1,721,051 research outputs found
[Anatomopathological findings correlated with high-dose recombinant interleukin-2. Review of the literature and description of 2 autopsy cases]
No full text
Endocrine Dysfunction in Patients Treated for Brain Tumors: Incidence and Guidelines for Management
No full textEndocrine alterations are frequently found in patients undergoing treatment for CNS tumors. Careful follow-up aimed at the early detection of recurrences, with life-long monitor of hypothalamus-pituitary (HP) function, will also reveal any endocrine dysfunctions; indeed, their appropriate diagnosis and treatment may determine a significant improvement in the quality of life of these patients. The frequency of endocrine sequelae depends on (1) tumor site, (2) patient age at treatment initiation, and (3) type of therapy administered (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, steroids)
How often is adjuvant chemotherapy administered to elderly women (>70 years) with early breast cancer ?
No full textBackground: No randomized trials on adjuvant treatment of operable breast cancer (BC) in elderly women are available. We thus carried out a retrospective study of chemotherapy administration in women ≥ 70 years.
Material and methods: We reviewed tumor stage and treatment of all elderly BC patients referred from 1999 to 2003 to our institution. Major risk factors and therefore potential indication for chemotherapy were: T
≥2 cm, Grade 3, N positive and estrogen receptor (ER) negative status.
Results: In total, 260 elderly consecutive patients were eligible (diagnosis of pT1-pT3, non-metastatic BC). Median age was 76 years (70 – 97). Fifty-five per cent underwent conservative surgery; 84.6% nodal dissection and 5.8% sentinel node biopsy. Adjuvant chemotherapy was proposed for 96 of 186 high risk patients. Thirteen refused, while chemotherapy was started in 83 patients: 84.4% CMF, 9.6% 3M (mitoxantrone, methotrexate, mitomycin), 6.0% anthracycline-based regimens. Chemotherapy was interrupted in 21 patients, completed in 56 with dose reduction ≥25% in 16.1% of cases. Therapy is still ongoing in five patients.
Conclusions: Adjuvant chemotherapy was not proposed for 48.4% of elderly patients with high recurrence risk BC, probably due to age associated conditions (comorbidities, cognitive status, family support). Prospective studies are needed to determine tumor characteristics and geriatric conditions that should guide the choice for adjuvant chemotherapy in elderly patients and to define the role of biological parameters such as c-erbB2 overexpression
Which benefit from adding gemcitabine to vinorelbine in elderly (>= 70 years) women with metastatic breast cancer? Early interruption of a phase II study
No full textSince vinorelbine and gemcitabine are both active in breast cancer with moderate toxicity, in 2002 we started a phase II trial with a combination regimen in elderly patients.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: To evaluate complete plus partial response rates and toxicity of first-line vinorelbine 25 mg/m2 plus gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, every 3 weeks, in women>or=70 years with advanced breast cancer and measurable lesions. All patients underwent multidimensional geriatric assessment before enrollment. A two-step design was applied, and the trial would be completed if an overall response rate>or=30% was obtained with a grade 3-grade 4 (G3-G4) toxicity rate<or=25% (excluding neutropenia) in the first step.
RESULTS: Twelve eligible patients had a median age of 74 years. At MGA, eight patients were fit, three vulnerable, one frail due to major depression; only two patients had G3 comorbidities according to Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatric. Seventy-five percent of patients had visceral disease. We obtained only one partial remission (11.1%) and six stabilizations of disease in nine assessable patients, with a time to progression of 3 months. Three patients (25%) experienced G3 neutropenia, and three patients (25%) developed G3 anemia (one patient) and G3 gastrointestinal toxicity (two patients).
CONCLUSIONS: The promising response rates obtained with this combination by other authors could not be confirmed in our small cohort of older women with breast cancer, therefore the trial was prematurely terminated. We do not recommend the co-administration of gemcitabine to vinorelbine in women>or=70 years outside the setting of controlled clinical trials
AIDS-associated non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in Italy: intravenous drug abusers versus homosexual men
No full text
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
- …
