Cytokine profiling, pretreatment with anakinra, and tolerance development in platinum-induced mixed hypersensitivity reactions.

Background: Cytokine-release reactions (CRR) induced by platinum-based chemotherapy, manifesting with fever, chills, and rigors, are poorly understood and not easily prevented by usual premedication or desensitization.

Objective: To gain a better understanding of platinum-induced CRR and to explore the use of anakinra as a tool to prevent its clinical manifestations.

Methods: A cytokine and chemokine panel was obtained before and after platinum infusion in 3 cases with a mixed (immunoglobulin E-mediated and CRR) platinum-induced hypersensitivity reaction and in 5 controls either tolerant or with an immunoglobulin E-mediated platinum-induced hypersensitivity reaction.

Implementing DPYD*2A Genotyping in Clinical Practice: The Quebec, Canada, Experience.

Background: Fluoropyrimidines are used in chemotherapy combinations for multiple cancers. Deficient dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase activity can lead to severe life-threatening toxicities. DPYD*2A polymorphism is one of the most studied variants.

Evaluation of factors associated with recruitment in hematological clinical trials: a retrospective cohort study.

The objectives of this study were to measure the recruitment, to study characteristics associated with recruitment, and to explore reasons for non-recruitment in clinical trials for malignant hematological diseases. Trials opened between 2002 and 2008 were selected. If the patient fulfilled the main criteria of the protocol, all eligibility criteria of the protocol were assessed.

Incidence of scalp metastases in breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study in women who were offered scalp cooling.

Scalp cooling is an intervention used to decrease the degree of chemotherapy-induced alopecia. The objective is to determine the incidence of scalp metastases among women with early breast cancer who received neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women with breast carcinoma diagnosed between June 1, 1998 and June 30, 2002.