Anxiety levels in cancer patients and "life sound" experience.

Aims And Background: For the hospitalized cancer patient, time takes on a rhythm which is very different from the external reality. Based on the idea that time represents a fundamental dimension of human existence and is connected to future plans, time spent waiting and memories, we carried out this experience entitled "Life Sound" project. The objectives of the project were to experiment different and unusual ways of spending time in hospital in order to improve the quality of life of the hospitalized cancer patient, to help the patient adapt to the hospital environment, to encourage awareness of self and to give a different meaning to time spent in the hospital.

Regional combined with systemic chemotherapy in unresectable biliary tract cancers: a phase II study.

Unresectable biliary tract cancers have a very poor prognosis. No good systemic chemotherapeutic regimen is available. This study aimed to evaluated the activity and toxicity of a novel approach of combined loco-regional and systemic chemotherapy.

Randomised trial of gemcitabine versus flec regimen given intra-arterially for patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer.

Gemcitabine is considered the golden standard treatment for unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Intra-arte-rial drug administration had shown a deep rationale with some interesting results. In a multicenter phase III trial, we compared gemcitabine given weekly with a combination of 5-fluoruracil, leucovorin, epirubicin, carboplatin (FLEC) administered intra-arteriously as first-line therapy in unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Molecular therapy: clinical applications. intra-arterial adenoviruses administration.

Gene therapy involves the introduction of foreign DNA into somatic cells to produce a therapeutic effect. The therapeutic gene is transferred into the tumor cells using a vector. Transfer may either be in vivo in which the DNA and vector are directly introduced into the body, or ex vivo, in which cells are removed from the body, transfected with DNA and then reintroduced into the patients.

Intra-arterial chemiotherapy for invasive bladder cancer.

Standard treatment for transitional cell carcinoma confined to the bladder is radical cystectomy that allow to obtain an overall 5-year disease-free survival rate only of 50-70%. It has been demonstrated that intra-arterial chemotherapy produces the same survival outcomes as radical cystectomy. This study aimed to evaluate the activity and toxicity of a bladder-sparing loco-regional treatment.