Intervention(s):

  • behavioral: DBT-Based Parenting Intervention
  • behavioral: Treatment as usual

Eligibility


Inclusion criteria are:

   - youth is currently hospitalized on the Stanford unit at Mills Peninsula Medical
   Center, on the Inpatient Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, for suicidal ideation and/or a
   suicide attempt.

   - youth is between the ages of 12-18 (18 year-old youth must still be in high school and
   living at home with parents for the duration of the study)

   - at least one parent/guardian is willing to participate in the study intervention

   - youth and parent speak English well enough to complete study treatment and assessments
   in English

Exclusion criteria are:

• the youth or parent has a psychiatric or medical condition that would interfere with
their ability to participate in study assessments and/or treatment (such as acute
psychosis, neurological impairment, malnutrition due to anorexia)

Ages Eligible for Study

12 Years - 85 Years

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Now accepting new patients

Contact Information

Stanford University
School of Medicine
300 Pasteur Drive
Stanford, CA 94305
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.