Cancer
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Since June 1978, 57 patients with primary osteogenic sarcoma of an extremity were treated with high-dose methotrexate (HDMTX) and citrovorum factor rescue (CFR), Adriamycin, and the combination of bleomycin, cyclophosphamide and dactinomycin (BCD) given for 4-16 weeks prior to definitive surgery. Histologic examination of the resected primary tumor determined the effect of preoperative chemotherapy with many primary tumors showing greater than 90% tumor necrosis attributable to preoperative chemotherapy. All patients having this favorable effect of chemotherapy on the primary tumor were continued on the same chemotherapy regimen postoperatively (regimen B). ⋯ Thus, 53 of 57 patients (93%) are continuously with no evidence of recurrent or metastatic disease from 6-35 months (median, 20 months) from the start of treatment. This study demonstrates the value of thorough histologic examination in predicting survival in responding patients and in helping identify patients whose disease-free survival rate can be substantially increased if they are given alternative postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy after failing to have a good response to preoperative chemotherapy. This individualized chemotherapeutic strategy has yielded the highest disease-free survival rate reported to date for osteogenic sarcoma.
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For 1704 patients with large bowel cancer compiled by the Armed Forces Central Medical Registry, selected prognostic factors were related to five-year or longer survival. The majority of late deaths (those occurring after five years) resulted from cancer in the descending colon, sigmoid colon or rectum rather than from cancer in the right or transverse colon. For example, among all patients with cancer of the rectum, 15.4% of those with Dukes' B tumors and 10.9% of those with Dukes' C tumors died of rectal cancer between five and ten years after diagnosis. ⋯ Of all patients who died of large bowel cancer after five years, 69% had a recurrence of cancer by 60 months, and most late recurrences were located in the descending and sigmoid colon and in the rectum. These results show differences in survival after five years with respect to both site of cancer in the colon and stage of initial disease. Our findings indicate that many left-sided large bowel cancers have a slowly progressive natural history.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Adriamycin combinations in advanced breast cancer. A Southwest Oncology Group Study.