American journal of clinical oncology
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Am. J. Clin. Oncol. · Dec 2003
Clinical TrialChemoradiotherapy in the treatment of regional pancreatic carcinoma: a phase II study.
In locally advanced pancreatic cancer, the utilization of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is increasing, although in view of the reported long-term results of several contemporary trials, further improvements are certainly needed. Encouraging results using the combination of cisplatin, cytarabine, caffeine, and continuous infusion (CI) 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (PACE) for the treatment of advanced pancreatic carcinoma prompted a phase II study using PACE followed by external beam radiotherapy with CI of 5-FU (PACE-RT) for localized disease. Forty-one patients were treated with PACE-RT as adjuvant therapy after surgical resection (21 patients), or as primary therapy for locally advanced, unresectable disease (20 patients), with reevaluation for resection after completion of treatment. ⋯ The survival of these three patients undergoing resection after neo-adjuvant therapy was 22.4, 24.3 and 40 months. The treatment program was active, but only moderately well tolerated. Modification of this regimen with newer, less toxic drugs may provide better results and reduced toxicity.
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Am. J. Clin. Oncol. · Dec 2003
Case ReportsPET scan assessment of chemotherapy response in metastatic paraganglioma.
Paragangliomas are indolent tumors that arise from the chief cells of the paraganglia in the head and neck, mediastinum, and retroperitoneal regions. Less than 10% of paragangliomas metastasize. Paragangliomas are known to regress slowly and usually partially after radiation therapy, which has been attributed to the development of fibrosis within the abundant vascular elements of the tumor. ⋯ A response was demonstrated on PET scan with decreased [18F] fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose uptake after chemotherapy, but no significant changes were detected on serial computed tomography (CT) scans. The patient has remained free of disease progression 24 months after chemotherapy completion. It is suggested that metabolic imaging with PET scans is superior to anatomical imaging with CT scans for the monitoring of patients with paragangliomas.