Cancer
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Cancer pain initiatives recommend using the personalized pain goal to tailor pain management. This study was conducted to examine the feasibility and stability of personalized pain goal, and how it compares to the clinical pain response criteria. ⋯ Personalized pain goal is a simple patient-reported outcome for pain goals. The majority of patients were capable of stating their desired level for pain relief. The median personalized pain goal was 3, and it was highly stable at follow-up assessment.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Long-term follow-up of patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy for large, extremity soft tissue sarcomas.
Patients with large, high-grade, extremity soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are at significant risk for distant recurrence and death. A regimen of preoperative chemotherapy consisting of mesna, Adriamycin (doxorubicin), ifosfamide, and dacarbazine (MAID), interdigitated with radiotherapy (RT) and followed by resection and postoperative chemotherapy with or without RT, has demonstrated high rates of local and distant control. We report the long-term follow-up data on 48 patients treated with this regimen compared to an historical matched-control patient population. ⋯ For patients with high-risk, extremity STS, the significant survival benefits conferred by an intense regimen of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery are sustained even with long-term follow-up.
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Since 1975, there has been a dramatic increase in the survival rates of pediatric and older cancer patients, but adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients ages 15 to 40 years have not had a similar improvement. Data indicate a direct correlation between increased cure rates and clinical trial enrollment. ⋯ Data from this study demonstrated that establishing a unified AYA oncology program can lead to improved clinical trial enrollment for patients who are treated at medical oncology centers.
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Bortezomib has demonstrated efficacy in patients with relapsed B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) both alone and in combination with other agents; however, limited data exist regarding its toxicity in combination with common frontline therapies for indolent NHL. A phase 1 study of bortezomib combined with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, modified vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) was conducted in patients with untreated follicular lymphoma (FL) and other indolent NHLs. ⋯ Bortezomib combined with modified R-CHOP produced high response rates without substantial increases in toxicity. A phase 2 study of R-CHOP and bortezomib given at this established MTD is currently ongoing.
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To identify potential genetic markers for severe oxaliplatin-induced chronic peripheral neuropathy (OXCPN), the authors performed a genome-wide association analysis of patients with colon cancer who received oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy. ⋯ The current results indicated that a genome-wide pharmacogenomic approach is useful for identifying novel polymorphism predictors of severe OXCPN that may be used in personalized chemotherapy.