Cancer
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Adjuvant radiotherapy versus combined sequential chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy in the treatment of resected nonsmall cell lung carcinoma. A randomized trial of 267 patients. GETCB (Groupe d'Etude et de Traitement des Cancers Bronchiques).
The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy after resection of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains an unresolved question. ⋯ The COPAC chemotherapy as postoperative treatment failed to improve overall survival in patients with resected NSCLC receiving postoperative radiotherapy but decreased the pattern of metastatic progression, mainly in the N2 patients.
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Case Reports
Successful treatment of invasive thoracopulmonary mucormycosis in a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Pulmonary mucormycosis associated with hematologic malignancy is an uncommon, but important opportunistic fungal pneumonia that is usually a fatal infection. Only a few survivors of pulmonary mucormycosis have been reported. ⋯ In the management of mucormycosis, the addition of G-CSF to the conventional treatment may substantially improve outcome.
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Review Comparative Study
Progress in reducing nausea and emesis. Comparisons of ondansetron (Zofran), granisetron (Kytril), and tropisetron (Navoban).
Nausea and vomiting are the most distressing side effects associated with the administration of chemotherapy for neoplastic diseases. Nausea, in particular, often had been ignored in studies of chemotherapy side effects. Recently, progress has been made in the control of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, due, in part, to a better understanding of the physiologic mechanisms involved. ⋯ (1) The 5HT3 antiemetic agents have been shown to be clinically more effective in the control of nausea and emesis than previously used agents. (2) No one of the three has demonstrated consistently greater efficacy. (3) Efficacy appears to be more pronounced for cisplatin-containing regimens than for moderate or less emetogenic chemotherapy regimens. (4) Effectiveness of the 5HT3 agents appears to be less for delayed nausea and emesis than for acute symptoms. Potential control of anticipatory nausea and emesis has not been investigated. (5) Control over nausea appears to be significantly less than control over emesis. In the studies in which it has been measured, nausea control remains incomplete for approximately half the patients given 5HT3 agents. (6) The efficacy of the agents appears to diminish across repeated days and, perhaps, across repeated chemotherapy cycles. (7) The addition of a steroid such as dexamethasone increases the efficacy of both 5HT3 and other antiemetic agents. This effect also seems to apply to delayed nausea and emesis.
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Comparative Study
Prognosis of early esophageal cancer. Comparison between adeno- and squamous cell carcinoma.
The purpose of this study was to compare the prognosis of patients with T1 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) with those with T1 adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and to explain prognostic differences by an analysis of clinicopathologic characteristics. ⋯ The prognosis of patients with early esophageal cancer depends on the histologic tumor type. Patients with T1 SCC should be examined for another primary cancer before surgery and during follow-up.
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Review Case Reports
Spontaneous pneumothorax complicating chemotherapy for metastatic seminoma. A case report and a review of the literature.
Spontaneous pneumothorax complicating chemotherapy has been reported mainly in metastatic sarcoma, particularly of the osteogenic type. The main factor in the etiology of spontaneous pneumothorax could be related to tumor lysis and/or rapid rupture of chemosensitive peripheral or subpleural metastasis into the pleural cavity, thus leading to a bronchopleural fistula. ⋯ To the authors' knowledge, this is only the second case of spontaneous pneumothorax complicating chemotherapy-induced rapid regression of lung and mediastinal metastases in patients with seminoma. Spontaneous pneumothorax should be included in the spectrum of chemotherapy-related side effects in chemosensitive solid tumors with lung metastases.