Oncology
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To define the cyclophosphamide (CTX) maximal tolerated dose when combined with fixed doses of gemcitabine, fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (leucovorin, LFA) in metastatic breast cancer patients pretreated with anthracyclines and taxanes. ⋯ The gemcitabine-CTX-5-FU/LFA combination is a well-tolerated treatment for poor-prognosis breast cancer patients with previous exposure to anthracyclines and taxanes. With the addition of G-CSF, a cumulative CTX dose of 1,600 mg/m(2) can be safely delivered every 3 weeks. The evidence of an ORR approaching 40% is very promising and justifies further evaluations in this subset of patients.
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Since the combination of cisplatin and docetaxel have demonstrated activity in squamous cell carcinomas of the lung and oesophagus before, promising results in recurrent metastatic head and neck cancer were expected. ⋯ Our data suggest that docetaxel and cisplatin in combination is an effective and fairly well tolerated regimen for the treatment of head and neck cancer with an excellent response rate in previously untreated patients.
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To evaluate the activity and safety of an alternating schedule of irinotecan (CPT-11) with high-dose 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) given as a weekly 48-hour infusion in combination with leucovorin (LV) in the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) patients. ⋯ Our alternating schedule of 5-FU/LV and CPT-11 is a well-tolerated outpatient treatment as front-line therapy for MCRC with comparable efficacy to regimens with both drugs given together.
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Clinical Trial
Temozolomide in patients with glioblastoma at second relapse after first line nitrosourea-procarbazine failure: a phase II study.
To investigate the efficacy of temozolomide (TMZ) in relationship to progression free survival at 6 months (PFS-6), median time to progression (TTP), response rate and toxicity, a phase II study was conducted in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) following surgery plus radiotherapy and a first-line regimen based on nitrosourea, procarbazine and vincristine. ⋯ TMZ as a second line regimen is a valid option in patients with heavily pretreated GBM.