Cancer
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Comparative Study
The role of surgery and postoperative chemoradiation therapy in patients with lymph node positive esophageal carcinoma.
Patients who have undergone resection for lymph node positive esophageal carcinoma are at high risk of disease recurrence and early death. The role of postoperative adjuvant therapy in this population needs to be determined. ⋯ Postoperative CRT appears to prolong survival in patients with lymph node positive, resected esophageal carcinoma.
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Comparative Study
Advanced head and neck carcinoma in women: treatment outcomes may not improve with accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy.
The authors undertook a retrospective study on local tumor control, survival, and complications of conventional irradiation compared with accelerated hyperfractionated irradiation in women with selected head and neck tumor sites. ⋯ This study suggests that accelerated hyperfractionated irradiation for women with advanced carcinoma of the head and neck does not provide significantly better local tumor control or cause specific disease free survival compared with conventional fractionation. Women with these malignancies appear to have a better prognosis compared with men.
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Acute graft versus host disease (GVHD) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Preclinical studies have suggested that a T-cell subset with a CD4-/CD8- double-negative (DN) T-cell phenotype is capable of suppressing GVHD. Double-negative T cells can be mobilized into the peripheral blood with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and enriched by density centrifugation. The current study was performed to study the feasibility and safety of applying a density gradient separation technique for enrichment of CD34+ and DN T cells, while depleting CD4+ and CD8+ single-positive (SP) T cells from peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) for the purpose of allogeneic transplantation. ⋯ These data suggest that T-cell subset manipulation via density gradient separation is a safe procedure and allowed rapid hematopoietic recovery. Selective enrichment of a donor DN T-cell subset was observed in only a few and was not associated with a reduced incidence of GVHD. However, the low-density selected cells still resulted in GVHD, and there was a high treatment-related mortality.
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In the current study the authors examined the pharmacokinetics of direct intralesional injection of cisplatin/epinephrine/bovine collagen gel in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis. ⋯ The prolonged t-max and initial half-life noted with the intralesional injection of cisplatin/epinephrine/collagen gel are consistent with its proclaimed ability to retain cisplatin at the tumor and delay its release in systemic circulation. The kinetics of intralesional cisplatin injection also suggest local sequestration of the drug in the injected site. Parameters of intravenous cisplatin infusion in cirrhotic patients are similar to those of patients from the historic control group.
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Clinical Trial
Phase II trial of epirubicin, cisplatin, oral uracil and tegafur, and leucovorin in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma.
The results of chemotherapy for patients with gastric carcinoma generally have been modest, although regimens developed more recently have produced higher response rates. One such regimen is epirubicin, cisplatin, and protracted infusion of 5-fluorouracil (ECF). The advantage of a long-term oral administration of uracil and tegafur (UFT) is that this treatment may be used to mimic the protracted infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). In addition, UFT treatment combined with leucovorin had a favorable activity and tolerable toxicity in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma. Instead of the inconvenience of an infusion pump and intravenous catheter for the protracted infusion of 5-FU, the authors administered UFT plus leucovorin in an ECF regimen for the treatment of patients with advanced gastric carcinoma. ⋯ The authors conclude that epirubicin, cisplatin, and oral UFT plus leucovorin, a convenient regimen, has a significant activity and tolerable toxicities in patients with gastric carcinoma.