Aminah Jatoi, M.D.

To learn from scholars and former scholars of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center’s “Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology (K12) Training Program” in their own words what helped them and what did not help them from a career development standpoint.

The purpose of this study is to learn, in patients’ own words, what cancer patients who are using a cold cap to prevent hair loss are experiencing.

The purpose of this study is to develop a data-driven approach that enables healthcare providers to “prescribe” exercise in the appropriate dose in a manner analogous to prescribing a drug.

This is a research study about hiccup educational materials. The purpose of this study is to learn whether this type of research can be done and whether patients report that updated educational materials on hiccups are useful. Patients will randomly receive one of two sets of materials on hiccups education. These educational materials will be provided through email. A few weeks after receiving these materials, patients will be contacted to complete a 5-minute follow-up questionnaire over the phone.

This is an open label, single-arm, phase II study. The study population is adult patients with asymptomatic recurrent ovarian cancer who have an elevation in their CA-125 level.

The objectives of this study are to determine whether cancer patients report that shorter, or less wordy, consent forms are helpful to them as they decide about whether or not to enroll in a cancer clinical trial, and to determine whether shorter consent forms result in a greater percentage of patients’ enrolling in a cancer clinical trial, based on whether or not the patient has signed a mock consent form.

The purpose of this study is to determine what patients experience when they return for scans or other testing during their oncology follow-up visits after their initial cancer diagnosis.

This randomized pilot trial studies how well fat emulsion works in preventing hypersensitivity reactions in patients with cancer receiving carboplatin or oxaliplatin. Giving lipids before chemotherapy may prevent some drug reactions from carboplatin or oxaliplatin.

The purpose of this study is to characterize, using the patients’ own words, the experience of loneliness (or lack of privacy) that may be felt on inpatient units.

This randomized pilot phase II trial studies how well serum bovine immunoglobulin protein isolate works in improving quality of life and post-operative recovery in patients with gynecological cancer after undergoing surgery. Serum bovine immunoglobulin supplementation may improve the quality of life of patients with gynecological cancer.

This partially randomized phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of disulfiram when given together with gemcitabine hydrochloride in treating patients with a solid tumor that cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable) or pancreatic cancer that has spread to other places in the body (metastatic) and to compare whether disulfiram and gemcitabine hydrochloride may reduce tumor induced muscle loss. Weight loss occurs in pancreatic cancer patients and is common in a multitude of other cancers. Patients with metastatic cancer and weight loss sometimes are not able to receive treatment due to physical weakness or debility. Disulfiram is a potential inhibitor of muscle degradation and may reduce tumor induced muscle wasting. Disulfiram may also help gemcitabine hydrochloride work better by making tumor cells more sensitive to the drug. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine hydrochloride, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. It is not yet know whether giving gemcitabine hydrochloride with or without disulfiram is a better treatment for unresectable solid tumors or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

This phase II trial studies how well auranofin and sirolimus work in treating participants with ovarian cancer. Immunosuppressive therapy, such as auranofin and sirolimus, is used to decrease the body?s immune response and may increase blood cell count.

This early phase I trial studies the side effects of ketoconazole and how well it works in treating participants with ongoing EGFR inhibitor-induced rash. Ketoconazole may reduce the symptoms related to EGFR inhibitor therapy and improve EGFR inhibitor-induced rash.

We would like to see if use of topical ketoconazole will improve rashes in patients with EGFR inhibitor-induced rash.

Ureteral stents can cause severe symptoms yet are necessary to preserve/improve renal function in patients with malignant ureteral obstruction. Stent-induced symptoms are particularly challenging because the medications commonly used to treat them can spawn unacceptable side effects. These stent-induced symptoms appear to be mediated by prostaglandins, particularly prostaglandin E2. Curcumin, a group of spices derived from turmeric, has been tested in 80+ clinical trials and down-regulates prostaglandin E2 and as well other mediators of inflammation.

We hypothesize that urine prostaglandin E2 can serve as a biologic marker to derive an optimal biological dose of oral curcumin + piperine (the latter improves the bioavailability of the former).

We propose a phase I trial with oral curcumin + piperine in older cancer to derive a safe, optimal biological dose to be tested for stent symptoms in a future randomized phase 2 or 3 cancer cooperative group trial.

The purpose of this study is to test the safety, tolerability and possible benefit of a drug called tofacitinib in patients with metastatic pancreas cancer when given combined with a standard chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine.

The purpose of this study is to provide descriptive data on hiccup incidence among a group of patients at risk, to provide descriptive data on the percentage of patients who choose to engage in a short educational session on hiccups, and to provide descriptive data on whether patients reported finding this educational session helpful.

This research is intended to begin to explore the impact of inspiratory muscle resistance exercise and/or 1,25(OH)2D3 for improving respiratory muscle strength in cancer patients (subjects).

The purpose of this study is to gather real-world, patient-reported experiences of ovarian cancer patients who have been prescribed olaparib; this experience will be captured in patients’ own words with qualitative research methodology.

The purpose of this study is to characterize the experiences patients have with hiccups using their own words.