Acta oncologica
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Randomized trial of opioids versus tricyclic antidepressants for radiation-induced mucositis pain in head and neck cancer.
Patients who receive radiotherapy for head and neck cancer are likely to develop painful mucositis. The pain is characterized by a burning or stinging sensation similar to neuropathic pain sensations. The purpose of the present study was to compare the analgesic effect of a tricyclic antidepressant (TC), commonly used in the treatment of neuropathic pain, with the effect of opioids on radiation-induced mucositis pain. ⋯ Higher pain scores in the TC arm, but not in the opioid arm, were significantly correlated with higher BDI scores. Some head and neck cancer patients with radiation-induced nucositis pain may have sufficient pain control on TC alone. This might be useful in patients with relative counter-indications to opioid treatment.
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A systematic review of chemotherapy trials in several tumour types was performed by The Swedish Council of Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU). The procedures for the evaluation of the scientific literature are described separately (Acta Oncol 2001; 40: 155-65). This synthesis of the literature on adjuvant and palliative therapy with cytostatics for colorectal cancer is based on 208 scientific articles, including eight meta-analyses and 162 randomised studies. ⋯ The addition of oxaliplatin or irinotecan to existing fluorouracil regimens improves response rates and duration of response, and possibly overall survival. Based upon the results of two randomised studies, there is a role for irinotecan as second line therapy for selected patients who have failed first-line therapy with fluorouracil plus leucovorin. The role of these agents, alone or in combinations, in clinical routine remains, however, to be determined due to more pronounced toxicity than caused b
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A systematic review of chemotherapy trials in several tumour types was performed by The Swedish Council of Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU). The procedures for the evaluation of the scientific literature are described separately (Acta Oncol 2001; 40: 155-65). This synthesis of the literature on chemotherapy for breast cancer is based on 233 randomised studies, 9 meta-analysis of randomised studies, a population-based cohort study and 18 overviews/retrospective analyses including a total of 155,243 patients. ⋯ In standard care, first line therapy should contain an anthracycline and second line therapy using vinorelbine or docetaxel could be offered to selected patients failing first line therapy. Based on numerous randomised studies, breast cancer demonstrates a positive dose-response relationship both in the adjuvant situation and for metastatic disease. However, in the conventional dose-range there seems to be a plateau in the dose-response curve, with no further survival gains for high
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A systematic review of chemotherapy trials in several tumour types was performed by The Swedish Council of Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU). The procedures for the evaluation of the scientific literature are described separately (Acta Oncol 2001; 40: 155-65). This synthesis of the literature on chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is based on 129 scientific articles: one meta-analysis, 51 randomised trials, 39 prospective and 18 retrospective studies, and 20 other articles. ⋯ Allogeneic stem cell transplantation after minimal or reduced myeloablative conditioning ('mini-transplantation' or non-myelo stem cell transplantation) induces a host-vs-graft tolerance and an immune graft-vs-leukaemia effect. This new concept of immunotherapy seems to have a low procedure-related mortality, but long-term effects are unknown and evaluation in controlled clinical studies is required. Patients with relapsed AML can only infrequently achieve long-term remissions with chemotherapy in conventional doses. trolled data indicate that allogeneic transplantation can be a curative treatment for these patients a
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Increasingly more aggressive chemotherapy together with expected small differences between treatments with respect to objective endpoints has heightened awareness about the importance of addressing how patients experience and value the impact that treatment has had on their overall life situation. Assessment of a patient's quality of life (QoL) is now conceptually viewed as an important complement to traditional objective evaluation measures. It was therefore considered important to review the basis for the assessment of this endpoint when The Swedish Council of Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU) performed a systematic overview of chemotherapy effects in several tumour types. ⋯ Hopefully, this also implies that it will be possible to draw firmer conclusions from QoL measurements in recently completed or ongoing trials than has been the case previously. QoL assessments are resource demanding even when short standardized questionnaires are used. Since cancer patients also generally give priority to anticancer effects over toxicity and convenience, QoL assessments in clinical trials are motivated mainly in study settings comparing treatments without expected major differences of outcome in objective endpoints.