Fixed-dose rate gemcitabine alone or alternating with FOLFIRI.3 (irinotecan, leucovorin and fluorouracil) in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma: an AGEO randomised phase II study (FIRGEM).

Background: Fluorouracil and irinotecan-based, and gemcitabine-based regimens, are the standard of care in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. New approaches are needed to improve survival and quality of life. Whether a sequential approach alternating irinotecan, fluorouracil and gemcitabine may be effective and tolerable in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer is unknown.

Body fat distribution and risk factors for fibrosis in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Background: Only a small proportion of alcoholic patients develop advanced liver disease, suggesting that factors other than alcohol intake may influence alcoholic liver disease (ALD) progression. We have shown that body mass index (BMI) is an independent risk factor for fibrosis in alcohol-induced liver disease and that adipose tissue inflammation is correlated with liver lesions in alcoholic patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether visceral adipose tissue, as assessed by abdominal height measurement, affected individual susceptibility to fibrosis in alcoholic patients.

Diagnostic and prognostic values of noninvasive biomarkers of fibrosis in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

FibroTest has been validated as a biomarker of fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis, with a similar prognostic value as biopsy. The aim of the study was to compare the diagnostic and prognostic values of FibroTest versus the recently patented biomarkers, FibrometerA, and Hepascore. A total of 218 consecutive patients with ALD and available liver biopsy examination were included.

Gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin (GEMOX) combined with cetuximab in patients with progressive advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma: results of a multicenter phase 2 study.

Background: The authors conducted a phase 2 trial of the antiepidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody cetuximab in combination with the gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin (GEMOX) regimen in patients with documented progressive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Forty-five untreated patients with advanced-stage progressive HCC were prospectively enrolled. Treatment consisted of cetuximab at a dose of 400 mg/m2 initially then 250 mg/m2 weekly, plus gemcitabine at a dose of 1000 mg/m2 on Day 1 and oxaliplatin at a dose of 100 mg/m2 on Day 2, every 2 weeks.

Indium-111-pentetreotide scintigraphy and somatostatin receptor subtype 2 expression: new prognostic factors for malignant well-differentiated endocrine tumors.

Purpose: Well-differentiated metastatic endocrine carcinomas are difficult to manage because of variable disease outcome. New prognostic factors are required. These tumors overexpress somatostatin receptors (sst), implying the use of somatostatin analogs for tumor localization by somatostatin receptor scintigraphy using indium-111-pentetreotide ((111)In-pentetreotide) and for medical treatment.

Gemcitabine plus oxaliplatin (GEMOX) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): results of a phase II study.

Background: New systemic therapies are needed to improve the prognosis of patients with advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In a Phase II trial involving previously untreated patients with advanced HCC, the more favorable schedule from a previous pilot study was evaluated.

Methods: Thirty-four patients with previously untreated advanced-stage HCC were prospectively enrolled.

Characterization of the bystander effect of somatostatin receptor sst2 after in vivo gene transfer into human pancreatic cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and devastating human malignancies. The present study was conducted to determine whether in vivo sst2 gene transfer into human pancreatic tumors would impair tumor progression, and to characterize sst2 antitumoral bystander mechanisms. sst2 administration, using the synthetic vector PEI, strongly inhibited tumor progression of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma, in vivo.

Treatment of murine hepatocellular carcinoma using genetically modified cells to express interleukin-12.

Background And Aim: The majority of patients cannot benefit from the conventional curative treatments that are currently used for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which remains a world health problem. Interleukin (IL)-12 is one of the most potent anti-tumor cytokines. The aim of the present study was to examine the anti-tumor effect and toxicity of intrahepatic delivery of IL-12 using an ex vivo gene therapy approach in a murine model of HCC.