Magyar onkologia
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The feasibility, accuracy and clinical significance of sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy has not yet been determined. The aim of this study was to investigate these questions. ⋯ Our sentinel lymph node identification rate is lower than the published average in the literature. This difference can be explained by the differences in the indication for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Our false negative rate (0%) is, however, significantly better than that of others. On the basis of international experiences sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is technically feasible, but its accuracy is not satisfactory and its clinical significance has not yet been determined. Our success rate is specifically low, which cannot be explained by the lack of practice. Taking the histologically very high axillary positive rate into consideration, sentinel lymph node biopsy has no clinical role in our practice after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
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The prognosis of HER-2-positive breast cancer (characterized by amplification of the HER-2 oncogene and/or overexpression of HER-2 receptor) is unfavourable. Trastuzumab (Herceptin), a monoclonal antibody against HER-2 receptor can improve the outcome of HER-2-positive breast cancer. ⋯ Herceptin has decreased the relative risk of recurrence with about 50% and that of death with nearly 30% in HER-2-positive early breast cancer. Based on these results Herceptin, together with chemotherapy, has been recently approved for the adjuvant treatment of HER-2-positive breast cancer.
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Cisplatin-based chemotherapy results in high cure rate in testicular cancer. The issue of toxicity is of special concern in young men with a probability of cure of at least 70-80% even in disseminated disease. As the literature shows, the ototoxic side effects of cisplatin have been studied mostly by conventional method. ⋯ As a conclusion, DPOAE is a fast, noninvasive and reliable method for the detection of late ototoxicity in testicular cancer patients. In our study hearing loss correlated with the cumulative dose of cisplatin. Hearing impairment contributes to the already compromised situation of cancer patients.
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Data from various sources indicate that after breast conserving surgery (BCS), younger patients have a high risk of local relapse, but there is insufficient evidence about the risk of post-mastectomy local recurrence. This study investigates the risk of local recurrence for young (< or = 40 years) patients treated with either conservative or radical surgery, with or without radiotherapy (RT). ⋯ The incidence of local recurrence is high for young patients treated either with BCS or mastectomy, and RT significantly reduces the risk. The use of postmastectomy RT in node-positive patients gives a good local control. The efficacy of BCS and RT as a treatment modality for young patients needs further investigations.