Induction of Cortical Plasticity

Study Purpose

The study aims to induce plastic reorganization by a therapeutic protocol to increase the rate of gross total resection (GTR) and to optimize the oncological result.

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms	Yes
Study Type An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes. An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes. Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.	Interventional
Eligible Ages	18 Years and Over
Gender	All

More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

- Intracerebral tumor.

- Cortical function is located within planned resection area as confirmed by preoperative navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation and/or intraoperative direct electrical stimulation mapping.

- Informed consent for participation.

- Age >18 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Prognosis less than 6 months.

- Contraindications for MRI or nTMS (cardiac pacemaker, deep brain stimulator, cochlea implant.

- Karnofsky-performance-index <60%

Trial Details

Trial ID: This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.	NCT04553341
Phase Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans. Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data. Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs. Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.	N/A
Lead Sponsor The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.	Technical University of Munich
Principal Investigator The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.	Sandro M Krieg, MD, MBA
Principal Investigator Affiliation	Technical University of Munich
Agency Class Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.	Other
Overall Status	Recruiting
Countries	Germany
Conditions The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.	Adult Brain Tumor

Additional Details

Regarding the therapy of cerebral parenchyma tumors, the extent of resection (EOR) has a significant impact on the prognosis. However, total resection is not possible in up to 65% of cases because these tumors frequently infiltrate eloquent areas such as language or motor centers. Consequently, an optimal oncologic result from the surgical perspective cannot be achieved in a considerable large amount of patients. One possible solution is based on the tumor-induced shift of functional areas, which can move away from their original localization. Earlier studies already described the resection of glioma residuals during a second surgery after plastic reorganization has taken place. The authors complained that this reorganization is not detectable without surgery. Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) was developed for the noninvasive localization of motor and language areas, which enables us to detect the spatial shift of cortical motor and language functions in tumor patients. Recent publications were already able to demonstrate that the individual and exact localization of the motor cortex leads to an increased EOR and prolongs the progression-free survival (PFS). Therefore, the current project intends to take advantage of this plastic reorganization for EOR optimization in cerebral parenchyma tumors. In this context, nTMS is supposed to also induce this plasticity within the frame of a repetitive stimulation protocol (rTMS). Besides other therapeutic applications, rTMS also showed a positive effect on the improvement of aphasia as well as motor recovery in patients after stroke, even in randomized multicenter studies, by inducing plastic reorganization. Moreover, rather than waiting for tumor-induced plastic reorganization, the investigators also aim to use the potential of rTMS for spatial plastic reorganization of functional areas adjacent to intracerebral parenchymal tumors to move functionally eloquent brain regions away from the planned resection cavity.

Arms & Interventions

Arms

Experimental: Therepeutic

rTMS

Interventions

Device: - Navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

In these patients we will apply the following protocol: after the initial nTMS mapping of the according function, patients will be stimulated on 20 consecutive days by a series of rTMS pulses. The frequencies (1-20 Hz), number of pulses (100-1,000), and stimulation intensities (50-130% resting motor threshold = rMT = individual lowest stimulation intensity that evokes positive muscle responses) will be applied in dependency of the individual patients comfort and the evoked effect. Stimulations will be applied to the eloquent brain region, which is infiltrated by the tumor.

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.

International Sites

Department of Neurosurgery, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Status

Recruiting

Address

Department of Neurosurgery

Munich, Bavaria, 81675

Site Contact

Sandro M Krieg, MD, MBA

[email protected]

+49 89 4140 2151

Clinical Trial Finder