1,721,276 research outputs found
The evolving strategies for the management of patients with metastatic gastric cancer: A narrative review and expert opinion
No full text: Gastric cancer (GC) is recognized as one of the most common deadly malignancies worldwide and about 40-50% of patients present at diagnosis with an unresectable disease due to a locally advanced or already metastatic condition. Recently, therapeutic options for management of metastatic GC (mGC) have been approved allowing a potential improvement of patient cancer treatment response and also an establishment of a continuum of care for this aggressive disease. This report is the result of a literature review by an expert panel. The aim of this document is to provide evidence, wherever it is lacking, to provide expert opinion directed at strategic management of mGC, and in particular aspect at practical management where appropriate guidelines are not available. Treatment landscape with new therapeutic strategies for third line and beyond, role of imaging, prognostic factors, symptoms, and markers as well as the importance of multidisciplinary approach particularly the nutritional aspects are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Phase II study of single-agent cetuximab in KRAS g13d mutant metastatic colorectal cancer
No full textRAS mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients are
excluded from treatment with anti-epidermal growth factor
receptors. Nevertheless, preclinical experiences and retrospective
data from large phase III trials suggested that patients carrying
KRAS G13D mutation might derive benefit from cetuximab
in first and advanced lines of treatment [1–3]. In particular,
cetuximab has anti-proliferative activity in KRAS G13D mutant
cell lines and in wild-type ones. Consistently, the post hoc analysis
of a pooled dataset of 579 chemo-refractory patients treated
with cetuximab between 2001 and 2008 showed that KRAS
G13D mutant patients (n = 32) achieved longer progression free
survival (PFS) [4.0 versus 1.9 months, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.51,
P = 0.004] and overall survival (OS) (7.6 versus 5.7 months,
HR = 0.50, P = 0.005) when compared with patients bearing
other KRAS mutations. A significant interaction between
KRAS mutational status (KRAS G13D versus other KRAS mutations)
and OS benefit from cetuximab was also detected (P for
interaction = 0.003).
Moving from such strong rationale, we conducted this hypothesisconfirmatory
phase II single-arm trial to provide a prospective
proof of the clinical benefit of cetuximab in KRAS G13D mutant
mCRC patients and to definitively ascertain if such drug might
deserve further consideration in this subgroup of patients.
The primary end point was 4 months-progression-free rate
(PFR), defined as the proportion of patients alive and free from
disease progression 4 months after treatment start. Responses
were determined according to RECIST 1.1. On the basis of a systematic
review of literature reporting a 4-month PFR of 10% in
patients with KRAS mutations other than G13D, we assumed that
cetuximab would have been a promising option if 50% of patients
with G13D KRAS mutation would have been free from progression
4 months after treatment start. According to the phase II
Fleming single-stage design, setting α and β errors as 0.05 and
0.10, respectively, 12 patients were needed. Cetuximab would
have been considered worth of further investigation if at least four
patients had been alive and progression free at 4 months.
Patients carrying G13D KRAS mutation, progressed after
treatment with fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, irinotecan and
bevacizumab or with no other valid therapeutic options, with
histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma, measurable metastatic
disease and life expectancy >3 months, were considered eligible
and were prospectively enrolled to receive cetuximab 500 mg/m2
biweekly.
Twelve consecutive patients were enrolled from January 2011
to April 2013. The median number of administered cycles was 5
(range 2–12). The primary objective of the trial was not met: three
patients (25%) were progression-free at 4 months. None of 12
patients achieved response and three patients (25%) had disease stabilisation,
for an overall disease control rate (DCR) of 25%. Notably,
DCR at 6 months was 0%. Median PFS and OS were 1.9 (95% CI
1.7–3.8) and 7.2 months (95% CI 5.7–9.7), respectively. No unexpected
toxicities were observed (grade 3 or 4 skin rash 17%).
To our knowledge, this is the first prospective trial addressing
the issue of the efficacy of cetuximab in patients affected by
KRAS G13D-mutated mCRC. Among 12 treated patients, no
responses were observed; thus, cetuximab does not provide a
clinically relevant benefit to these patients. We should acknowledge
that the phase II ICE CREAM trial addressing the same
question is currently ongoing (https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/
Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=362339). The results will help
to draw a definitive conclusion.
However, such findings underline that data obtained from subgroup
and retrospective analyses are only hypothesis-generating
and always need to be interpreted with caution and prospectively
validated
Liver Resection for Advanced Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: A Cost-Utility Analysis
No full textData on cost-effectiveness and efficacy of hepatic resection (HR) for advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) are lacking. We sought to estimate the cost-effectiveness of upfront HR resulting in an R1 resection (strategy A) relative to initial systemic chemotherapy (sCT) followed by possible curative HR (strategy B) for patients with advanced ICC
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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