1,721,008 research outputs found
Abscopal effect in lung cancer: three case reports and a concise review.
Full text linkThe abscopal effect describes the ability of locally administered radiotherapy to induce systemic antitumor effects. Over the past 40 years, reports on the abscopal effect following conventional radiation have been relatively rare, especially in less immunogenic tumors such as lung cancer. However, with the continued development and use of immunotherapy, reports on the abscopal effect have become increasingly frequent during the last decade. Here, we present three illustrative case reports from our own institution and previous published cases of the abscopal effect in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and radiotherapy. We also present a concise review of the clinical and experimental literature on the abscopal effect in non-small cell lung cancer
Smoking Cessation in Lung Cancer
No full textBackground: Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in Germany. 90% of cases are due to the inhalation of tobacco smoke. About 40% of patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer are still smokers. A structured smoking cessation program is medically reasonable in this situation but is only rarely offered. Methods: This review is based on a selective search in the PubMed database combined with a manual search for current publications. Results: Many cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown that patients with lung cancer benefit from smoking cessation. After resection with curative intent, second tumors are 2.3 times more common, and recurrent tumors 1.9 times more common, in patients who continue to smoke than in those who stop. The overall mortality in smokers is 2.9 times higher. Smoking cessation also lowers the rate of radiation pneumonitis and infection during radiotherapy and prolongs the median survival after chemoradiotherapy for small-cell lung cancer (18.0 vs. 13.6 months). For patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, smoking cessation is associated with a better general state of health (77.5% vs. 57.6%). For the many patients with lung cancer who are treated palliatively, smoking cessation offers the advantages of improved pulmonary function, weight gain, and better overall quality of life. Conclusion: Smoking cessation in patients with lung cancer is an important means of increasing the efficacy of treatment and improving their quality of life
Update on recent key publications in lung oncology: picking up speed
No full textIntroduction
As incidence rates for lung cancer are still very high and lung cancer remains the most deadly cancer since the turn of the millennium, efforts have been made to find new approaches in cancer research. This systematic review highlights how therapeutic options were extended and how the development of new drugs has picked up speed during the last 20 years.
Methods
A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library and the European Union Trial Register and 443 records were identified. Our inclusion criteria constituted completed phase I, II and III studies investigating drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Overall, 127 articles were analysed.
Results
During the 5 year interval from 2015 to 2020, significantly more drugs were approved after phase III, and occasionally after phase II, trials than between 2000 and 2005 (p=0.002). Furthermore, there was a significant time difference (p=0.00001) indicating an increasingly briefer time interval between the publication of phase I and phase III results in the last few years.
Discussion
Due to novel therapeutic approaches, numerous new drugs in lung oncology were approved. This has improved symptoms and prognoses in patients with advanced lung cancer. However, faster approval could make it difficult to scrutinise new options regarding safety and efficacy with sufficient diligence
Smoking cessation by combined medication and counselling: a feasibility study in lung cancer patients
No full textPURPOSE: Smoking cessation in patients with diagnosed lung cancer has positive effects on cancer therapy and overall prognosis. Despite this, knowledge on smoking cessation in lung cancer patients is sparse. METHODS: This is an observational single centre, 12-week, prospective, single-arm trial at a tertiary lung cancer centre. Responsive patients were enrolled following confirmed lung cancer diagnosis. Smoking cessation intervention included counselling as well as pharmacotherapy. The primary endpoint was the point prevalence abstinence rate at week 12 based on biochemical verification. Secondary endpoints were the abstinence rate at week 26, quality of life and side effects. RESULTS: 80 patients were enrolled. Mean age was 62.6 ± 7.9 years. Most patients (63%) were treated with chemotherapy or radiochemotherapy. 39 patients used nicotine replacement therapy, 35 varenicline whereas six patients did not use pharmacotherapy. During the study period 13 patients died. Data were available in 72 patients after 12 weeks and 57 patients at week 24. Point prevalence abstinence rates were 37.5% (95% CI 26.4–49.7%) at week 12 and 32.8% (95% CI 21.8–45.4%) at week 26, respectively. Quality of life and side effects were not significantly affected by pharmacotherapy. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our results suggest that smoking cessation is feasible in patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer. The observed abstinence rate is comparable to other patient cohorts. Furthermore, pharmacotherapy in addition to cancer therapy was safe and did not show novel side effects in these seriously ill patients. Thus, smoking cessation should be an integral part of lung cancer treatment. Trial registration The study was conducted in accordance with good clinical practice standards (GCP) and approved by the local ethics committee (16/3/14), the European PAS registry (EUPAS8748) and the German BfArM (NIS-Studien-Nr. 5508). All patients provided written informed consent before study enrollment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12890-022-02048-1
Monitoring efficacy of checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer
No full textAn Interim Analysis of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in Patients With Non-Squamous Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (nsNSCLC) Receiving Bevacizumab Vs Bevacizumab plus Pemetrexed for Maintenance Therapy in AVAPERL 1
No full textAn Interim Analysis of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in Patients With Non-Squamous Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (nsNSCLC) Receiving Bevacizumab Vs Bevacizumab plus Pemetrexed for Maintenance Therapy in AVAPERL 1
No full textTraining improves the handling of inhaler devices and reduces the severity of symptoms in geriatric patients suffering from chronic-obstructive pulmonary disease
No full textPurpose
The use of inhalers requires a high degree of fine motor skills and coordination, which is particularly difficult for elderly patients suffering from chronic-obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Many of these patients exhibit physical and cognitive impairments, such as impaired vision or cognitive decline. Accordingly, the number of medication inhalation errors among these patients is high which impedes optimal drug delivery to the bronchioles. This study was designed to offer a video-based training to reduce the number of mistakes in the inhalation process.
Methods
This prospective intervention study was conducted from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017 and included 38 patients older than 65 years suffering from COPD. Patients participated in a video-based training over an 8-day period. Before and after training, the number of mistakes, the perception of symptoms counted by COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) were compared by Wilcoxon signed rank test.
Results
After the training the patients made fewer mistakes (from 3.0 (0-7) to 0.5 (0-6; [median (minimum-maximum; p < 0.0001)]. The CAT Score was reduced from 19.5 (14/24) to 14.5 (10.75/21) [median (25./75. percentile; p < 0.0001)] while the parameters of lung function did not change significantly.
Conclusion
An intensive 8-day video-based training reduced the number of mistakes geriatric patients with COPD made when using inhalator devices. This also applies to patients with limited cognitive ability.2022-03-2
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
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