Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology
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This article introduces palliative care to cancer patients in Middle Eastern countries. It considers the importance of the multidisciplinary team in providing an adequate service to the patient and his/her family. It provides views of professionals from the various countries with regard to the role of the nurse in such teams; whereby the three elements of palliative care nursing entail: 1. ⋯ Working with other health and social care professionals to network and co-ordinate services; and 3. working at an organizational level to plan, develop and manage service provision in local, regional and national settings. This article also details the challenges that nurses face in the Middle East and outlines the preferable ways to overcome such challenges. The latter include more focused educational activities at the undergraduate and graduate levels and continuous clinical training throughout their work as palliative care nurse specialists.
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Elderly cancer patients (those over 60 or 65) have a disproportionate cancer incidence and mortality, and a multitude of symptoms from their cancer, other illnesses, and treatments. We reviewed the literature to find some practical advice for health care professionals to do symptom assessments in routine practice. ⋯ Symptom assessments and geriatric assessments are useful tools in everyday practice.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A randomized, double-blind, phase II study of erlotinib with or without sunitinib for the second-line treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Combined inhibition of vascular, platelet-derived, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways may overcome refractoriness to single agents in platinum-pretreated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ⋯ The addition of sunitinib to erlotinib did not significantly improve PFS in patients with advanced, platinum-pretreated NSCLC.
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Multicenter Study
A multinational phase II trial of bevacizumab with low-dose interferon-α2a as first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma: BEVLiN.
Avastin and Roferon in Renal Cell Carcinoma (AVOREN) demonstrated efficacy for bevacizumab plus interferon-α2a (IFN; 9 MIU tiw) in first-line metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). We evaluated bevacizumab with low-dose IFN in mRCC to determine whether clinical benefit could be maintained with reduced toxicity. ⋯ Compared with a historical control AVOREN subgroup, low-dose IFN with bevacizumab resulted in a reduction in incidence rates of IFN-related AEs, without compromising efficacy [NCT00796757].
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To determine the frequency and predictive impact of ROS1 rearrangements on treatment outcomes in never-smoking patients with lung adenocarcinoma. ⋯ The frequency of ROS1 rearrangements in clinically selected patients is higher than that reported for unselected patients, suggesting that ROS1 rearrangement is a druggable target in East-Asian never smokers with lung adenocarcinoma. Given the different treatment outcomes to conventional therapies and availability of ROS1 inhibitors, identification of ROS1 rearrangement can lead to successful treatment in ROS1-rearranged lung adenocarcinomas.