Advance Care Plans: Planning for Critical Healthcare Decisions

Advance care plans (ACPs) document personal values and healthcare preferences for critical situations where individuals cannot speak for themselves. Although ACPs can prevent receiving costly unwanted treatments and ensure receiving preferred treatments, few people have one. We examine factors associated with ACP engagement and design interventions to increase engagement. We find that ACP holders and non-holders largely have common values and preferences, which similarly vary with demographics. For example, older (vs. younger) individuals, regardless of ACP ownership, prefer to be able to care for themselves and to avoid prolonged end-of-life medical interventions. These two groups also differ in important ways: those who have or intend to create ACPs (versus not) prefer avoiding invasive life-sustaining treatments and having a peaceful end of life. However, interventions that use these similarities and differences to increase ACP engagement are unsuccessful. We propose that structural approaches may be more effective in increasing ACP uptake

Correlation of high FDG uptake in PET/CT with poor prognosis in metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma.

WOS: 000208880303706

Safety and tolerability of first-line bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer

PubMed ID: 23335523Purpose: To determine the clinical features of bevacizumab-associated toxicities in metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) patients. Methods: The medical records of 60 patients with MCRC who were treated with chemotherapy including bevacizumab in the first-line setting were retrospectively evaluated. Results: Bevacizumab was administered along with irinotecan plus 5-fluorouracil/ leucovorin (5-FU/LV) to 44 patients, 5-FU/LV+oxaliplatin to 8 patients, capecitabine+oxaliplatin to 6 patients and 5-FU/LV to 2 patients. The total number of the cycles received was 381 (median 6, range 1-13). The most common bevacizumab-related toxicity was grade 1-2 bleeding (28%) followed by hypertension (17%). Grade 1-2 proteinuria was seen in 8% of the patients (no grade 3-4 proteinuria). Arterial thromboembolic events (ATE) were not observed, however 3 patients (5%) had experienced grade 3-4 venous thromboembolic events. In 3 patients (5%) grade 1-2 wound complications were seen (delayed wound healing in the place of the venous access device in 2, and wound infection in 1). In addition, gastrointestinal perforation (GIP) was seen in 3 (5%) patients. Two of the patients were treated by surgical intervention and one patient died of sepsis. Conclusion: Bevacizumab is well tolerated when combined with various chemotherapy regimens. As bevacizumab is becoming widely used in the routine oncology practice, further studies which investigate the mechanism of bevacizumab-associated toxicities are warranted to develop effective management strategies for these adverse events

A phase II pilot study of weekly docetaxel cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil in metastatic gastric cancer.

WOS: 000208852000714

THE PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCE OF TYMIDINE KINASE ACTIVITY LEVELS IN METASTATIC COLORECTAL CANCER

37th Congress of the European-Society-for-Medical-Oncology (ESMO) -- SEP 28-OCT 02, 2012 -- Vienna, AUSTRIAWOS: 000309409001129…European Soc Med Oncol (ESMO

Can megesterol acetate induce thrombosis in oncology patients?

European Cancer Congress 2013 - 17th ECCO / 38th ESMO / 32nd ESTRO -- SEP 27-OCT 01, 2013 -- Amsterdam, NETHERLANDSWOS: 000326843602079…European Conf Clin Oncol, European Soc Therapeut Radiol & Oncol, European Soc Med Oncol, European Soc Surg Oncol, European Assoc Canc Res, European Oncol Nursing Soc, European Soc Paediat Onco

Interim results of observational study to determine K-ras mutation rates in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in Turkey (TURKRAS study)

European Cancer Congress 2013 - 17th ECCO / 38th ESMO / 32nd ESTRO -- SEP 27-OCT 01, 2013 -- Amsterdam, NETHERLANDSWOS: 000326843603490European Conf Clin Oncol, European Soc Therapeut Radiol & Oncol, European Soc Med Oncol, European Soc Surg Oncol, European Assoc Canc Res, European Oncol Nursing Soc, European Soc Paediat Onco

Safety and tolerability of first-line bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer

Purpose: To determine the clinical features of bevacizumab-associated toxicities in metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) patients