56 research outputs found
Outcome of metastatic colorectal cancer patients receiving palliative chemotherapy in Marmara University Hospital
No full textOutcome of adjuvant treatment in turkish breast cancer (BC) patients (PTS): Single institution experience
No full textClinical Outcome of Turkish Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients with Currently Available Treatment Modalities - Single Center Experience
No full textBackground: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the developed countries. Despite advances in screening, improved local therapies and adjuvant systemic treatments, median survival of metastatic breast cancer patients (MBC) is in the range of 2-3 years at most. We aimed to investigate whether the prognostic factors and therapeutic responses of our Turkish patients are similar to those in the literature. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of MBC patients who had been treated in our institution between 1999-2009 and analyzed their clinicopathological features and survival outcomes retrospectively Results: A hundred and sixty patients were included. Median age was 47 (23-82), median follow up was 24 (2-186) months. At the time of diagnosis 59% of patients were under the age of 50 and 46% were postmenopausal. The majority (37%) had multiple sites of metastases. Forty percent received endocrine therapy and 40% chemotherapy as first line metastatic treatment. Thirty (20%) patients were treated with molecular targeting agents like trastuzumab, lapatinib and sunitinib, frequently combined with a chemotherapy agent. Five-year overall survival (OS) was 32% and median OS was 38 months for the whole group. Five year progression free survival (PFS) was 10% and median PFS was 10 months. Menopausal status, hormone receptor expression and disease free status had a significant impact on overall survival in the multivariate analysis (p 0.018, p 0.018 and p:0.003, respectively). Conclusions: All our patients were treated with the modern oncologic therapies recommended by the international guidelines. From our data, MBC patients live up to 3-4 years, indicating that further improvement beyond that requires development of new treatment modalities. The survival outcomes of our patients were consistent with the data reported in the literature
Docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil-based induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin in locally advanced stage III and IV nasopharyngeal cancer.
No full textVascular endothelial growth factor, hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha and CD34 expressions in early-stage gastric tumors: Relationship with pathological factors and prognostic impact on survival
No full textBackground: Angiogenesis is one of the key steps in solid tumor growth and metastasis. We planned to investigate the prognostic significance of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) and CD34 expressions as markers of angiogenesis in gastric cancer. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 51 gastric cancer patients who had total or subtotal gastrectomy at Marmara University Hospital from 1990 to 2004 and evaluated the expression of VEGF, HIF-1 alpha and CD34 by immunohistochemistry in their archival tumor tissues. We recorded the clinical and pathological characteristics of these patients and analyzed their survival outcome. Results: Thirty out of 51 patients were males. The median age was 63 years (range 34-81). The median follow-up was 17 months. Thirty-six patients had node-positive disease. The majority of patients (n = 43) had T2 and T3 disease. Vascular and lymphatic invasions were present in 57 and 77% of tumors, respectively. VEGF and HIF-1 alpha were positive in 65 and 71% of tumors. The median CD34 staining score was 19 (3-68). VEGF, HIF-1 alpha and CD34 expressions were more frequent in tumors without serosal invasion (p = 0.01, p = 0.01 and p = 0.003, respectively). CD34 expression was significantly more frequent in tumors with VEGF and HIF-1 alpha expression (p = 0.00, p = 0.00). HIF-1 alpha expression was more frequent in tumors with VEGF expression (p = 0.00). The 5year overall survival was 45%. VEGF, HIF-1 alpha, CD34 expressions and other pathological characteristics were found to have no impact on survival. Conclusion: VEGF, HIF-1 alpha and CD34 expressions were more common in tumors without serosal invasion. As a future perspective, biological agents targeting VEGF and HIF-1 alpha might be more effective at earlier stages of gastric cancer. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel
Weight gain after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer in Istanbul Turkey
No full textWeight gain is a well-known and unwanted complication of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. We observed that the female Turkish cancer patients frequently gain weight with adjuvant treatment of breast cancer and planned to examine the magnitude of this problem in early breast cancer patients treated at our hospital. A total of 176 early breast cancer patients who received their adjuvant systemic therapy in Marmara University Hospital between 2003 and 2007 are included in the study. We recorded their weight before and after chemotherapy and also a year after chemotherapy to find out whether the change with weight is transitory. We have also recorded demographic information, including the educational level, menopausal status, the type of chemotherapy or hormonal treatment administered stage of disease, marital status, occupation and the underlying diseases to analyze the relationship between change in weight and these parameters. Median age of patients was 53 and 72% of patients were postmenopausal. Educational level was equally distributed for primary education (27%), high school (40%), and university (33%). The majority of the patients (76%) was married, had two children (69%) and was housewife (60%). Family history of any cancer was high (32%). Most of the patients had stage II cancer (56%), received anthracyclines+/- taxane based chemotherapy (98%) and had no underlying disease (68%). The majority also did not smoke (73%) or drink alcohol (93%). A total of 67% and 72% patients gained weight upon completion and one year after completion of chemotherapy. Mean weight before the chemotherapy, upon completion of chemotherapy and one year after completion of chemotherapy were 68.9 kg, 70.6 kg (P = 0.000) and 71.9 kg (P = 0.000) respectively. Mean body mass index was 27.1 at baseline, 27.8 upon completion of chemotherapy (P = 0.000) and 28.3 one year after completion of chemotherapy (P = 0.000). Age, menopausal status, multiparity and presence of comorbid diseases had statistically significant impact on weight gain following adjuvant therapy in breast cancer patients (P = 0.000, P = 0.008, P = 0.015 and P = 0.017 respectively). This study shows that Turkish women with early breast cancer gain weight after adjuvant systemic therapy, in line with European and American counterparts. This increase in weight is maintained at least one year after adjuvant therapy. Given the adverse consequences of weight gain in terms of both breast cancer prognosis and general health, it is necessary to inform patients about this change and to develop strategies for weight maintenance during and after systemic therapy
Associations between clinicopathological prognostic factors and pAkt, pMAPK and topoisomerase II expression in breast cancer
No full textThis study aimed to examine the associations between mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), Akt, and topoisomerase II expression and other well established clinical and pathological prognostic factors in patients with breast cancer. A total of 42 women with breast cancer who underwent anthracycline based chemotherapy were included in this retrospective study. Immunohistochemical methods were utilized to examine the expression of phosphorylated MAPK (pMAPK), phosphorylated Akt (pAkt), HER-2/neu and topoisomerase II alpha (topo II alpha) in tissue blocks. Subsequently, the associations between pMAPK, pAkt, and topoisomerase IIa (topo IIa) expression characteristics and disease stage (T and N), tumor grade, estrogen/progesteron receptor status, and HER-2/neu expression were explored. Median age of the patients was 63 years (range, 37-82). There was a significant association between N stage and topoisomerase IIa expression (P = 0.021), with increasing rates of positivity in higher grades: N0, 22.7%; N1, 11.1%; N2, 42.9%; N3, 100%. In addition, topo IIa expression was higher in estrogen receptor-positive versus estrogen receptor-negative tumors (50% vs. 0%, P = 0.0004) and MAPK expression was more frequent among progesteron receptor-positive versus negative tumors (64.0 versus 20.0%, P = 0.027). Our results show that the tissue expression of topo II alpha and MAPK, which play a role in the intracellular signal pathways, is associated with certain established prognostic factors in breast cancer. Further studies examining survival rates and involving larger sample populations are warranted to better define the importance of the observed associations
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