Anticancer research
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Between November 1985 and October 1989, 1413 patients were admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) of our cancer hospital. Data collected at admission and during the ICU stay were analysed for: 1) medical problems and treatment modalities requiring the admission; 2) types of underlying disease; 3) mortality during intensive care; 4) nursing requirements. Of the 1413 admissions, 1220 were for solid tumors (mainly ovarian cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer) and 144 for hematological malignancies. ⋯ Overall mortality was 22%. Of 64 patients treated by artificial ventilation, 46 (72%) died during their ICU stay. 732 admissions were made in order for administration and monitoring of special treatment or new therapeutic modalities including phase I drug infusion, intraperitoneal chemotherapy, intensive (megadosage) chemotherapy, lipophilic drug containing liposomes and coadministration of platinum derivatives. Our experience emphasizes the role of ICU facilities in modern oncology for both optimal supportive care in emergency cases and the safe development of new anticancer modalities.
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Anticancer research · Nov 1991
Adjuvant hormone treatment and chemotherapy in postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer: a retrospective analysis.
Two hundred consecutive postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer and metastatic axillary nodes were treated during the period January - December 1981 with adjuvant chemotherapy (CMF) or hormonal treatment (tamoxifen). The distribution of receptor status (estrogen or progesterone), number of axillary metastatic nodes (less than = 3 or greater than 3), surgical treatment and size of the primary tumor were homogeneous in both groups. Receptor status and number of axillary lymph nodes were correlated with adjuvant treatment efficacy. ⋯ Considering the TAM group, DFS was better (p less than 0.01) for ER+ cases than for ER- cases only at 5 years of observation. In the CMF group, DFS was not influenced by ER status. PgR content did not affect DFS in either adjuvant treatment group.
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Anticancer research · Nov 1990
Effect of normal saline on cisplatin pharmacokinetics and antitumor activity in mice bearing P388 leukemia.
The effect of normal saline (NS) on the antitumor activity, toxicity and pharmacokinetic of cisplatin (DDP) was investigated in BDF1 mice bearing P388 leukemia. Tumor-bearing mice received 8 or 16 mg/Kg of DDP dissolved in NS or distilled water (DW) intraperitoneally. Control animals were treated with DW or NS alone. ⋯ HPLC studies indicated that mice receiving 8 mg/kg DDP+NS or DDP+DW fail to show clear differences both in the total ultrafilterable platinum and unchanged DDP in plasma ultrafiltrate. Conversely, mice treated with DDP+NS had higher concentrations of platinum-species in plasma ultrafiltrate than mice receiving DDP+DW. These latter results, together with the observation that NS decreases the amount of platinum bound to plasma proteins, suggest that the effect of NS does not solely depend in vivo on the ability of the chloride ion concentration to stabilize the DDP molecule and suppress the formation of DDP metabolites, but also on its ability to prevent DDP toxicity by reducing the protein binding of DDP aquated products.
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Between the years 1960 and 1983, 26 patients with the diagnosis of ependymoma were treated at our institution. Twenty-one patients received postoperative radiotherapy, of whom six patients had supratentorial tumors and 15 had infratentorial tumors. The median dose to the brain was 53.75 Gy with a range of 30-60 Gy. ⋯ The five-year survival was 38% in patients with infratentorial tumors who received craniospinal irradiation as compared to 33% with whole brain and 0% with partial brain radiation including the spine. All five patients with high grade infratentorial tumors subsequently failed in the cerebrospinal axis despite cranio-spinal irradiation in two and partial brain plus whole spine in another two of the patients. In conclusion, the favorable prognostic factors (in order of increasing importance) for patients with intracranial ependymomas are: age greater than 15 (marginal), complete resection and low histological grade.
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Anticancer research · Jul 1989
ProMACE-CytaBOM: combination chemotherapy for diffuse large cell lymphoma.
ProMACE CytaBOM, a polychemotherapy regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, etoposide cytozar, bleomycin, vincristine, methotrexate and prednisone was administered on an outpatient basis to six consecutive patients with diffuse large cell lymphoma. All achieved a complete remission (CR). Two have relapsed. ⋯ The side effects of ProMACE CytoBOM were tolerable and included mainly vincristine induced peripheral neuropathy, infections and mucositis. Our results are consistent with the SWOG results, reported only recently, using the same combination chemotherapy regimen in patient with intermediate and high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. We conclude that ProMACE CytaBOM represents a highly effective and easy-to-administer regimen in patients with large cell lymphoma.