Therapeutic Targeting of Stress Factors in Ovarian Cancer Patients
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This research is looking at the effect of biobehavioral factors such as stress and whether
these factors alter how the body responds to chemotherapy, one of the purposes of this study
is to determine if the addition of a beta-blocker such as Propranolol (Inderal) is tolerable
when given with chemotherapy in the treatment of newly diagnosed ovarian, fallopian tube, or
primary peritoneal cancer. An additional purpose of the study is to understand if behavioral
factors such as depression and anxiety can alter different blood markers that affect tumor
vascularity. The Investigator wishes to determine whether the use of beta-blocker drugs such
as Inderal, might alter these behavioral factors by drawing blood prior to and after the
administration of Inderal as well as giving behavioral questionaires at different time
points. Beta-blockers are commonly used for the treatment of hypertension, protection of the
heart after a heart attack, and irregularities in heartbeats. Altering these factors might
boost the immune system and affect other areas of cancer biology, thereby allowing the
chemotherapy to be more effective. The significance of this research is that it may help
improve our treatments of this disease in the future.