Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
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Little is known about how physicians discuss prognosis with terminally ill cancer patients. Thus, we sought to obtain cancer physicians' self-reports of their prognosis communication practices. ⋯ Medical oncologists report routinely informing their terminally ill patients that they will die. However, they are divided in describing themselves as either always discussing a terminal prognosis or doing so if it is consistent with their patients' preferences for prognostic information. Most medical oncologists say they do not routinely communicate an estimated survival time to their patients.
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Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Efficacy of oxaliplatin plus capecitabine or infusional fluorouracil/leucovorin in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: a pooled analysis of randomized trials.
Six randomized phase II and III trials have investigated the role of oxaliplatin (OX) in combination with capecitabine (CAP) or infusional fluorouracil (FU) in metastatic colorectal cancer. This meta-analysis compared the efficacy of CAP/OX compared with infusional FU/OX. ⋯ The combination of CAP and OX resulted in lower RR, but this did not affect PFS and OS, which were similar in both treatment arms. The toxicity analysis showed the characteristic toxicity of each of the different FU schedules, with thrombocytopenia and HFS consistently more prominent in the CAP regimens.
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To derive and validate a simple predictive model for survival of patients with metastatic cancer attending a palliative radiotherapy clinic. ⋯ The three-variable NRF model is preferred because of its relative simplicity.
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Multicenter Study
Wild-type BRAF is required for response to panitumumab or cetuximab in metastatic colorectal cancer.
PURPOSE Cetuximab or panitumumab are effective in 10% to 20% unselected metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. KRAS mutations account for approximately 30% to 40% patients who are not responsive. The serine-threonine kinase BRAF is the principal effector of KRAS. ⋯ Treatment with the BRAF inhibitor sorafenib restored sensitivity to panitumumab or cetuximab of CRC cells carrying the V600E allele. CONCLUSION BRAF wild-type is required for response to panitumumab or cetuximab and could be used to select patients who are eligible for the treatment. Double-hit therapies aimed at simultaneous inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor and BRAF warrant exploration in CRC patients carrying the V600E oncogenic mutation.