1,720,962 research outputs found
Weekly docetaxel and epirubicin in treatment of advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer.
No full textOBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new regimen that combines weekly docetaxel and weekly epirubicin for the treatment of advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer.
METHODS:
Docetaxel 30 mg/m2 and epirubicin 30 mg/m2 were intravenously administered on a weekly basis, for a maximum of 24 cycles. The therapy was discontinued after the first 12 cycles in the patients who responded or had stable disease and was resumed as soon as any signs of progression were noted.
RESULTS:
Of the 38 evaluable patients, 26 achieved a confirmed greater than 50% decrease in prostate-specific antigen level (68.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 51.2% to 82.0%). The median response duration was 8.8 months (95% CI 6.2 to 11.8), and the median time to progression was 7.4 months (95% CI 5.6 to 9.6). Pain was rapidly reduced in 24 (72.7%, 95% CI 54.2 to 86.7) of the 33 patients who were symptomatic at baseline. Of the 38 patients, 21 resumed therapy after the planned interruption; of these, 3 had a prostate-specific antigen response (14.2%) and 12 had stable disease (57.1%). The regimen was well tolerated. Grade 3 neutropenia occurred in 15.7% of the patients, grade 3 anemia in 13.1%, and grade 3 thrombocytopenia in 7.8%.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results of this study have suggested the feasibility and tolerability of the combination of weekly docetaxel and weekly epirubicin, which led to a rapid and long-lasting decrease in prostate-specific antigen levels and a palliative response in patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Effect of neoadjuvant epirubicin and total androgen blockade on complete pathological response in patients with clinical stage T3/T4 prostate cancer.
No full textAIMS:
Most patients with stage T3-T4 prostate cancer experience disease relapse despite radiation and/or hormonal therapy, and their management remains controversial. We investigated the feasibility of, and the pathological response induced by neoadjuvant chemo-hormonal treatment in men with clinical stage T3/T4.
METHODS:
Fifteen patients underwent neoadjuvant therapy consisting of weekly intravenous infusions of epirubicin 30mg/m(2) and total androgen blockade (TAB) for three months before undergoing radical prostatectomy, after which all received locoregional conformal radiotherapy (66Gy) and then continued with TAB and three additional months of epirubicin.
RESULTS:
After neoadjuvant therapy, PSA levels decreased in all 15 patients and became undetectable in two. None of the patients achieved a complete pathological response, but a 35-75% reduction in tumour size was observed in all cases, and all the patients were able to undergo successful prostatectomy. Pathological assessments of the surgical specimens revealed negative margins in 13 patients. After a median follow-up of 34 months (range 11-62), 14 patients (93%) are still clinically and biochemically disease free. No grade 3 or 4 complications occurred.
CONCLUSION:
This study suggests that neoadjuvant treatment with epirubicin and TAB is feasible and well tolerated in patients with clinical stage T3-T4 prostate cancer. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Reticulocytes can represent an early indicator of erythropoietic response to Darbepoetin alfa in the anemia by chemotherapy
No full textBackground: Darbepoetin is a new drug active in anemia from chemotherapy and 2-to 3- times longer serum half life then recombinant-human Epo (rHuEPO). Reticulocytes can constitute an useful parameter to check the medullar reserve and give an indication of the erythropoietic answer. Methods: 42 patients in chemotherapy were randomised in 3 groups: the first two reported severe asthenia and have been deal respective with (I) darbepoetin 2.25μg/kg once weekly or (II) rHuEPO 150 U/Kg three times weekly; the third group (III), used like control, did not report relevant asthenic symptoms. The study evaluated time zero, after 4 and 8 weeks hemoglobin, reticulocyte count,serum ferritin, transferrin and iron. Results: The group treated with darbepoetin reported an increase of Hb after 4 weeks of approximately 2 g/dl if the starting value were >10 g/dl (8pts), instead patients with values of Hb <10g/dl evidenced a lower improvement of Hb (approximately 1 g/dl after 8 weeks). In the same group 13/15 pts reported an important improvement of reticulocytes. The mean value increased from 12,3 to 30,4μl (range 19–66); five patients exceeded the 14,5 g/dl of Hb. Group treated with rHuEPO showed a lower increase of reticulocytes after 8 weeks, the mean value increase from 17,2 to 22,6μl (range 13 - 34). In the control group reticulocytes moved by 15,0 to 12,0μl (range 2–16) and hemoglobin value decreased during chemotherapy from 10,5 to 9,7 g/dl. Conclusions: We reported a significantly increase of reticulocytes after four and eight weeks in the group treated with darbepoetin, higher than the group with rHuEPO and much more than the control group. Therefore our study show that darbepoetin is the sooner effective drug in the improvement of anemia. We besides suggest that reticulocyte count is a very important parameter in the prediction of response to the erythropoietic agents
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
