Summary: Many veterans with Gulf War Illness developed chronic gastrointestinal symptoms during their deployment to the Persian Gulf. The pathophysiologic mechanisms of these chronic gastrointestinal symptoms are not well understood but cause significant morbidity in veterans. Our proposed studies will provide an innovative and novel treatment trial for chronic gastrointestinal symptoms in veterans with Gu...

Summary: Previous studies suggest that changes in metabolism due to the effects of aging might serve as a potential for therapeutic agents. The investigating lab developed a pulse method combining multiple stable isotopes to study multiple metabolic pathways in the same individual simultaneously. By measuring whole-body metabolism in a large group of older adults, the investigators may be able to unravel a...

Summary: The purpose of this study is to learn how drinking alcohol affects how people experience stress and how that is affected by the body's chemistry. Specifically, the investigators will be studying relationships of drinking and a stress hormone called cortisol. The investigators believe that results will lead us to find more effective ways to help people stop or reduce drinking when participants are ...

Summary: This is a prospective, single center, double blind, randomized, crossover feasibility study of oral ketamine versus placebo for the treatment of anxiety in patients with pancreatic cancer currently receiving or within 12 weeks of receiving cancer targeted therapy. The primary objective is to determine the feasibility of enrolling subjects and treatment adherence. The secondary objectives are to de...

Summary: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects around 5% of the general population and remains a daily problem in clinicians' practices, with inconsistent efficacy of treatments despite patients' high expectations. Intestinal hyperpermeability and visceral hypersensitivity are the two major components of IBS, and both can disrupt gastrointestinal function and ultimately impair patients' quality of life. G...

Summary: Sarcopenia is a frequent complication in patients with cancer and chronic diseases, it is characterized by decreased muscle strength and fatigue due to reduced skeletal muscle mass, which is accompanied by atrophy and decreased quality of muscle tissue. In all cases, it negatively impacts treatment tolerance, clinical outcomes and survival, in consequence, quality of life of these patients decreas...

Summary: The purpose of this study is to understand the metabolism of cancers involving the kidney, including renal cell carcinomas and urothelial cell carcinomas, and how kidney cancers use different types of fuel to support tumor growth. This study uses specially labeled nutrient tracers of compounds normally found circulating in the blood. The nutrients (glucose, fructose, glutamine, acetate, and lactat...

Summary: This open-label randomized clinical trial aims to evaluate the glutamine plus Lactobacillus reuteri supplementation effect in a standard-of-care diet in EGFR mutant patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) under tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) therapy. The main question it aims to answer is ¿What is the effect of glutamine plus L. reuteri added to an astringent diet in preventin...

Summary: This pilot study will first establish the feasibility of an in vivo methodology of assessing the utilization of glutamine into the TCA cycle of normal bone marrow plasma cells from healthy subjects while comparing it to an ex vivo approach

Summary: Colorectal surgery patients face excessive catabolism, increasing inflammation and immune compromise. The administration of nutritional supplements known as immunonutrition before gastrointestinal surgery has been shown to improve clinical outcomes; however, the mechanisms underlying these benefits remain inconclusive. The objective of the study is to evaluate the effect of preoperative nutritiona...

Summary: Patients with known or suspected primary or metastatic breast cancer with one lesion that is 1.5 cm in diameter or greater may be eligible for this study. Patients may participate in this study if they are at least 18 years of age. Up to 40 evaluable subjects will participate in a single imaging cohort. Patients will be stratified for analysis by breast cancer subtype with prioritization to recrui...

Summary: The goal of this study is to compare Compound Glutamine Enteric-Coated Capsules (CGECC) combined with thalidomide with CGECC in preventing radiation-induced oral mucositis. The aim of this study is to answer whether CGECC plus thalidomide could improve the median incidence time of grade 2 oral mucositis. Participants would be randomly divided into the two groups above mentioned.