Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR
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J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. · Sep 2001
Twelve-year follow-up of trimodality therapy for stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer.
Non-small cell carcinoma of the lung (NSCLC) remains a formidable problem with a poor 5 year survival for stage III patients. Between 1985-1991, 53 patients with biopsy proven Stage IIIA NSCLC were treated with a trimodality treatment program. Chemotherapy, consisting of two cycles of continuous infusion cisplatinum and bolus etoposide, was started on days 1 and 28 of radiation therapy (54 Gy + 5.4 Gy boost in 6 1/2 weeks) directed to the lung primary and mediastinum. ⋯ With a median follow up of 9 1/2 years, surgically treated patients have a disease specific survival of 42% at 12 years. One patient survived beyond 9 years without surgery. Concurrent chemoradiation plus surgery is well tolerated and offers patients with Stage IIIA NSCLC significant long term survival benefit and warrants further assessment in a randomized trial.
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J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. · Mar 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialEfficacy of ondansentron treatment for acute emesis with different dosing schedules 8 vs 32 mg. A randomized study.
The aim of the present randomized study was to evaluate which dose of Ondansentron (OND)(32 versus 8 mg) is appropriate for the antiemetic treatment of a uniform group of patients (pts) with Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) who were treated with Cisplatin (CDDP) 100 mg/m2 in combination with other less emetogenic drugs. One hundred and ten patients, with histologically confirmed NSCLC entered this randomized study. They were between 50 - 70 years old, with no previous Chemotherapy, with a PS (Karnofsky) >60%. ⋯ Patients who had no antiemetic response needed additional therapy and were excluded from the evaluatio (13 pts of Group B). Retches (P 0.0001, P 0.005), and nausea (P 0.0001, P were also frequent in Group B. We concluded that reduced OND doses (8 mg) are inadequate in the prevention of emesis after high dose CDDP (100 mg/m2) and should be avoided.
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J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. · Mar 2001
Postoperative epilepsy in patients undergoing craniotomy for glioblastoma multiforme.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has associated with it one of the poorest prognoses among brain tumors. Postoperative seizures and the side effects of anticonvulsants, routinely given for prophylactic purposes, add to patient morbidity. The primary goal of this study was to determine who, of those undergoing craniotomy for GBM resection, is at risk for epilepsy. ⋯ All, but one, of the patients with both pre- and postoperative seizures had their first postoperative seizure while still on anticonvulsants. Smaller tumor size and frontal resection were associated with an increased risk of postoperative seizures. Our data suggests that those who do not present with seizures and undergo GBM resection may still be prone to seize but more easily protected from postoperative seizures with anticonvulsant therapy than patients who present with seizures; resection of frontal tumors and smaller tumors seemed to indicate an increased risk for postoperative seizures.
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Osteosarcoma metastasis to the heart caused by tumor thrombosis is very rare. A 7-year-old girl with an osteosarcoma of the right humerus, refused the treatment, at first, then, 1 year later, referred to the hospital with metastasis to the heart. The mass invading the pulmonary arteries was successfully removed with open-heart surgery.
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J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. · Mar 2000
Dacarbazine-based chemotherapy for metastatic melanoma: thirty-year experience overview.
Dacarbazine (DTIC) is the only single-agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating metastatic melanoma. With DTIC as single agent, an approximately 20% objective response rate can be achieved with median response duration of 5 to 6 months and complete response rates of 5%. Current status of DTIC single agent and DTIC-based combination chemotherapy has been extensively reviewed in this article. ⋯ Some authors recommend CBDT as reference therapy, even though recently presented results of a randomized phase III trial of CBDT versus DTIC alone, show no statistical difference in survival between the two groups. While a survival benefit from DTIC-based chemotherapy or DTIC alone has never been shown in metastatic melanoma patients and, therefore, the survival has remained unchanged over the past 30 years, some long term survivors have been reported with the "Dartmouth regimen" and/or with high dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) based regimens whose role is going to be defined in prospective randomized phase III trials. On the other hand, the better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for melanoma chemoresistance and the development of new therapeutical strategies could change the scenario in the next future.