Cancer

A neoadjuvant or palliative 4-drug combination (5-fluourouracil, bleomycin, epirubicin, and cisplatin) was found to be active in locally advanced and metastatic undifferentiated carcinoma of the nasopharynx.

SKI-2053R, a new platinum analog, was active in the treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma and had favorable toxicity profiles.

Colorectal carcinoma screening of a high risk population is efficacious in reducing mortality and cost-effective for countries with intermediate or low incidence of the disease.

Tissue cysteine proteases, cathepsin B and cathespin L (CATL), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (UPA) and tissue-type plasminogen activator, both serine proteases, and their inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) are involved in colorectal tumor biology and in the processes of invasion and metastasis. Together with Dukes stage, determination of CATL, UPA, and PAI-1 have a major prognostic impact in colorectal carcinoma.

In this study, the mean age and gender ratio were found to vary for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma depending on viral etiology. An area in which hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma was prevalent was identified in a region to which hepatitis B virus was endemic.

In the face of donor shortage, hepatocellular carcinoma developing in a well compensated cirrhotic liver initially may be treated with hepatic resection. Transplantation should be applied selectively to those patients with tumor recurrence and/or progressive hepatic failure.

Noncontiguous involvement of thoracic lymph nodes was found in approximately 15% of patients who had complete surgical resection of nonsmall cell lung carcinoma. This suggests that lack of involvement of N1 lymph nodes does not rule out mediastinal involvement.

Patients with advanced bronchioloalveolar carcinoma of the lung are more likely to have bilateral pulmonary involvement, are less likely to develop brain metastases, and have longer survival than patients with other forms of advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma.

In the current study, expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen was found to be a significant prognostic factor for both primary and metastatic lesions in patients with intrapulmonary metastases. CD44 variant exon 6 (CD44v6) showed histogenesis of the tumor, but no relation with the prognosis could be ascertained.

An association between familial factors and histologic type of lung carcinoma has been suggested. Genetic factors that may determine individual susceptibility to lung carcinogenesis should be investigated according to each histologic type.

Dose-intense MVP400 had no advantage over MVP before surgery or irradiation for patients with locally advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma. The authors continue to recommend MVP as an induction chemotherapy regimen for clinical trials.

Sacrococcygeal teratoma is rare in adults but should be included in the differential diagnosis of pelvic tumors. Long term survival can be achieved with adequate surgical excision.

L-asparaginase in combination with methotrexate has synergistic antileukemia activity in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A new formulation of L-asparaginase, polyethylene-glycol conjugated (PEG)-asparaginase, has a longer half-life and is less immunogenic. A combination of methotrexate, vincristine, PEG-asparaginase, and prednisone was used to treat 32 patients with refractory or recurrent ALL. Seven patients (22%) achieved a complete remission (CR). The median duration of the CR was 16 weeks and the median survival of the patients was 12 weeks.

Herpes lymphadenitis may be seen in association with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The infection may follow an indolent course even if untreated.

A review of 314 patients treated for relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia identified factors associated with poor outcomes: older age, short duration of first complete response, and circulating blasts. Despite favorable responses in some subgroups, the overall results with therapy were uniformly poor, highlighting the need to identify strategies to improve first remission duration and the need for further research of new agents.

Data from the current study showed that bone marrow transplantation (BMT) had an adverse impact on sexual health and fertility compared with consolidation chemotherapy (CCT) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were included in the AML 10 trial. These aspects of quality of life were assessed ≥1 year after the completion of therapy in patients whose disease remained in remission. Because the survival benefits of BMT over CCT are quite modest, these iatrogenic effects should be considered when deciding on appropriate treatment for leukemia and follow-up management for patients whose AML is in first complete remission.

Patients with lymphomatoid papulosis were found to have an increased risk for both lymphoid and nonlymphoid malignancies.

This case report documents a clonal chromosome abnormality of der(17)t(X;17)(p11.2;q25) in alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS), suggesting that further molecular analyses focused on 17q25 and Xp11.2 are of interest and could help to elucidate the pathogenesis of ASPS.

Due to toxicity, a revised maximum tolerated dose for continuous infusion vinorelbine is proposed. The current dosing schedule did not offer an advantage in either response rates or survival compared with the weekly vinorelbine bolus injection in doxorubicin-resistant and paclitaxel-resistant patients.

Axillary lymph node extranodal soft tissue extension does not appear to correlate with an increased risk of axillary recurrence, even without axillary irradiation.

The expression of cadherin and catenin cell-cell adhesion proteins was analyzed in 183 paraffin embedded breast carcinoma tissue sections by immunohistochemistry. The expression of P-cadherin was found to correlate with poor survival of patients.

Frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 1 is observed in cervical carcinoma. This suggests that inactivation of tumor suppressor genes is important in the tumorigenesis of this disease. Significantly higher frequencies of LOH found in Stage III and IV disease compared with Stage I and II suggest that these chromosomal changes are late events related to tumor progression.

Type I (pro)collagen synthesis and corresponding protein maturation were studied in uterine carcinosarcomas by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. The undifferentiated cells of uterine carcinosarcomas are capable of producing their own stroma with irregularly arranged collagen bundles.

p53-dependent apoptosis in tumors is strongly related to chemosensitivity in epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

Patient management strategies utilized by urologists caring for prostate carcinoma patients after radical prostatectomy vary appreciably. A survey of urologists was used to determine the reasons for variation in practices. The age of the practitioner was found to have a significant effect on the management of at-risk patients, although the effect was small.

Sequential cohorts of patients treated with radical radiotherapy for bladder carcinoma using attempts at hypoxia modification were analyzed. The current approach using accelerated radiotherapy, carbogen, and nicotinamide has high local control rates compared with previous experience with no increase in morbidity. The authors propose Phase III trials to test this approach further.

In the current study the treatment of muscle invasive or metastatic urothelial carcinoma with methotrexate, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and leucovorin was found to be associated with a 63% response rate and moderate toxicity.

In this study the authors determined the activation state of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, KDR, in all grades of astrocytic neoplasms using an antibody that recognizes the phosphorylation state of tyrosines 1054/1059 in the receptor. Immunoblotting with this antibody shows that the receptor is phosphorylated constitutively within multiple fresh surgical specimens of glioblastomas (70%) and anaplastic gliomas (15%), but not in low grade gliomas. This strongly supports the hypothesis that the onset of angiogenesis is an important event during disease progression in gliomas.

The incidence of cancer was significantly lower among 694 patients with Huntington disease (HD) compared with 695 healthy relatives and population estimates. The authors of this study hypothesize that this was due to an apoptotic effect of the expanded polyglutamine tract in the protein encoded by the HD gene.

The available literature regarding the use of intrathecal chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with ependymal or leptomeningeal extension of malignant glioma is scant. Intrathecal therapy with thiotriethylenephosphoramide delivered via a ventricular reservoir system should be considered when patients with malignant glioma present with ependymal or leptomeningeal extension.

Overexpression of tissue factor by pituitary adenoma cells may contribute to the development of vascular events, such as infarction and/or hemorrhagic infarction, in pituitary adenomas.