Cancer

Tamoxifen therapy increases the risk of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (DVT/PE), but to the authors' knowledge it is not yet known whether the risk changes with the amount of time elapsed since the initial tamoxifen prescription. The findings of the current study suggested that the first 2 years after the initiation of tamoxifen therapy were possibly the most crucial time for monitoring DVT/PE risk, particularly in older women.

In this analysis of 600 hundred consecutive patients with esophageal cancer who underwent surgery, patients aged ≤60 years achieved the best overall survival and experienced fewer surgical complications compared with older patients, and patients aged >70 years consistently had shorter overall survival and higher rates of surgical complications. The results indicated that age is an important variable in the selection of patients for esophageal cancer surgery.

The gold (III) complex gold 1a had antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo in human colon cancer. The cytotoxic effect acted mainly through the induction of apoptosis and through cell cycle arrest.

This study identified clinical risk factors for disease progression in prostate cancer patients treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Risk category, percentage of positive biopsies, age, and prostate–specific antigen velocity while receiving ADT were found to be significantly associated with the development of metastatic disease after ADT.

When biochemical recurrence occurs, prognostic factors for survival change. Low initial prostate‒specific antigen (PSA) level, short time to biochemical recurrence, and rapid PSA doubling time take over at this point, providing reasons why initial PSA and biochemical recurrence alone predict prostate cancer–specific survival unsatisfactorily.

The authors documented findings that Dickkopf 3 (DKK3) polymorphisms were associated with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and that the DKK2 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (SNP reference number 17037102) may be a predictor of survival in patients with RCC after they undergo radical nephrectomy.

The combination of docetaxel and irinotecan was evaluated in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Although toxicities were acceptable, treatment efficacy does not seem to be superior to other chemotherapy regimens for this disease.

Patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer are frequently treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Recent meta-analyses have confirmed the advantage of concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck when compared with the use of radiotherapy alone. In the current study, concurrent chemoradiotherapy with an accelerated concomitant boost and carboplatin/paclitaxel was found to be highly active in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer.

This report outlines the power of a combined diagnostic approach for suspected initial cases of myelodysplastic syndromes, including immunophenotyping, cytogenetics, and molecular genetics with selected markers in addition to cytomorphology.

Use of radioimmunotherapy (⁹⁰Y ibritumomab) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia with <25% bone marrow involvement leads to significant and prolonged myelosuppression with limited clinical efficacy.

The authors conducted a randomized phase 2 trial of frontline rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) with the addition of bortezomib in patients with B-cell lymphoma. R-CHOP with bortezomib was an effective regimen and produced an 84% complete response rate, although bortezomib had the potential for dose-limiting neurotoxicity.

By applying a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) to elderly patients with diffuse large cell lymphoma (DLCL) independently from treatment given, the authors identified a cohort of “fit” patients who could tolerate an anthracycline-based treatment and achieve an outcome similar to that of younger patients affected by DLCL. Patients classified as “unfit” according to CGA had a poorer outcome, despite receiving intensive treatment with curative intent or palliation only.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of increased p53-induced RING-H2 protein (PIRH2) expression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The study also demonstrated that increased expression of PIRH2 correlates with poor survival in patients with HCC, indicating that PIRH2 may be a novel prognostic marker for HCC.

Explanted livers from patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatitis C cirrhosis had higher rates of biliary intraepithelial neoplasia (BilIN), higher grades of BilIN, and more extensive BilIN as compared with noncirrhotic controls. These findings add morphologic support for the epidemiologic association between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, alcoholic hepatitis, and hepatitis C infection.

Yes-associated protein (YAP) is overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, with poor prognostic outcomes, and is clinically correlated with poor tumor differentiation grade and high serum α-fetoprotein level. The authors found that YAP is highly associated with aggressive liver cancer, is a new biomarker for this disease, and is a potential therapeutic target.

A total of 240 positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans were obtained in 80 patients with head and neck cancer who were treated with radiotherapy from July, 2005 through August, 2007. Although follow-up PET/CT is associated with a high false-positive rate in the irradiated head and neck, PET/CT is highly sensitive in detecting recurrent disease and negative scans are accurate and provide significant prognostic value.

The authors found that Asian and Pacific Islander (API) gastric cancer patients in the United States are more likely to receive surgery and adequate lymph node assessment compared with non-Hispanic white patients. Foreign-born, but not US-born API patients were also found to experience significantly more favorable survival outcomes than non-Hispanic white patients; this remained significant even after adjusting for tumor characteristics and treatment.

The results of this randomized, controlled trial indicated that a treatment funding program, routine efforts to ensure that eligible patients received the funding, and either telephone-delivered navigational information and reminders or written informational materials in Spanish, if preferred, had the potential to facilitate cancer treatment adherence among underserved, low-income Hispanic women in safety-net programs.

Data from the French Network of Cancer Registries from 205,562 patients aged <75 years who were diagnosed with cancer between 1989 and 1997 indicated that age did not influence the long-term conditional probabilities of death in the same manner for cancers of the colon or rectum, lung, breast, and prostate. The results from this survival analysis expand current knowledge about these differences in survival.

The overall pattern from measures of neurocognitive function indicated that there were improvements over 18 months in patients who had chronic myelogenous leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. When mental status side effects were considered, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients compared favorably with patients who received other treatment.

Radiotherapy for laryngopharyngeal cancer resulted in significant acute and long-term complications. This prospective study demonstrated that patients who successfully quit smoking before they started treatment had significantly fewer complications.