1,721,036 research outputs found
FRAGMATIC: A randomised phase III clinical trial investigating the effect of <b>fragm</b>in<sup>® </sup><b>a</b>dded to standard <b>t</b>herapy <b>i</b>n patients with lung <b>c</b>ancer
Abstract Background Venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurs when blood clots in the leg, pelvic or other deep vein (deep vein thrombosis) with or without transport of the thrombus into the pulmonary arterial circulation (pulmonary embolus). VTE is common in patients with cancer and is increased by surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and disease progression. Low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is routinely used to treat VTE and some evidence suggests that LMWH may also have an anticancer effect, by reduction in the incidence of metastases. The FRAGMATIC trial will assess the effect of adding dalteparin (FRAGMIN), a type of LMWH, to standard treatment for patients with lung cancer. Methods/Design The study design is a randomised multicentre phase III trial comparing standard treatment and standard treatment plus daily LMWH for 24 weeks in patients with lung cancer. Patients eligible for this study must have histopathological or cytological diagnosis of primary bronchial carcinoma (small cell or non-small cell) within 6 weeks of randomisation, be 18 or older, and must be willing and able to self-administer 5000 IU dalteparin by daily subcutaneous injection or have it administered to themselves or by a carer for 24 weeks. A total of 2200 patients will be recruited from all over the UK over a 3 year period and followed up for a minimum of 1 year after randomisation. Patients will be randomised to one of the two treatment groups in a 1:1 ratio, standard treatment or standard treatment plus dalteparin. The primary outcome measure of the trial is overall survival. The secondary outcome measures include venous thrombotic event (VTE) free survival, serious adverse events (SAEs), metastasis-free survival, toxicity, quality of life (QoL), levels of breathlessness, anxiety and depression, cost effectiveness and cost utility. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN80812769</p
Interim safety data on the FRAGMATIC trial: a randomised phase III clinical trial investigating the effect of FRAGMin (R) added to standard therapy in patients with lung cancer
Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common in lungcancer patients and the incidence is increased by treatments. Lungcancer patients often have advanced disease at presentation, as wellas co-morbidities, such as heart failure and chronic lung disease allof which increase the risk of VTE. Low molecular weight heparin(LMWH) has been used in the prophylaxis of VTE but there arelimited data on the use of LMWH as primary thromboprophylaxisin cancer patients. Because of this and interesting animal data suggestingthat LMWH may be anti-metastatic, the effect of long termLMWH on overall survival should be investigated
Colon and rectum
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is second in incidence in Europe only to lung cancer, and it causes around 204,000 deaths each year. The aetiology of CRC is still unclear, but the eight- to ten-fold higher incidence in the developed world compared to that in the developing world suggests environmental causes. Around 15 to 20% of CRCs are of familial origin.Screening is currently being adopted in the UK with the roll-out of a programme of faecal occult blood (FOB) testing, followed by colonoscopy if FOB testing is positive. Many other countries are also considering such a programme.Surgery is the only curative treatment and total mesorectal excision (TME) is now well established as the best way of managing rectal carcinoma. But the last 10 years have also seen a rapid increase in the use of preoperative radiotherapy, of neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, and of new agents for advanced disease, with small but incremental improvements in outcome.Targeted therapy such as epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors and vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors have been tested in patients with advanced CRC, but the role of these therapies in routine management has not yet been established
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
Anus
Anal cancer, like carcinoma of the cervix, is strongly associated with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. In the past few decades, treatment has swung away dramatically from primary surgery to definitive chemoradiotherapy, with the evident physical and psychosocial benefits of organ preservation. Tumours of lower stage T1 or T2, N0, have an excellent outcome with the chemoradiotherapy approach. Unfortunately, many patients present with T3, T4 or N ≥ 1 disease and they have a significant risk of both locoregional and subsequent distant failure. Half of patients still die within 5 years of treatment. Therefore, efforts are ongoing to improve outcomes via better local and systemic therapy
Variations on the Author
“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
We 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
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