Outcomes of treatment of unresectable esophageal carcinoma treated with chemoradiotherapy and oral metronomic chemotherapy: An experience from a rural cancer center

Introduction: Esophageal carcinoma is the eight most common cancer in the world. The management of locally advancedcarcinoma esophagus is mainly palliative with chemoradiotherapy. The outcome data of such a modality along with oralmetronomic chemotherapy after treatment completion are sparse. Here, we present the outcomes of treatment of locally advancedunresectable esophageal cancer after palliative chemoradiotherapy and oral metronomic therapy from a rural setting in India.Methods: Retrospective analysis of all patients of locally advanced unresectable nonmetastatic esophageal carcinoma treatedwith short course of induction chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy and oral metronomic chemotherapywas performed. The primary aim was estimation of progression free-survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: A total of45 patients were analyzed. Mean age was 55 years (30-85 years). A total of 32 patients had tumors in upper and middle esophagus,with the most common histology being squamous cell carcinoma (N-41). The estimated 2 year PFS is 47.2% and the estimated2 years OS is 57.8%. Conclusion: Combined modality therapy with adjuvant oral metronomic therapy shows promising results inthe management and should be the basis of further trials

Osmo-air drying of aloe vera gel cubes

Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) cubes of 12.5 × 12.5 × 12.5 mm thick were osmosed for 4 h in sugar syrup of 30, 40 and 50°Brix concentration and temperatures of 30 and 50°C at constant syrup to fruit ratio of 5:1. Osmosed and unosmosed aloe vera samples were hot air dried at 50, 60, 70 and 80°C with constant air velocity of 1.5 m/s. The water loss, solid gain and convective drying behaviour were recorded during experiments. It was observed that water loss and solid gain ranged from 39.2 to 71.3 and 2.7 to 6.3%, respectively during osmo-drying. The moisture diffusivity varied from 2.9 to 8.0 × 10−9 m²/s and 2.7 to 4.6 × 10−9 m²/s during air drying of osmosed and unosmosed aloe vera samples, respectively. Drying air temperature and osmosis as pre-treatment affected the water loss, solid gain, diffusivity at −p ≤ 0.0

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Not AvailableThe encyrtid Pseudleptomastix mexicana Noyes and Schauff was recovered for the first time from the papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink in India in 2011-12 after 10 to 20 months of release in Bangalore and also in Pune in April 2012. However, parasitism by P. mexicana on P. marginatus did not exceed more than five per cent in both the locations.Not Availabl

Studies on Formulation Development of Mucoadhesive Sustained Release Itraconazole Tablet Using Response Surface Methodology

The purpose of this research was to prepare and evaluate sustained release mucoadhesive tablets of Itraconazole. It is practically insoluble in aqueous fluids hence its solid dispersion with Eudragit E100 was prepared by spray drying. This was formulated in matrix of hydrophilic mucoadhesive polymers Carbopol 934P (CP) and Methocel K4M (HPMC). The formulation was optimized using a 32 factorial design. Amounts of CP and HPMC were taken as formulation variables for optimizing response variables i.e. mucoadhesion and dissolution parameters. The optimized mucoadhesive formulation was orally administered to albino rabbits, and blood samples collected were used to determine pharmacokinetic parameters. The solid dispersion markedly enhanced the dissolution rate of itraconazole. The bioadhesive strength of formulation was found to vary linearly with increasing amount of both polymers. Formulations exhibited drug release fitting Peppas model with value of n ranging from 0.61 to 1.18. Optimum combination of polymers was arrived at which provided adequate bioadhesive strength and fairly regulated release profile. The experimental and predicted results for optimum formulations were found to be in close agreement. The formulation showed Cmax 1898 ± 75.23 ng/ml, tmax of the formulation was 2 h and AUC was observed to be 28604.9 ng h/m