Ecteinascidin-743: Evidence of Activity in Advanced, Pretreated Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Patients

Purpose. To evaluate the activity and safety of ecteinascidin (ET-743) in pretreated patients with advanced or metastatic soft tissue and bone sarcoma. Patients or subjects. Eighty-nine patients received ET-743 as a 24-hour continuous infusion at a dose of 900–1500 μg/m(2) every 3 weeks. Results. We observed one complete remission, 5 partial remissions, one minimal response, and 16 patients with a disease stabilization of 6 months or more. The objective response rate was 6.7% and the clinical benefit rate at 3 and 6 months was 37.7% and 23.4%, respectively. Responses were noted in patients with lipo-, leiomyo-, osteo-, and myogenic sarcoma, with a median duration of 9.85 months. Toxicity mainly involved an asymptomatic elevation of transaminases and neutropenia. Estimated 1- and 2-year survival rates were 39.4% and 15.8%. Median overall survival was 8.25 months. Discussion. This retrospective analysis confirms that ET-743 induces objective responses and progression arrest in a clinically relevant proportion of patients

Treatment of death rattle in dying patients

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Prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: Belgian antiemetic treatment options anno 2018.

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Hypogonadism in male cancer patients treated with the tyrosine kinase inhibitors sunitinib (SUN) or sorafenib (SOR)

3565 Background: SUN and SOR are multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) inhibiting several kinases (VEGFR- 1,2; c-kit; PDGFR-α,β; flt-3; RET). SUN is approved for treatment of imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), SOR is used for RCC and hepatocellular carcinoma. We observed in some pts with fatigue under TKI treatment low testosterone (T) levels and started assessing the incidence and severity of gonadal dysfunction prospectively in male pts receiving these TKIs.status: publishe

Delivery of adjuvant sequential dose-dense FEC-Doc to patients with breast cancer is feasible, but dose reductions and toxicity are dependent on treatment sequence

Introduction This study prospectively investigates the impact of dose densification and altering sequence of fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide [FEC(100)] and docetaxel [Doc] on dose delivery and tolerability of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Methods 117 patients with high-risk primary operable breast cancer were randomized (1:1:2: 2) to conventional (three cycles of 3-weekly FEC100 then three cycles of 3-weekly Doc 100 mg/m(2) or reverse sequence) or dose-dense (dd) treatment (four 10- to 11-day cycles of FEC75 then four 2-weekly cycles of Doc 75 mg/m(2), or the reverse). In the dd arms, pegfilgrastim was given on day 2 of each cycle, but only as secondary prophylaxis in conventional arms. Results The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients completing intended cycles at relative dose intensity C85% and this was achieved by 95% of patients in each group except for the ddDoc -> FEC group (90%). Dose intensity in the dd arms increased by 48% for FEC and 11% for docetaxel, compared with the conventional arms (both P <0.001). Doc dose reductions were more frequent with dd treatment and when Doc was given after FEC. Grade 3-4 neutropenia was significantly more frequent with conventional treatment, while fatigue and hand foot syndrome were numerically more common with dd treatment, particularly when Doc was given after FEC. Discussion Delivery of adjuvant sequential ddFEC and Doc is feasible with growth factor support, and chemotherapy sequence appeared to affect delivery of target doses and toxicit