Symptom Burden and Factors Associated with Acute Respiratory Infections in the First Two Years of Life-Results from the LoewenKIDS Cohort.

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the most common childhood illnesses worldwide whereby the reported frequency varies widely, often depending on type of assessment. Symptom diaries are a powerful tool to counteract possible under-reporting, particularly of milder infections, and thus offer the possibility to assess the full burden of ARIs. The following analyses are based on symptom diaries from participants of the German birth cohort study LoewenKIDS.

Effect of ibandronate on disseminated tumor cells in the bone marrow of patients with primary breast cancer: a pilot study.

Background: Breast cancer patients may experience disease relapse even 10-20 years after primary diagnosis. Recurrence is caused by dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in the bone marrow (BM). Whereas chemotherapy is unable to eradicate these non-proliferating cells, bisphosponates are currently being discussed as eliminating DTCs.

[Screening for distress in women with breast cancer diagnosed for the first time: employment of HADS-D and PO-Bado].

Objectives: In the context of an intensification of efforts to ensure sufficient psychooncological care for breast-cancer patients, the discussion concerning valid psychometric screening instruments gains a special relevance.

Methods: The discriminant and diagnostic validity of HADS-D and PO-Bado were investigated in a sample of 123 women with breast cancer diagnosed for the first time.

Results: An ROC analysis revealed a cut-off score of greater than 9 for the subscale anxiety (sensitivity: 50%; specificity: 90%) for the use of HADS-D among breast cancer patients, whereas the recommended cut-off value was greater than 7 (sensitivity: 56%; specificity: 80%) for the subscale depression.

Speed of haemoglobin response in patients with cancer: a review of the erythropoietic proteins.

Background: Patients with cancer-related anaemia generally have a poor prognosis. Evidence suggests that an effective erythropoietic protein (epoetin)-mediated haemoglobin (Hb) response provides marked improvement in quality of life (QoL). An early Hb response to erythropoietic protein therapy in these patients would appear ideal but few studies have compared the speed of response to different erythropoietic proteins, or the potential benefits associated with an early Hb response.

Whole-body MR imaging: evaluation of patients for metastases.

Purpose: To compare the results of whole-body magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with staging based on computed tomographic (CT), dedicated MR imaging, and nuclear scintigraphic results as standard of reference.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-one patients with known malignant tumors were included in the study. Patients were placed on a rolling table platform capable of moving the patient rapidly through the isocenter of the magnet bore.

Rare expression of target antigens for immunotherapy on disseminated tumor cells in breast cancer patients without overt metastases.

Occult disseminated tumor cells are the major cause of relapse in patients with primary operable breast cancer but detection and characterization of these few cells is difficult. Applying immunohistochemistry, an immunomagnetic enrichment technique (IET) and immunocytochemistry (IC), we studied 58 breast cancer patients without overt metastases for the frequency of cytokeratin-positive (CK+) bone marrow (BM) cells coexpressing the epithelial adhesion molecule 17-1A (EpCAM) and c-erbB-2 and analyzed the primary tumor for these antigens as a strategy for additional immunotherapy. The primary tumors were analyzed for the target antigens by a pathologist.

Rare expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule on residual micrometastatic breast cancer cells after adjuvant chemotherapy.

Purpose: Over the past 5 years, several clinical studies on a total of approximately 2500 patients have shown that the immunocytochemical detection of occult metastatic tumor cells in bone marrow (BM) at primary surgery provides important prognostic information in breast cancer (e.g., Ref 13 ).