A dose ranging study of photodynamic therapy with porfimer sodium (Photofrin) for treatment of basal cell carcinoma.

Background And Objectives: While basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is effectively treated by several methods, many patients with numerous or frequently occurring lesions seek alternatives that can treat multiple cancers, with improved cosmetic outcome. PDT for esophageal and lung carcinomas is approved at a porfimer sodium (Photofrin) dose of 2 mg/kg, but lower doses increase selectivity and decrease both cutaneous phototoxicity and cost. We evaluated low doses of porfimer sodium PDT for treatment of multiple BCC.

Rituximab in combination with fludarabine chemotherapy in low-grade or follicular lymphoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of fludarabine plus rituximab in treatment-naive or relapsed patients with low-grade and/or follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Patients And Methods: This was an open-label, single-arm, single-center phase II study enrolling 40 patients. During the first week of the study, patients received two infusions of rituximab 375 mg/m2 administered 4 days apart.

HLA-DR antigen-negative acute myeloid leukemia.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) Class II antigens are variably expressed on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blasts. The biological and clinical significance of HLA Class II antigen expression by AML cells is not known. Therefore, we sought to characterize cases of AML without detectable HLA-DR expression.

Effect of concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy on pulmonary function in patients with esophageal cancer: dose-volume histogram analysis.

Purpose: The pulmonary effects of concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy were studied in patients enrolled in a phase I trial for esophageal cancer.

Materials And Methods: Pulmonary function tests were performed prospectively before and after combined-modality therapy (oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and radiation therapy) in 20 patients with esophageal cancer. Cumulative and differential lung DVH analysis from 0 to 5400 cGy in 25-cGy intervals was performed for the last 15 patients.

Nurses' attitudes toward clinical trials at a comprehensive cancer center.

Purpose/objectives: To identify nurses' attitudes and beliefs toward cancer clinical trials and their perceptions about factors influencing patients' participation in these trials.

Design: Descriptive.

Setting: National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

Phase I and pharmacokinetic study of weekly 5-fluorouracil administered with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and high-dose leucovorin: a potential role for growth factor as mucosal protectant.

Diarrhea is dose-limiting with weekly 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus high-dose leucovorin (LV). Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has been associated with a decrease in chemotherapy-associated mucosal toxicity. This study was conducted to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of weekly 5-FU when administered with GM-CSF and high-dose LV.

Validation of a new classification system for curatively resected colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Background: The parameters within which colorectal adenocarcinoma is currently staged are often insufficient for decisions regarding therapy after potentially curative surgery. Consequently, oncologists make frequent use of additional prognostic indicators when assessing individual prognosis and selecting patients for adjuvant systemic treatment. Follow-up programs are generally uniform for all patients, regardless of disease stage and prognosis.

New approach to the substaging of node-positive colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Future developments in adjuvant modalities may require substaging of node-positive colorectal adenocarcinoma that is accurately indicative of individual prognoses, upon which therapeutic decisions (e.g., choice of agents and intensity of treatment) may be based.

Prognostic factors in extraovarian primary peritoneal carcinoma.

Objective: To determine the pathological, clinical, and therapeutic factors which had prognostic significance in women with extraovarian primary peritoneal carcinoma (EOPPC).

Methods: A retrospective, clinicopathologic study was conducted of 75 women diagnosed with EOPPC. Diagnosis and assessment of prognostic pathological factors were based on the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) criteria.

Prolonged disease-free survival by maintenance chemotherapy among patients with recurrent platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the potential benefit and complications of prolonged salvage and maintenance chemotherapy among patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer who achieve response to salvage chemotherapy.

Methods: Patients with recurrent platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer who were treated between 1982 and 1996 and achieved complete response to platinum-based salvage chemotherapy were offered prolonged (1 year) monthly salvage followed by maintenance (every 8 weeks) chemotherapy. Patients who accepted such treatment (n = 16) were compared to those who refused and discontinued therapy (n = 11) with regard to overall survival from time of initial diagnosis and overall and disease-free survival from time of recurrence.

Correlation between extreme drug resistance assay and response to primary paclitaxel and cisplatin in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective: The extreme drug resistance (EDR) assay has been correlated with failure of response to chemotherapy in greater than 99% of patients. The goal of this study is to correlate the results of the EDR assay to response to first-line paclitaxel/cisplatin among patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

Methods: Seventy-five of 100 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer for whom EDR assay was performed were treated with weekly induction cisplatin (1 mg/kg body wt) x 4, followed by monthly paclitaxel (135 mg/m2) and cisplatin (75 mg/m2) x 6 and were evaluable for correlation of response to chemotherapy and EDR assay.

Improvements in pelvic exenteration: factors responsible for reducing morbidity and mortality.

Background: Since pelvic exenteration for the treatment of recurrent gynecologic malignancy first was described, reported rates of morbidity and mortality have declined steadily. However, the factors responsible for this decline have never been clearly delineated.

Methods: We reviewed the charts of 154 patients who underwent pelvic exenteration for gynecologic malignancy between 1954 and 1994.

Expression and function of the megakaryocyte growth and development factor receptor in acute myeloid leukemia blasts.

The receptor for megakaryocyte growth and development factor (MGDF), also known as thrombopoietin, has recently been cloned. MGDF stimulates platelet production and maturation both in vitro and in vivo. MGDF may thus have a role in attenuating the thrombocytopenia associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and its therapy.

Importance of lymph node metastases in primary peritoneal carcinoma.

Background And Objectives: The incidence and significance of lymph node involvement in patients with primary peritoneal adenocarcinoma (PPA) are unknown. The aim of the current study is to report on the incidence and significance of clinically or surgically detectable lymphadenopathy in women with PPA.

Methods: The study is a retrospective clinical review of patients with the confirmed diagnosis of PPA treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute between 1982 and 1996.

Octreotide does not prevent diarrhea in patients treated with weekly 5-fluorouracil plus high-dose leucovorin.

The somatostatin analog, octreotide, is effective in treating diarrhea associated with cancer chemotherapy. This study was undertaken to determine whether octreotide could be used as prophylaxis against chemotherapy-induced diarrhea and, thereby, permit increased dose intensity. Adult cancer patients were treated with a standard regimen of intravenous 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (600 mg/m2) plus leucovorin (LV) (500 mg/m2) weekly x 6 weeks.

Prospective sequential trials of induction weekly cisplatin followed by monthly cisplatin, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and paclitaxel and cisplatin in optimal (< or = 1 cm) stage III and IV ovarian cancer.

Purpose Of Investigation: This study was conduced to assess the results of paclitaxel plus cisplatin given over six months as firstline therapy in women with stage III and IV epithelial ovarian cancer with residual disease < 1 cm and compare it to our previous standard of cisplatin, adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide given over ten months in two sequential trials totaling 100 patients.

Methods: We compared induction weekly cisplatin (1 mg/kg x 4) followed by monthly cisplatin (50 mg/m2), doxorubicin (50 mg/m2) and cyclophosphamide (750 mg/m2) x 10 (n = 56) versus induction cisplatin (1 mg/kg x 4) followed by cisplatin (75 mg/m2) and paclitaxel (135 mg/m2) monthly over six months (n = 44).

Results: The two groups were similar in age, histologic subtypes, grade, performance status, and substage.

Two sequential studies for primary peritoneal carcinoma: induction with weekly cisplatin followed by either cisplatin-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide or paclitaxel-cisplatin.

Objectives: The aim of the current study is to evaluate the results of therapy with induction with weekly cisplatin followed by the combination of cisplatin-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide (PAC) or the combination paclitaxel-cisplatin (TP) as first-line chemotherapy in patients with primary peritoneal adenocarcinoma (PPA).

Methods: Between October 1988 and July 1996, 46 patients with PPA were treated with PAC (n = 25) or TP (n = 21) following cytoreductive surgery in two sequential trials. In trial 1, patients received induction with weekly cisplatin (1 mg/kg) x 4 followed by monthly cisplatin (50 mg/m2), cyclophosphamide (750 mg/m2), and doxorubicin (50 mg/m2) for 10 cycles.

Serum CA-125 measurements > 65 U/mL. Clinical value.

Objective: To review the prevalence of various conditions associated with serum CA-125 values > 65 U/mL, to calculate the odds ratios of different ranges of high CA-125 in predicting cancer and to study the effect of menopause and the presence of a mass on the predictive value of high serum CA-125.

Study Design: A retrospective review of the diagnoses in 313 consecutive women seen at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation whose serum CA-125 was > 65 U/mL was performed. Statistical analysis was performed using crosstabulation, chi 2, Fisher's exact test and the odds ratio.

p53 overexpression is not an independent prognostic factor for patients with primary ovarian epithelial cancer.

Background: The clinical significance of p53 overexpression in patients with ovarian carcinoma is uncertain. Previous studies have yielded conflicting results and have been hampered by small patient populations, failure to account for other well-known prognostic variables in multivariate analysis, and failure to account for the grade of p53 overexpression. The aim of this study was to investigate the independent prognostic significance of p53 overexpression in patients with primary ovarian epithelial cancer (POEC).

Angiogenesis and dynamic MR imaging gadolinium enhancement of malignant and benign breast lesions.

Purpose: To determine whether dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging enhancement parameters are associated with vessel density of malignant and benign breast lesions.

Materials And Methods: Forty-five patients with 48 breast lesions underwent gadolinium-enhanced spoiled gradient-recalled echo (SPGR) MR imaging followed by excisional biopsy and Factor VIII staining and vessel density measurement in the lesions.

Results: The vessel densities were not significantly different in 25 malignant breast lesions as compared to 23 benign breast lesions.

Age at onset of ovarian cancer in women with a strong family history of ovarian cancer.

Objective: To determine whether women with a strong family history of ovarian cancer develop ovarian cancer at a younger age than the general population, and to determine if the age at onset of ovarian cancer in families with multiple cases of ovarian cancer is progressively younger with successive generations.

Methods: Using a large voluntary familial ovarian cancer registry, 90 probands were identified whose grandmothers had developed ovarian cancer and for whom the age at onset was known. The distribution of age at onset of ovarian cancer in the grandmothers was compared to the expected distribution based on data from the Surveillance Epidemiology End Results (SEER) project.

Expression of c-mpl mRNA, the receptor for thrombopoietin, in acute myeloid leukemia blasts identifies a group of patients with poor response to intensive chemotherapy.

Purpose: c-mpl, the human homolog of v-mpl, is the receptor for thrombopoietin. Given that c-mpl expression carries an adverse prognosis in myelodysplastic syndrome and given the prognostic significance of expression of other growth factor receptors in other diseases, we attempted to determine whether c-mp/mRNA expression is a prognostic factor in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Patients And Methods: We analyzed bone marrow samples from 45 newly diagnosed AML patients by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.

Characterization of interleukin-10 receptor expression on B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells accumulate in vivo in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, suggesting that their malignant expansion is due, at least in part, to a delay in cell death. However, the cellular or molecular factors responsible for a delay in B-CLL cell death are unknown. B-CLL cells do express receptors for interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and IFN-gamma, and activation of both has been shown to promote B-CLL survival in vitro by preventing apoptosis.

Cathepsin D and dynamic magnetic resonance imaging gadolinium enhancement in malignant and benign breast lesions.

Our purpose was to determine whether the expression of cathepsin D, a proteolytic enzyme implicated in basement membrane degradation, is associated with dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enhancement of breast lesions. Forty-five patients with 48 breast lesions underwent gadolinium-enhanced spoiled gradient recalled echo MRI followed by excisional biopsy and cathepsin D staining and semiquantitative measurement in the lesions. There was no significant difference in cathepsin D staining of 25 malignant and 23 benign breast lesions.