Oncology
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Multicenter Study
Cetuximab plus FOLFOX-4 in untreated patients with advanced colorectal cancer: a Gruppo Oncologico dell'Italia Meridionale Multicenter phase II study.
FOLFOX-4 and FOLFIRI are considered equivalent in terms of activity and efficacy as first-line chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). The monoclonal antibody (mAb) cetuximab showed intrinsic activity as a single agent in mCRC and was approved in combination with CPT-11 for patients who failed previous CPT-11-based treatment. The purpose of this phase II study was to evaluate the activity and safety of FOLFOX-4 plus cetuximab in untreated mCRC patients. ⋯ These results suggest that the combination of FOLFOX-4 plus cetuximab is very active and obtains long TTP with an acceptable toxicity profile. Indeed, our results are in line with recent findings from phase II and phase III randomized studies providing strong evidence that the efficacy of anti-EGFR mAb is confined to patients with wild-type KRAS mCRC. Investigation of other predictive biomarkers may be useful to further define the responder population.
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Multicenter Study
A prospective, multicenter, phase 2 study of imatinib mesylate in korean patients with metastatic or unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
This prospective, multicenter, phase 2 study evaluated the efficacy and safety of imatinib mesylate and assessed KIT and PDGFRA gene mutation status in Korean patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). ⋯ Imatinib is effective and safe in Korean patients with metastatic or unresectable GIST.
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Analysis by DNA microarrays has led to the identification of molecular subtypes of breast carcinomas that show a distinct expression profile. Several studies have demonstrated that this 'intrinsic subtype' classification has a strong prognostic value. In addition, gene expression profiling techniques have been used to identify gene signatures that could be associated with the outcome of breast cancer patients. ⋯ Genetic signatures that might predict the activity of specific chemotherapy agents have also been developed by using gene expression profiling techniques. The same approach has been used to identify gene signatures associated with the activation of oncogenic pathways that might represent targets for molecular therapy of breast cancer. By using these approaches, gene expression techniques might significantly improve our ability to predict the risk of recurrence and to tailor the treatment for each individual breast cancer patient.
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As a result of improved local and regional control with aggressive multimodality protocols, the brain has become one of the major sites of relapse in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma (LA-NSCLC). The demonstrated efficacy of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in small-cell lung carcinoma led to studies of its effectiveness in LA-NSCLC, which indicated that PCI also has a high potential to reduce the incidence or delay the occurrence of brain metastases in this patient group. This report provides an extensive review of the current evidence from nonrandomized and randomized trials regarding the use of PCI in LA-NSCLC and discusses related key issues including risk factors, patient selection criteria, timing of PCI, preferred PCI dosing scheme, toxicity profile and potential novel PCI techniques.