Cancer
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Quality-of-life and health benefits of early treatment of mild anemia: a randomized trial of epoetin alfa in patients receiving chemotherapy for hematologic malignancies.
Chemotherapy-related anemia is prevalent among patients with hematologic malignancies. A randomized, open-label, multicenter trial of early versus late epoetin alfa in this population was conducted, focusing on quality of life (QOL). ⋯ Treating mild anemia immediately with epoetin alfa during chemotherapy for hematologic malignancy significantly improved QOL, productivity, and hemoglobin compared with delaying treatment until the hemoglobin level decreases to < 9.0 g/dL.
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Multicenter Study
The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life questionnaire cervical cancer module: EORTC QLQ-CX24.
The authors report on the development and validation of a cervical cancer module for the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life (QoL) questionnaire (QLQ), which was designed to assess disease-specific and treatment-specific aspects of QoL in patients with cervical cancer. ⋯ The current psychometric analyses supported the content and construct validity and the reliability of the EORTC QLQ-CX24 module. This newly developed module is a useful instrument for assessing the QoL of patients who are treated for cervical cancer both in clinical trials and in clinical practice.
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The posttreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) bounce phenomenon has been recognized in at least 20% of all patients treated with radiation. The purpose of the current report was to determine if there was a difference in biochemical and clinical control between the bounce and nonbounce (NB) patients using pooled data on 4839 patients with T1-2 prostate cancer treated with external beam radiation therapy (RT) alone at 9 institutions between 1986 and 1995. ⋯ Patients treated with external beam radiation therapy alone who experience a posttreatment PSA bounce have increased risk of BF. However, this did not translate into a difference in clinical failure with the available follow-up in the current study.