A prospective randomised trial to study the role of levamisole and interferon alfa in an adjuvant therapy with 5-FU for stage III colon cancer

The purpose of this trial was to examine the efficacy of the addition of levamisole (LEV) or interferon alfa (IFN) to an adjuvant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in patients with stage III colon cancer. According to a 2 × 2 factorial study design, 598 patients were randomly assigned to one of four adjuvant treatment arms. Patients in arm one received 5-FU weekly for 1 year, patients in arm two 5-FU plus LEV, in arm three 5-FU plus IFN and patients in arm four 5-FU, LEV and IFN. The relative risk of relapse and the relative risk of death were significantly higher for patients treated with LEV compared with those without LEV treatment (HR 1.452, 95% CI 1.135–1.856, P=0.0028; HR 1.506, 95% CI 1.150–1.973, P=0.0027, respectively). No significant impact on survival was observed for therapy with IFN in the univariate analysis. The addition of LEV to adjuvant 5-FU significantly worsened the prognosis of patients with stage III colon cancer. Interferon alfa had no significant influence on survival when combined with adjuvant 5-FU, but increased the toxicity of therapy substantially

Monitoring therapeutic effects in experimental stroke by serial USPIO-enhanced MRI

International audienceOBJECTIVES: This study sought to evaluate whether the therapeutic effects of an anti-inflammatory drug such as minocycline could be monitored by serial ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide (USPIO)-enhanced MRI in experimental stroke. METHODS: Mice received a three-dose minocycline treatment (n = 12) or vehicle (n = 12) after permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion. USPIOs were administered 5 h post-surgery. MRI was performed before, 24 h and 48 h post-USPIO administration. MRI endpoints were the extent of signal abnormalities on R2 maps (=1/T2) and quantitative R2 changes over time (∆R2). Post-mortem brains were prepared either for immunohistology (n = 16) or for iron dosage (n = 8). RESULTS: As expected, treatment with minocycline significantly reduced infarct size, blood-brain barrier permeability and F4/80 immunostaining for microglia/macrophages. Areas of R2 maps > 35 ms(-1) also appeared significantly decreased in minocycline-treated mice (ANOVA for repeated measures, P = 0.017). There was a fair correlation between these areas and the amount of iron in the brain (R(2) = 0.69, P = 0.010), but no significant difference in ∆R2 was found between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the extent of signal abnormalities on R2 maps can be used as a surrogate marker to detect minocycline effects in a murine experimental model of stroke

Recital Victoria de los Ángeles i Manuel García Morante

En la segona part es va interpretar: Clair de lune (Verlaine), de Fauré ; Mandoline (Verlaine), de Fauré ; Tristesse (Gautier), de Fauré ; Cantar del alma (San Juan de la Cruz), de Mompou ; La dama d'Aragó (tradicional catalana) ; Romança de Santa Llúcia (Sagarra), de Toldrà ; Morirò! (Marquesa de Bolaños), d'Albéniz ; La Maja de Goya (Periquet), de Granados ; Punto de habanera (Néstor Luján), de Montsalvatge ; Seguidillas gitanas (Cançons arabesques), de Pedrell ; El retrato de Isabela (Cançons epigramàtiques), de VivesPrograma de mà del recital dut a terme per Victòria dels Àngels i Manuel García Morante el 24 de juliol del 1992. El concert estava dividit en 2 parts. En la primera part es van interpretar: Canción de la gitana habilidosa (La gitanilla en el Coliseo), de José Castel ; Seguidilla dolorosa (Una mesonera y un arriero), de Luis Misón ; Seguidillas religiosas (Auto Sacramental La lepra de Constantino), de Manuel Plà ; Seguidillas del oficial cortejante (Vagabundo y ciegos fingidos), de Ventura Galván ; El Trípili (Tirana), de Blas de Laserna ; An Sylvia (Els dos cavallers de Verona, Shakespeare), de Schubert ; Wiegenlied (Claudius) ; Die Forelle (Schubart) ; Romanze (Die bäusliche Krieg) ; Mignon: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (goethe) ; Erlkönig (Goethe)

Endpoints in adjuvant treatment trials: a systematic review of the literature in colon cancer and proposed definitions for future trials.

Item does not contain fulltextDisease-free survival is increasingly being used as the primary endpoint of most trials testing adjuvant treatments in cancer. Other frequently used endpoints include overall survival, recurrence-free survival, and time to recurrence. These endpoints are often defined differently in different trials in the same type of cancer, leading to a lack of comparability among trials. In this Commentary, we used adjuvant studies in colon cancer as a model to address this issue. In a systematic review of the literature, we identified 52 studies of adjuvant treatment in colon cancer published in 1997-2006 that used eight other endpoints in addition to overall survival. Both the definition of these endpoints and the starting point for measuring time to the events that constituted these endpoints varied widely. A panel of experts on clinical research on colorectal cancer then reached consensus on the definition of each endpoint. Disease-free survival--defined as the time from randomization to any event, irrespective of cause--was considered to be the most informative endpoint for assessing the effect of treatment and therefore the most relevant to clinical practice. The proposed guidelines may add to the quality and cross-comparability of future studies of adjuvant treatments for cancer