Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology
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Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. · Mar 2011
Two phase I studies of concurrent radiation therapy with continuous-infusion 5-fluorouracil plus epirubicin, and either cisplatin or irinotecan for locally advanced upper gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas.
Multimodality therapy with chemotherapy and radiation treatment may improve disease control and overall outcome of locally advanced upper gastrointestinal (UGI) malignancies including esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, and biliary tract carcinomas. However, more effective and less toxic chemotherapy regimens with concomitant radiotherapy are needed beyond concurrent continuous-infusion fluorouracil (CIFU) with radiation that is commonly applied in general practice. Epirubicin, cisplatin, and irinotecan are active cytotoxic chemotherapy agents in UGI cancers. ⋯ Both regimens are safe with expected toxicities, and the efficacy of both regimens was encouraging. Further larger scale studies should be considered.
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Epileptic seizures in patients with malignancies usually occur as a consequence of brain metastases from systemic cancer or the presence of a primary brain tumor. Other less-frequent causes include metabolic disorders such as electrolyte abnormalities, hypoglycemia, hypoxia and liver failure, paraneoplastic encephalitis, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, side effects of certain chemotherapeutic agents, central nervous system infections, and pre-existing epilepsy. ⋯ Future clinical trials in patients with cancer and epilepsy should focus on combinations of chemotherapeutic interventions with antiepileptic drugs that demonstrate antineoplastic activities.