Do cancer patients fully understand clinical trial participation? A pilot study to assess informed consent and patient expectations

Background. Accepted practices of informed consent often result in suboptimal patient understanding of research studies.Methods. This pilot study aimed to assess trial-specific tailored materials, compared to a widely used generic booklet about clinical trials, randomly assigned to 118 candidates for cancer clinical trials. Study outcomes were: satisfaction with decision-making; satisfaction with materials; and subjective understanding of the clinical trial.Results. There were no major differences between groups. Participants rated tailored materials higher as a useful reference.Conclusions. Trial-specific materials hold utility for reference during clinical trials. Studies of informed consent are feasible, although important factors limit research.     

Immediate effects of spinal manipulation on thermal pain sensitivity: an experimental study

Background  

The underlying causes of spinal manipulation hypoalgesia are largely unknown. The beneficial clinical effects were originally theorized to be due to biomechanical changes, but recent research has suggested spinal manipulation may have a direct neurophysiological effect on pain perception through dorsal horn inhibition. This study added to this literature by investigating whether spinal manipulation hypoalgesia was: a) local to anatomical areas innervated by the lumbar spine; b) correlated with psychological variables; c) greater than hypoalgesia from physical activity; and d) different for A-delta and C-fiber mediated pain perception.     

Long-term retention of implicit learning in Huntington''s disease

Implicit learning was examined in 15 Huntington's disease (HD) patients and 15 control subjects (NC) using a semantic decision-making task. HD patients demonstrated only slightly reduced priming; like NC subjects, their decision times decreased over repeated presentations, though to a somewhat lesser degree. On explicit recognition testing, the HD group made significantly more false positive errors than did the control group, suggesting an impairment of effortful retrieval. The groups displayed equivalent retention of implicitly learned material after 6 months. The striatal neuronal loss of early Huntington's disease does not markedly affect priming or retention of primed stimuli, but may alter explicit memory judgements.     

Phase II trial of Didemnin B in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma

Summary Twenty-three patients with advanced renal cell cancer were treated with Didemnin B. One partial response was achieved (5%) in 21 evaluable patients. An allergic reaction was noted in four patients including one patient with anaphylaxis. Didemnin B is not recommended in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma.     

Effects of baclofen and phaclofen on receptive field properties of rat whisker barrel neurons

Extracellular single-unit recordings were made in somatosensory cortical barrels of fentanyl-sedated rats. Whiskers were deflected singly or in paired combinations. lontophoretically-applied (−)-baclofen disproportionately reduced weak responses, and phaclofen disproportionately increased them, resulting in more tightly focused or more broadly focused receptive fields, respectively. Both drugs had only minor effects on surround inhibition. In light of previous findings, we conclude that GABA_A and GABA_B mechanisms both act to enhance spatial contrast, but that the former plays a much greater role in enhancing temporal resolution.     

Detection of IgA class antibody to hepatitis E virus in serum samples from patients with hepatitis E virus infection

A newly developed assay for IgA class antibody to hepatitis E virus (IgA anti-HEV) was used to study 145 serum samples collected during an outbreak of an enterically transmitted hepatitis that occurred in 3 villages in the lower Shebeli region of Southern Somalia between January, 1988 and November, 1989. A total of 52.4% of the afflicted patients were found positive for IgA anti-HEV, and 73.1% of these were also positive for IgM. Both antibodies disappeared during the convalescence period. Similar results were also seen in serum obtained from sporadic cases of acute waterborne hepatitis in Pakistan. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.