Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications最新文献

{"title":"Adapting the design of the ongoing RAMPART trial in response to external evidence: An example for trials which take many years to run and report","authors":"Angela Meade ,&nbsp;Elena Frangou ,&nbsp;Babak Choodari-Oskooei ,&nbsp;James Larkin ,&nbsp;Tom Powles ,&nbsp;Grant D. Stewart ,&nbsp;Laurence Albiges ,&nbsp;Axel Bex ,&nbsp;Toni K. Choueiri ,&nbsp;Ian D. Davis ,&nbsp;Tim Eisen ,&nbsp;Alison Fielding ,&nbsp;Craig Gedye ,&nbsp;David J. Harrison ,&nbsp;Rick Kaplan ,&nbsp;Salena Mulhere ,&nbsp;Paul Nathan ,&nbsp;Grisma Patel ,&nbsp;Jay Patel ,&nbsp;Hannah Plant ,&nbsp;Mahesh K.B. Parmar","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101381","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101381","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Clinical trials to establish the efficacy of new agents in the adjuvant cancer setting typically take many years to complete. During that time, external factors can impact recruitment and reporting plans. An example is a new standard of care becoming available during the recruitment period.</div><div>In this paper we describe how we modified the design of the RAMPART trial (<span><span>NCT03288532</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>) which was set up to investigate immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in the adjuvant renal cancer setting. The trial had been initiated when no globally accepted adjuvant strategy after nephrectomy existed. A subsequent change in the standard of care for many patients with early renal cancer meant it was no longer feasible to continue to recruit. We needed to find a way to maximise the contribution that RAMPART participants could make to the evidence base for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy without introducing bias or detriment to the integrity of the trial results. We describe how we agreed and incorporated all design and timeline changes while remaining blinded to accumulating data within the trial, thus protecting the reliability of the future results. We share details of our design modifications to guide others who may have similar experiences, particularly as more agents and combinations of agents are developed and investigated in similar adjuvant settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101381"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142561235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimization the design of fixed and group sequential three-arm non-inferiority trials with dichotomous endpoints of risk difference and odds ratio","authors":"Wenwen Wang ,&nbsp;Yaru Huang ,&nbsp;Jielai Xia,&nbsp;Ling Wang,&nbsp;Chen Li","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101383","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101383","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although the risk difference (RD) is the most common and well explored functional form for testing efficacy with dichotomous endpoint, odds ratio (OR) is also suggested and well applied measure for non-inferiority (NI) trials. Since the construction and interpretation of these function forms are quite different, this study aims to provide detailed discussions and comprehensive comparisons on the design and testing approach for RD and OR scales for the fixed and group sequential three-arm NI trials under various of situations. The sample size determinations and testing approaches for assessing NI of a new treatment in three-arm clinical trials for RD and OR scales were reviewed comprehensively. Simulation studies are conducted for hundreds of scenarios with parameter configurations of the response rates, randomized allocations, NI margins and interim analysis. The operating characteristic (OC) of RD and OR scales based on the MLE and RMLE methods were thoroughly investigated. A trial example was designed and analyzed to demonstrate the methodologies. It is found that sample size determination on OR scale gives smaller sample size and robust procedure compared to RD scale in the majority of situations. When evaluating the behaviors of the attained power, the RMLE methods based on OR scale outperforms the MLE method and tend to have more power to reject the null hypothesis especially under the small sample size situations. Compared to the fixed design, the group sequential design has better OC, which provides a comparable power while needing smaller total average sample sizes for all cases. In addition, we suggest a lower significance level with a higher power for the sample size determination in the superiority test stage in the group sequential design, which can significantly reduce the total sample sizes while the number of subjects in the placebo group does not increase much. It can offer some recommendations for the investigators to choose the optimal endpoints and parameter configurations to design a three-arm NI trial under certain situations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101383"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142526903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A type 1 hybrid multi-site randomized controlled trial protocol for evaluating virtual interview training among autistic transition-age youth","authors":"Matthew J. Smith ,&nbsp;James L. Merle ,&nbsp;Mary Baker-Ericzén ,&nbsp;Kari Sherwood ,&nbsp;Lindsay A. Bornheimer ,&nbsp;Brittany Ross ,&nbsp;Meghan Harrington ,&nbsp;Apara Sharma ,&nbsp;Cheryl Brown ,&nbsp;Timotheus (TJ) Gordon . ,&nbsp;David Telfer ,&nbsp;Jocelyn Reese ,&nbsp;Jennifer Hirst ,&nbsp;Eugene A. Oulvey ,&nbsp;Valerie Dignadice ,&nbsp;Ed-Dee Williams ,&nbsp;Sandra Magaña ,&nbsp;Kara Hume ,&nbsp;Connie Sung ,&nbsp;Jane K. Burke-Miller ,&nbsp;Justin D. Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101384","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101384","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A number of policies mandate that autistic transition-age youth receive employment services to prepare for the workforce before high school graduation. A key limitation to these services is the job interview component, which relies on non-standardized, resource-intensive, staff-led role-plays to help autistic transition-age youth improve their interview skills. The autism community has called for better job interview preparation. To address this gap in services, our team, collaborated with the autism community to adapt the intervention, Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (<em>VR-JIT</em>; effective among adults with serious mental illness), into Virtual Interview Training for Transition Age Youth (<em>VIT-TAY</em>). This adapted intervention was tailored to meet the needs of autistic transition age youth while maintaining the core components of <em>VR-JIT</em> (i.e., an online job interview simulator with four levels of automated feedback and e-learning content). A pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated <em>VIT-TAY</em>'s feasibility and initial effectiveness at improving job interview skills, reducing anxiety, and increasing employment rates within six months when added to transition services or pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Thus, the overarching goal of this Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation study protocol is to conduct a fully-powered RCT of VIT-TAY across 16 schools in various geographical locations. Our specific aims are to 1) Evaluate whether Pre-ETS (or transition services) with <em>VIT-TAY</em>, as compared to Pre-ETS (or transition services) with an active control intervention (i.e., job interview didactics/e-learning with a series of 3–5 min videos of employed autistic adults talking about their career pathways) enhances employment outcomes; 2) Evaluate mechanisms of employment by nine months post-randomization; and 3) Conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of the initial implementation of <em>VIT-TAY</em> across settings (e.g., acceptability, feasibility, and barriers and facilitators of implementation).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101384"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142526904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating chronic disease approaches to ameliorate tobacco-related health disparities: Study protocol of a hybrid type 1 implementation-effectiveness trial","authors":"Steven S. Fu ,&nbsp;Patrick Hammett ,&nbsp;David Nelson ,&nbsp;Andrew Busch ,&nbsp;Warren McKinney ,&nbsp;Pravesh Sharma ,&nbsp;Christi A. Patten ,&nbsp;Nathalia Gutierrez Sacasa ,&nbsp;Lynn Andreae ,&nbsp;Sandra Japuntich","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101380","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101380","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities experience higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and related chronic conditions compared to White communities due to disparities in tobacco exposure. Smoking can be effectively treated but evidence-based treatments are less likely to be offered to or used by BIPOC patients. We present the study protocol of the Smoking Cessation Outreach for Racial Equity (SCORE) trial that tests the effect of adding longitudinal care coordination to current standard of care for smoking cessation to promote health equity among BIPOC patients.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Longitudinal Proactive Outreach (LPO; 4 culturally tailored outreach call cycles over one year by motivational interviewing trained counselors to connect patients to cessation counseling and medication) will be added to the current standard of care, Ask-Advise-Connect (AAC; primary care providers asking all patients if they smoke, and if smoking, advising to quit and connecting to treatment). We will conduct a hybrid type 1 implementation-effectiveness trial to examine the direct effect of AAC + LPO (a multilevel health system intervention) vs. AAC on population-level combustible tobacco abstinence at 18 months and treatment utilization among 2000 BIPOC adults who smoke across two healthcare systems in Minnesota. Participants will be surveyed at 6, 12, and, 18 months post-enrollment to assess outcomes. The primary outcome is biochemically confirmed combustible cigarette abstinence at 18 months.</div></div><div><h3>Discussion</h3><div>LPO has potential to promote health equity by addressing barriers caused by structural racism, including access to care, care fragmentation, and provider racism, by systematically reaching out to all BIPOC patients who smoke.</div></div><div><h3>Clinicaltrialsgov</h3><div>NCT05671380.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101380"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142526879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Run-in periods and treatment outcomes in asthma trials: A narrative review","authors":"Emilio Pizzichini ,&nbsp;Guy Brusselle ,&nbsp;Dawn Edwards ,&nbsp;Peter G. Gibson ,&nbsp;Huib A. Kerstjens ,&nbsp;Alison Moore ,&nbsp;David Slade ,&nbsp;Robert A. Wise ,&nbsp;Shiyuan Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101382","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101382","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The run-in period is an important element of randomized controlled trials, and is often used in respiratory disease trials. The design of the run-in period can greatly impact results and data interpretation, and as such should be designed carefully.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this review, we describe the design of run-in periods across six phase 3A trials of triple therapy in asthma, and discuss how differences in run-in period design (specifically the duration, treatment, and reporting of run-in results) may have the potential to alter the interpretation of study outcomes.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We found that the duration of run-in periods ranged between 2 and 7 weeks, with some studies including a combination of screening, run-in and stabilization periods, and others including a run-in period only. Run-in treatment also varied, with some studies running in patients on their previous inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β₂-agonist (ICS/LABA) therapy, and others harmonizing treatment by switching to the same ICS/LABA combination used in the on-treatment phase, or a different ICS/LABA combination entirely. Most of the studies included did not report any changes to study outcomes seen prior to randomization.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>We discuss the potential implications associated with the various trial designs, and propose that run-in periods should be consciously designed to meet the goals of the specific study. We also propose that standardized reporting of run-in changes would further allow for differentiation between improvements due to improved adherence and true treatment benefits, and aid with comparing data from different clinical trials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101382"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142702693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Baseline-dependent improvement in CF studies, plausibility of bias","authors":"Ellen Graham ,&nbsp;Sonya L. Heltshe ,&nbsp;Amalia S. Magaret","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101378","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101378","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background:</h3><div>It has been commonly reported that therapeutic treatments in cystic fibrosis (CF) have ceiling effects, such that their efficacy is diminished for persons with high pre-treatment health (Montgomery et al., 2012 and Newsome et al., 2019). Floor effects have also been reported where decline is of lower magnitude in those with below-average pre-treatment health (Harun et al., 2016; Konstan et al., 2012 and Szczesniak et al., 2017). When measurement error is present, the statistical literature has warned of exaggerated or spurious associations between pre-treatment measures and subsequent change (Chambless and Davis, 2003 and Yanez et al., 1998). Measurement error, equivalently described as day-to-day variation, has been described to occur in CF outcome measurements such as forced expiratory volume in 1 s taken by spirometry (FEV<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>pp) (Magaret et al., 2024; Stanojevic et al., 2020 and Thornton et al., 2023).</div></div><div><h3>Methods:</h3><div>We conducted a simulation study to assess the potential for spurious floor or ceiling effects in studies of CF therapeutics. We considered uncontrolled or single-arm studies, and evaluated estimated association between pre-treatment FEV<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>pp and treatment-induced change: post-versus pre-treatment.</div></div><div><h3>Results:</h3><div>When day-to-day variation was present in FEV<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub></math></span>pp, at levels equivalent to those reported in large studies measuring spirometry both at home and in clinic, naive analytic approaches found spurious associations of change with baseline (Paynter et al., 2022 and Saiman et al., 2003). Type I error ranged from 31.9% to 98.3% for day-to-day variation as high as 3% to 15% relative to biological variation. Incorporating known day-to-day variation, the regression calibration approach corrected bias and controlled type I error (Chambless and Davis, 2003).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion:</h3><div>Exaggerated ceiling effects are possible. Further studies could provide meaningful confirmation of ceiling effects in CF, perhaps reducing day-to-day variation by incorporating multiple pre- and post-treatment measurements.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101378"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142438010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Screening log: Challenges in community patient recruitment for gynecologic oncology clinical trials","authors":"Rubina Ratnaparkhi ,&nbsp;Gary C. Doolittle ,&nbsp;Hope Krebill ,&nbsp;Michelle Springer ,&nbsp;Elizabeth Calhoun ,&nbsp;Andrea Jewell ,&nbsp;Dinesh Pal Mudaranthakam","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101379","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101379","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Clinical trial participation can improve overall survival and mitigate healthcare disparities for gynecologic cancer patients in low-volume community centers. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a centrally regulated but administratively decentralized electronic screening log system to identify eligible patients across a large catchment area for a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center's open clinical trials.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Electronic screening log data collected between 2014 and 2021 from ten community partner sites in a single NCI-designated cancer center's catchment area were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical factors assessed included cancer site, primary versus recurrent disease status, and histology. Identification efficiency (the ratio of patients screened identified with an available trial) was calculated. Identification inefficiencies (failures to identify patients with a potentially relevant trial) were assessed, and etiologies were characterized.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Across ten community partner sites, 492 gynecologic cancer patients were screened for seven open clinical trials during the study period. This included 170 (34.5 %) ovarian cancer patients, 156 (31.7 %) endometrial cancer patients, and 119 (24.2 %) cervical cancer patients. Over 40 % had advanced stage disease, and 10.6 % had recurrent disease. Only three patients were identified as having a relevant open trial; none ultimately enrolled due to not meeting trial eligibility criteria. An additional 2–52 patients were retrospectively found to have a relevant trial available despite not being identified as such within the electronic screening log system. Up to 14.4 % of patients had one or more missing minimum data elements that hindered full evaluation of clinical trial availability. Re-screening patients when new trials open may identify 12-15 additional patients per recurrent disease trial.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>An electronic screening log system can increase awareness of gynecologic oncology clinical trials at a NCI-designated cancer center's community partner sites. However, it is inadequate as a single intervention to increase clinical trial enrollment. Providing adequate support staff, documenting clinical factors consistently, re-screening patients at relevant intervals, and coordinating with central study personnel may increase its utility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101379"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142424973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A character-strengths based coaching intervention to improve wellbeing of rural community health workers in Madhya Pradesh, India: Protocol for a single-blind randomized controlled trial","authors":"Ameya P. Bondre ,&nbsp;Azaz Khan ,&nbsp;Abhishek Singh ,&nbsp;Spriha Singh ,&nbsp;Ritu Shrivastava ,&nbsp;Narendra Verma ,&nbsp;Aashish Ranjan ,&nbsp;Jyotsna Agrawal ,&nbsp;Seema Mehrotra ,&nbsp;Rahul Shidhaye ,&nbsp;Anant Bhan ,&nbsp;John A. Naslund ,&nbsp;Steve D. Hollon ,&nbsp;Deepak Tugnawat","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101377","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101377","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>There is scarce knowledge on the use of structured positive psychology interventions for reducing work-stress and improving wellbeing of rural community health workers in India, particularly the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) who are village-level (resident women, incentivised) lay health workers. This trial will test the effectiveness of a ‘character-strengths’ based coaching intervention compared to routine supervision on wellbeing (‘authentic happiness’) of ASHAs.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This protocol is for a single-blind, parallel group randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of a five-day residential workshop focusing on the use of character-strengths and subsequent 8- to 10-week remote telephonic coaching (weekly) to individually support ASHAs to improve their wellbeing, against routine health system support. The arms are intervention added to routine ASHA supervision (weekly, by the ASHA supervisor), and routine supervision alone (control arm). The target sample comprises 330 rural ASHAs in Madhya Pradesh, India. The primary outcome of mean Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) scores will be compared between arms at 3-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes will include an assessment of ASHA's self-reported affect, self-efficacy, flourishing, burnout, motivation, physical health symptoms, quality of life, and routine work performance indicators, and the consequent patient-level outcomes [e.g., service satisfaction and depression remission rates after receiving brief psychological treatment by trained ASHAs]. We will also evaluate the costs of developing and delivering the intervention.</div></div><div><h3>Discussion</h3><div>This trial will determine whether a character-strengths based coaching intervention is an effective and scalable approach for reducing work-stress and improving wellbeing of rural ASHAs in low-resource settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101377"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142424974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recruitment issues in a multicenter randomized controlled trial about the effect of the Cultural Formulation Interview on therapeutic working alliance","authors":"Alma M. Brand ,&nbsp;Simon P.N. Groen ,&nbsp;Samrad Ghane ,&nbsp;Nathalie Destoop ,&nbsp;Hannah E. Jongsma ,&nbsp;Bernard G.C. Sabbe ,&nbsp;Özlem Becan ,&nbsp;Dhiya Alyan ,&nbsp;Mario H. Braakman","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101373","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101373","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This short communication concerns recruitment issues in a multicenter randomized controlled trial. An overview of anticipated and unexpected recruitment issues at various organizational levels is discussed as encountered in this trial. These experiences are shared to assist researchers in avoiding similar experiences, prevent wasting valuable research resources, and justify the time and energy committed by enrolled participants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101373"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142424975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Concomitant heparin use promotes skin graft donor site healing by basic fibroblast growth factor: A pilot prospective randomized controlled study","authors":"Keishi Kohyama ,&nbsp;Hisakazu Kato ,&nbsp;Hideshi Okada ,&nbsp;Takuma Ishihara ,&nbsp;Yuji Yasue ,&nbsp;Ryo Kamidani ,&nbsp;Kodai Suzuki ,&nbsp;Takahito Miyake ,&nbsp;Hiroshi Okuda ,&nbsp;Hirofumi Shibata ,&nbsp;Hiroyuki Tomita ,&nbsp;Takenori Ogawa","doi":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101375","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101375","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Owing to its mitogenic and angiogenic characteristics, the use of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) to promote wound healing has been investigated. However, its clinical efficacy has fallen short of expectations due to its instability. Heparin has been reported to stabilize bFGF. Therefore, we hypothesized that the combination of these agents would more effectively promote wound healing than bFGF alone; a single-center, two-arm parallel, single-blind, and a prospective randomized controlled pilot study was therefore performed involving 12 patients who underwent split-thickness skin graft harvesting. To ensure a feasible clinical treatment model, commercially available agents were used. The patients were randomly assigned to either the control group treated with bFGF (n = 6) or the intervention group treated with bFGF and heparin (n = 6) in a 1:1 ratio. The wound area and the wound area variation was assessed each week postoperatively, as was the number of days required for epithelialization. As a supplementary analysis, the least-squares means were calculated using a linear mixed-effects model. The results of this study indicate that the combination of bFGF and heparin may more effectively promote wound healing than bFGF alone, consistent with our hypothesis. A multicenter trial based on these data is ongoing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37937,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications","volume":"42 ","pages":"Article 101375"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142323200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}