Evaluating bevacizumab in combination with FOLFIRI after the failure of platinum-etoposide regimen in patients with advanced poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma: The PRODIGE 41–BEVANEC randomized phase II study

IF 3.061International audienceIntroduction : Patients with gastroenteropancreatic (GEP), metastatic or locally advanced, non-resectable, grade 3 poorly-differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) are treated with cisplatin (or carboplatin)-etoposide in first-line palliative chemotherapy (CT1). However, nearly all patients will develop resistance and there is no standard second-line treatment.Aim :PRODIGE 41–BEVANEC is an academic randomized, phase II study designed to evaluate the efficacy of bevacizumab in combination with FOLFIRI after failure of CT1 in unknown primary NEC and GEP-NEC.Materials and methods : The main eligibility criteria are age ≥18 years, metastatic (synchronous or metachronous) or locally advanced, non-resectable, grade 3 GEP-NEC, and documented progressive disease during or after CT1 therapy.Results : A total of 124 patients will be randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either 5 mg/kg bevacizumab with FOLFIRI, or FOLFIRI alone, every 14 days until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The hypothesis is to demonstrate a 6-month overall survival for at least 50% of the patients in bevacizumab arm versus 35% in the control arm (FOLFIRI alone). Secondary endpoints are objective response, response duration, progression-free survival, toxicity, and biochemical response.Conclusion :The study is currently opened in France (NCT02820857). The first patient was randomized on September 6, 2017

Associations between the severity of medical and surgical complications and perception of surgeon empathy in esophageal and gastric cancer patients

International audienceObjective: To assess the impact of global physician empathy and its three subdimensions (establishing rapport, emotional and cognitive processes) on the severity of postoperative complications in a sample of cancer patients.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data on 256 patients with esogastric cancer from the French national FREGAT database. Empathy and its subdimensions were assessed using the patient-reported CARE scale and the severity of medical and surgical complications was reported with the Clavien-Dindo classification system. The usual covariates were included in multinomial logistic regression analyses.Results: Physician empathy predicted the odds of reporting major complications. When patients perceived high empathy, they were less likely to report major complications compared to no complications (OR = .95, 95% CI = [.91-.99], p = .029). Among the three dimensions, only "establishing rapport" (OR = .84, 95% CI = [.73-.98], p = .019) and the "emotional process" (OR = .85, 95% CI = [.74-.98], p = .022) predicted major complications.Conclusions: Physician empathy is essential before surgery. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms associating empathy with health outcomes in cancer. Physicians should be trained to establish good rapport with patients, especially in the preoperative period