Outcome and Safety of Sorafenib in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Dialysis Patients: A Systematic Review.

Few data are available about sorafenib use in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) undergoing hemodialysis. No systematic review has been previously performed about this issue. The objective of the present review is to investigate pharmacokinetics and clinical outcomes of sorafenib in mRCC patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Estimating the risk of chemotherapy toxicity in older patients with cancer: The role of the Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13).

Objective: Some parameters of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) are predictive of chemotherapy toxicity. The Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13) is a short instrument that has been tested as a means of identifying patients who need a full CGA, but its ability to predict chemotherapy toxicity is still unclear. We performed a pooled analysis of four published clinical trials studying VES-13 as a means of diagnosing vulnerability, in order to evaluate its accuracy in predicting the risk of grade 3/4 toxicity in older patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Response to chemotherapy is predictive in relation to longer overall survival in an individual patient combined-analysis with pleural mesothelioma.

Background: There is currently no early predictive marker of survival for patients receiving chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Tumour response may be predictive for overall survival (OS), though this has not been explored. We have thus undertaken a combined-analysis of OS, from a 42day landmark, of 526 patients receiving systemic therapy for MPM.

Anti-androgen therapy suspension following prolonged clinical and biochemical response: outcomes in a series of elderly patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Aims And Background: To describe the outcomes following the suspension of androgen-suppression therapy in a series of elderly patients in an advanced stage of prostate cancer and in prolonged clinical and biochemical response.

Material And Methods: Of 371 consecutive patients with advanced prostate cancer and treated with androgen-suppression therapy, 44 older patients were defined as in stable response on the basis of the following: absence of noteworthy dysuria, normal prostate findings on digital rectal examination, and prostate-specific antigen values lower than 0.50 ng/ml.

Single-agent pemetrexed for chemonaïve and pretreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma: results of an International Expanded Access Program.

Introduction: Pemetrexed has established efficacy, and is the backbone for chemotherapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). An International Expanded Access Program provided >3000 mesothelioma patients with access to single-agent pemetrexed or pemetrexed plus platinum analogs (cisplatin or carboplatin) in 13 countries. In this article, we report the safety and efficacy data of MPM patients who were treated with single-agent pemetrexed (n = 812).

Cisplatin and gemcitabine in malignant pleural mesothelioma: a phase II study.

Aims of this study were to evaluate the activity and toxicity of gemcitabine and cisplatin combination in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Patients with histologically proven MPM, < 75 years of age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) < or = 2, and measurable MPM were eligible. Patients received gemcitabine 1250 mg/m intravenously on days 1 and 8 and cisplatin 75 mg/m on day 2, every 21 days, for a maximum of 6 cycles.

Single-agent gemcitabine in previously untreated elderly patients with advanced bladder carcinoma: response to treatment and correlation with the comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Objective: The study aimed at evaluating the activity and toxicity of gemcitabine monochemotherapy in a unselected series of elderly patients with advanced bladder cancer. The secondary objectives were to establish whether there is a correlation between treatment and Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) and, in addition, to determine overall patient survival.

Methods: Treatment consisted of six courses of chemotherapy with gemcitabine at a dosage of 1,200 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, every 21 days.