Sebaceoma on the scalp simulating a malignant pigmented neoplasia.

The correct identification of pigmented nodular lesions of the scalp is often challenging. Despite the importance of clinical patterns and dermoscopy, important adjuvant tools that are usually helpful, their interpretation sometimes is not clear-cut. Here, the authors discuss a case of sebaceoma mimicking a malignant pigmented neoplasia, with conclusive histopathology.

The palliative prognostic score and survival in patients with advanced solid tumors receiving chemotherapy.

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP score) in selecting metastatic gastrointestinal or nonsmall-cell lung cancer patients candidate to palliative chemotherapy.

Materials And Methods: The PaP score was calculated in 173 patients with advanced, pretreated gastrointestinal or nonsmall-cell lung cancer before starting a further line of chemotherapy with palliative aim. Symptom distress score was calculated using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) before every course of chemotherapy.

Zoledronic acid treatment at home: safety data from an observational prospective trial.

Background: To prospectively assess feasibility, side effects, and safety of a home treatment with zoledronic acid in patients with bone metastases confined to home.

Patients And Methods: Forty-two patients with bone metastases (15 males and 27 females; mean age, 72 years; range, 48-86), confined to home because of functional impairment or low performance status, were enrolled into the trial. They were included in a comprehensive program of home care, and were treated with zoledronic acid, 4 mg.

[Chemotherapy in extended small-cell lung cancer. Retrospective analysis of two different series of patients treated with carboplatin and etoposide or ciclophosphamide-epidoxorubicin and etoposide].

Although cisplatin and etoposide seem to represent the treatment of choice in Small-Cell Lung Cancer, a lot of data exist in literature supporting both the use of anthracycline-containing regimens and the use of alternating regimens where platinum-containing regimens and anthracycline-containing regimens are alternatively used as first line in the same patient. In our paper we review the outcomes of two different series of patients treated with ciclophosphamide-epidoxorubicin-etoposide (CEVP16) or carboplatin-etoposide (CBE) for extended Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Sixty-three patients (53.

Treating sialorrhea with transdermal scopolamine. Exploiting a side effect to treat an uncommon symptom in cancer patients.

Introduction: Sialorrhea is a distressing symptom accompanying oral cancer and many heterogeneous cancer-related conditions (chemotherapy-induced nausea, bowel subocclusion, pharmacologic side effects), but its incidence is low in cancer patients. Conversely, it is frequent in patients with neurological damage, and some therapeutic options have been attempted such as botulinum toxins, anticholinergic agents, and surgical procedures.

Case Report: We report the case of an 80-year-old woman with peritoneal carcinomatosis and bowel subocclusion, suffering from distressing nausea and sialorrhea that rapidly improved using transdermal scopolamine.

A validation study of the WHO analgesic ladder: a two-step vs three-step strategy.

Goals Of Work: The aims of the present study were to verify whether an innovative therapeutic strategy for the treatment of mild-moderate chronic cancer pain, passing directly from step I to step III of the WHO analgesic ladder, is more effective than the traditional three-step strategy and to evaluate the tolerability and therapeutic index in both strategies.

Methods: Patients aged 18 years or older with multiple viscera or bone metastases or with locally advanced disease were randomized. Pain intensity was assessed using a 0-10 numerical rating scale based on four questions selected from the validated Italian version of the Brief Pain Inventory.

Outcome research in palliative care: could it represent a new dimension of clinical research or clinical practice?

Outcome research is a new dimension of clinical research, and all fields of clinical medicine are involved in this kind of analysis. Overall survival and quality of life are the main outcomes identified in clinical oncology. The former must be the main outcome whenever possible; the latter has to be the main outcome when an improvement of overall survival cannot be expected.

Carboplatin and gemcitabine in the palliative treatment of stage IV non-small cell lung cancer: definitive results of a phase II trial.

Background: Cisplatin-containing regimens represent the gold standard in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer, but carboplatin is often preferred for its better toxic profile when palliation is the aim of the treatment. The synergistic effect and tolerability of carboplatin-gemcitabine combination are well known. In this phase II trial, we evaluated the activity and safety of a schedule with carboplatin and gemcitabine, defined in our previous phase I trial.

Rapid progression of advanced "hormone-resistant" prostate cancer during palliative treatment with progestins for cancer cachexia.

We report three patients with advanced "hormone-resistant" prostate cancer, each of whom had rapid progression of the disease during treatment with megestrol acetate for cancer cachexia. All patients had been previously treated with total androgenic deprivation. With progression of the disease, megestrol acetate was given to palliate the cancer-related wasting syndrome.

Association of asthma with extra-respiratory symptoms in schoolchildren: two cross-sectional studies 6 years apart.

Epidemiological information on symptoms affecting extra-respiratory organs and apparatuses in asthmatic children is scarce. The aim of this study therefore was to evaluate, at a population level, if and what extra-respiratory symptoms are associated with asthma. Two questionnaire-based, cross-sectional surveys were carried out on 1,262 students (651 males; mean age 9.