Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Docetaxel (Taxotere): an active drug for the treatment of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. EORTC Early Clinical Trials Group.
Docetaxel (Taxotere) is a new cytotoxic agent acting as a promoter of tubulin polymerisation with broad spectrum antitumor activity in preclinical testing. Phase I clinical trials have shown promising activity of docetaxel in patients with breast, ovarian and lung carcinomas. The objective of this open multicentre phase II study was to determine the efficacy and tolerability of this agent in patients with head and neck cancer. ⋯ Docetaxel is an active drug in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Phase II study with docetaxel (Taxotere) in advanced soft tissue sarcomas of the adult. EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group.
Current regimens for treatment of distant metastases of soft tissues sarcomas result in response rates of about 25%. Therefore the search for active drugs remains a task for investigational groups. Taxoids offer a new class of cytostatic drugs. Docetaxel has been studied as a second line chemotherapy in advanced soft tissue sarcomas of the adult. ⋯ Taxotere has activity in adult soft tissue sarcoma in second line, warranting studies on first line efficacy.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Ovarian ablation versus goserelin with or without tamoxifen in pre-perimenopausal patients with advanced breast cancer: results of a multicentric Italian study.
Oophorectomy is one of the treatments of choice for premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. However, in recent years LH-RH analogs have replaced surgical castration (or ovarian irradiation) on the basis of the comparable therapeutic activity shown by these drugs in phase II studies. Moreover, the combination of tamoxifen and LH-RH analogs has gained popularity among clinicians attempting to obtain a 'total estrogen blockade' according to the same rationale previously proposed for advanced prostatic cancer. However, it has thus far not been proven that medical castration is as effective as oophorectomy or ovarian irradiation, nor is there enough evidence that tamoxifen could improve the efficacy of ovarian ablation. ⋯ The results of the present study confirm prospectively that the efficacy of chemical castration is comparable to that of oophorectomy (or ovarian irradiation). The concurrent use of tamoxifen can probably enhance the activity of goserelin, but it also induces more side effects. However, it doesn't appear that 'total estrogen blockade' is more effective than gonadal ablation alone. Indeed, the question of whether chemical and surgical castration have the same effect in breast cancer is still open as is the one concerning the interaction between tamoxifen and gonadal ablation. Both questions should be addressed by prospective studies.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Ondansetron plus dexamethasone is superior to ondansetron alone in the prevention of emesis in chemotherapy-naive and previously treated patients. Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK).
This prospective, randomized, double-blind study assessed whether the addition of dexamethasone to ondansetron leads to improved control of chemotherapy--induced emesis, both in patients undergoing their first course of highly emetogenic chemotherapy and in chemotherapy-pretreated patients refractory to standard anti-emetics. ⋯ The combination of dexamethasone plus ondansetron is more effective in protecting chemotherapy-naive patients undergoing their first course of highly emetogenic chemotherapy with cisplatin and chemotherapy-pretreated patients refractory to standard antiemetics from chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting compared to ondansetron plus placebo.