Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
-
To determine whether prophylactic hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) used in children with cancer reduce the rate of febrile neutropenia, hospitalization duration, documented infection rate, parenteral antibiotic duration, amphotericin B use, or infection-related mortality. ⋯ CSFs were associated with a 20% reduction in febrile neutropenia and shorter duration of hospitalization; however, CSFs did not reduce infection-related mortality.
-
Meta Analysis
Impact of T and N stage and treatment on survival and relapse in adjuvant rectal cancer: a pooled analysis.
To determine survival and relapse rates by T and N stage and treatment method in five randomized phase III North American rectal adjuvant studies. ⋯ Different treatment strategies may be indicated for intermediate-risk versus moderately high- or high-risk patients based on differential survival rates and rates of relapse. Use of trimodality treatment for all patients with intermediate-risk lesions may be excessive, since S plus CT resulted in 5-year OS of approximately 85%; however, 5-year disease-free survival rates with S plus CT were 78% (T1-2/N1) and 69%(T3/N0), indicating room for improvement.
-
Efficacy of antifungal prophylaxis has not yet been convincingly proven in numerous trials of various antifungals. New evidence and the anti-Aspergillus efficacy of itraconazole prompted a new look at the data for the prevention of invasive fungal infections. ⋯ Antifungal prophylaxis with itraconazole effectively prevents proven invasive fungal infections and-shown for the first time for antifungal prophylaxis-reduces mortality from these infections and the rate of invasive Aspergillus infections in neutropenic patients with hematologic malignancies. Adequate doses of the oral cyclodextrine solution (at least 400 mg/d) or i.v. formulations (200 mg/d) of itraconazole are necessary for these effects.
-
Meta Analysis
Efficacy and safety of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs for cancer pain: a meta-analysis.
To assess the efficacy and safety of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the treatment of cancer pain by meta-analyses of the published randomized control trials (RCTs). ⋯ These findings question whether the traditional World Health Organization (WHO) second analgesic step (addition of a weak opioid when pain is inadequately treated by a nonopioid analgesic alone) is warranted. A lack of comparable studies precluded testing the hypothesis that NSAIDs are particularly effective for malignant bone pain.