The Medical journal of Australia
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Comparative Study
Survival of South Australian cancer patients: a study of the State's Cancer Registry data.
Survival rates for cancer patients derived from population-based data are a fundamental means of monitoring the effectiveness of treatment for the community at large. We used South Australian Cancer Registry data to study survival by cancer site from date of diagnosis in 1977-79 to August 1980. One-year and two-year cumulative percentage survival rates for all types of invasive cancer were 64% (+/- 0.5%) and 54% (+/- 0.5%) respectively. We anticipate that these findings will provide a yardstick for intra-hospital survival analyses.
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This paper describes a case of pure red-cell aplasia in a child whose mother and grandfather also had the disorder. A raised haemoglobin F level was documented in the child and his mother in remission, and in a sibling who was not anaemic. Further support is provided for the theory that this disorder is inherited as a autosomal dominant with variable expressivity, and that a raised haemoglobin F level in a family member who is not anaemic is a genetic marker for pure red-cell aplasia.
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Comparative Study
Vascular access catheters for chemotherapy. Long-term follow-up.
Accessible surface veins become increasingly difficult to find after repeated venepunctures. This unfortunate situation often arises in patients on long-term chemotherapy, and can lead to soft tissue infiltration of toxic agents with resultant necrosis. A solution to this problem is the placement of long term indwelling vascular access catheters. ⋯ Thirty-five patients were available for long-term follow-up (greater than 6 months). Results in these show a mean catheter life varying from three to five months with a very low incidence of septicaemia, even in the immunologically compromised patients. The advantages of the various catheters are compared.