6,088 research outputs found

    Phase II study of cetuximab in combination with folfiri as first-line treatment in patients with unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma (FOLFOX study): preliminary results

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    Background: Aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of cetuximab plus FOLFIRI as first-line treatment for advanced gastric or GEJ cancer. Methods: Eligibility criteria: histological diagnosis of stomach or GEJ adenocarcinoma, unresectable/metastatic/recurrent disease, EGFR+ (Dako), measurable disease, no prior chemotherapy for advanced cancer. Pts received cetuximab weekly at 400 mg/m2 iv loading dose, then at 250 mg/m2 iv, CPT11 180 mg/m2 iv d1, LFA 100 mg/m2 iv followed by 5FU 400 mg/m2 iv bolus and 600 mg/m2 iv continuous infusion 22h d1-2 (FOLFIRI) every 2 weeks, for a maximum of 24 weeks, then cetuximab alone was allowed in pts with CR/PR/SD. Objective response (OR) activity was assessed by CT and PET at baseline and after 6 weeks, and further by CT+/- PET every 6 weeks. Results: From november 2004 to december 2005, 49/54 (90.7%) screened subjects were EGFR+, and 38 pts were enrolled. Pt characteristics: 26 (68.4%) males, 12 (31.6%) females; median age 63.5 years (39-82); median KPS 90 (70-100); 34 (89.4%) stomach, 4 (10.5%) GEJ; 18 (47.3%) gastrectomy; 13 (34.2%) adjuvant chemotherapy; 4 (10.5%) locally advanced disease, 34 (89.4%) metastatic disease; main metastatic sites: 19 (50%) lymphnodes, 12 (31.5%) liver, 4 (10.5%) lung, 8 (21.0%) peritoneal. Median number of treatment weeks was: 10 (1-46). Median dose intensity was: 5FU 100% (25-100), CPT11 100% (25-100) and cetuximab 100% (80-100). At the present time, 25 pts are assessable for response and 28 for toxicity. The OR (RECIST) were: 3 (12%) CR, 11 (44%) PR, e.g. 56% CR+PR (95% CI: 37-75), 11 (44%) SD. The PFS at 3 months is 80% (95% CI: 64-96). Survival data are pramature (73.6% of the pts are alive; madian follow-up 3 months, range 1-12). Grade 3-4 toxicity (CTC v3.0) was: 15 (53.6%) neutropenia (1 pt died of febrile neutropenia), 1 (3.4%) hyperbilirubinemia. Cutaneous toxicity was: 7 (25%) gr1, 11 (39.2%) gr2, 5 (17.8%) gr3. Conclusions: combination of cetuximab and FOLFIRI appears to be active in gastric and GEJ adenocarcinoma, with a high response and disease control rate. This treatment has been well-tolerated; the major toxicity is neutropenia

    Does biomolecular characterization of stage II/III colorectal cancer have any prognostic value?

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    As new improvements in the treatment of colorectal cancer have become available, it has become important to understand the benefits of new therapies or the deleterious effects stemming from the increased risk of toxicity. In particular, a more rational approach to adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with stage II/III disease should be defined by understanding which patients have a higher recurrence risk. Many studies have investigated several molecular markers, but none has been definitively associated with patient outcome. We present a review of studies that have evaluated the immunohistochemical correlation between expression of some biomarkers, such as thymidylate synthase, p53, Ki-67, Bcl-2, and microsatellite instability status expressed by Mut-L homologue 1 and Mut-S homologue 2 proteins, and the prognosis of patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer. We have evaluated studies in which > or = 100 patients were involved in an effort to ensure a representative study group. The only biomarker likely to have a prognostic value is microsatellite instability status, which correlated with a better prognosis

    COMMERCIAL 584\AA PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROMETER

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    Author Institution: Perkin-Elmer LimitedThe design of a commercial 584\AA Photcelectron Spectrometer will be discussed together with some recent research problems investigated by this technique

    Open Access to Peer-Reviewed Research through Author/Institution Self-Archiving: Maximizing Research Impact by Maximizing Online Access

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    All refereed journals will soon be available online; most of them already are. This means that anyone will be able to access them from any networked desk-top. The literature will all be interconnected by citation, author, and keyword/subject links, allowing for unheard-of power and ease of access and navigability. Successive drafts of pre-refereeing preprints will be linked to the official refereed draft, as well as to any subsequent corrections, revisions, updates, comments, responses, and underlying empirical databases, all enhancing the self-correctiveness, interactivity and productivity of scholarly and scientific research and communication in remarkable new ways. New scientometric indicators of digital impact are also emerging <http://opcit.eprints.org> to chart the online course of knowledge. But there is still one last frontier to cross before science reaches the optimal and the inevitable: Just as there is no longer any need for research or researchers to be constrained by the access-blocking restrictions of paper distribution, there is no longer any need to be constrained by the impact-blocking financial fire-walls of Subscription/Site-License/Pay-Per-View (S/L/P) tolls for this give-away literature. Its author/researchers have always donated their research reports for free (and its referee/researchers have refereed for free), with the sole goal of maximizing their impact on subsequent research (by accessing the eyes and minds of fellow-researchers, present and future) and hence on society. Generic (OAi-compliant) software is now available free so that institutions can immediately create Eprint Archives in which their authors can self-archive all their refereed papers for free for all forever <http://www.eprints.org/>. These interoperable Open Archives <http://www.openarchives.org> will then be harvested into global, jointly searchable "virtual archives" (e.g., <http://arc.cs.odu.edu/>). "Scholarly Skywriting" in this PostGutenberg Galaxy will be dramatically (and measurably) more interactive and productive, spawning its own new digital metrics of productivity and impact, allowing for an online "embryology of knowledge.

    Author attribution using profile classifiers

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    A atribuição autoral (AA) busca identificar um autor de texto a partir de um conjunto de autores conhecidos. Autores deixam rastros em seus textos e é possível identificar características sociolinguísticas baseadas no estilos de escrita refletidos no texto destes autores. A atribuição autoral está cada vez mais demonstrando importância para diversas atividades sociais, em especial para a análise forense. Os trabalhos envolvendo AA demonstram resultados modestos e motivam a exploração de diferentes técnicas para melhorar a acurácia dos modelos atuais. A partir desses pontos, o presente trabalho apresenta uma proposta de pesquisa em nível de mestrado no campo de processamento de língua natural (PLN), com ênfase em AA, com o objetivo geral de melhorar o desempenho de classificadores de atribuição autoral utilizando técnicas de caracterização autoral (CA)Author attribution (AA) seeks to identify a text author from a set of known authors. Authors leave traces in their texts and it is possible to identify sociolinguistic characteristics based on the writing styles reflected in the text of these authors. Author attribution is increasingly showing importance for various social activities, especially forensic analysis. Studies involving AA show modest results and motivate the exploration of different techniques to improve the accuracy of current models. From these perspective, this project presents a master\'s level research proposal in the field of natural language processing (NLP), with an emphasis in AA, with the general objective of improving the performance of AA classifiers using author profiling technique

    THE ANALYSIS OF FIVE ELECTRONIC EMISSION SYSTEMS OF NIOBIUM NITRIDE (NbN) IN THE REGION 5000{\AA} – 6200{\AA}

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    1^{1}K. H. Rao and T. M. Dunn, Nature 222, 266 (1969). 2^{2}J. L. Femenias, C. Athenour, and T. M. Dunn, J. Chem. Phys. 63, 2861 (1975).Author Institution:Niobium nitride emission systems have been found at 5l37{\AA}, 5582{\AA}, 5740{\AA}, 5840{\AA}, 5860{\AA}, in addition to the already known1,2known^{1,2} systems with subbands at 5930{\AA}, 6043{\AA}, and 6192{\AA}. Most of These systems show marked nuclear hyperfine structure of the rotational lines add this has been of assistance in the analysis of all of the systems. Systems of triplet-triplet, singlet-singlet and singlet-triplet are all present and the hyperfine structure also allows assignment of the ground and excited state electron configuration to be made with some confidence

    THE 4550 {\AA} BAND SYSTEM OF GLYOXAL

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    Author Institution: Division of Pure Physics, National Research Council“Approximately 45 bands of glyoxal in the region 4000-4660 {\AA} have been photographed in absorption using a 30 ft. Ebert spectrograph with a resolving power of 500,000\sim 500,000 and a dispersion of 1.3 {\AA}/cm. The (0-0) baud near 4550 {\AA}, which WAS studied at a temperature of 50-50^{\circ} C, shows fairly well-resolved J- and K- structure characteristic of a perpendicular hand of a near symmetric top molecule. The rotational and vibrational analysis of the speetrum will be discussed.
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