Adverse Childhood Experiences and frailty in later life: a prospective population-based cohort study.

Background: The deficit accumulation method considers the ageing process underlying frailty as a random accumulation of health deficits.

Objective: Although Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) have consistently been associated with the onset of mental disorders and somatic diseases during adolescence and midlife, it remains unknown whether ACE still exert detrimental health effects in late life. Therefore, we examined cross-sectionally and prospectively the association between ACE and frailty among community-dwelling older people.

A 6-year prospective clinical cohort study on the bidirectional association between frailty and depressive disorder.

Introduction: Depressive disorder has been conceptualised as a condition of accelerated biological ageing. We operationalised a frailty index (FI) as marker for biological ageing aimed to explore the bidirectional, longitudinal association between frailty and either depressive symptoms or depressive disorder.

Methods: A cohort study with 6-year follow-up including 377 older (≥60 years) outpatients with a DSM-IV-defined depressive disorder and 132 never-depressed controls.

Prognostic effect of serum BDNF levels in late-life depression: Moderated by childhood trauma and SSRI usage?

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels decline during depression and normalise after remission, although studies in older patient samples are inconsistent. Whether BDNF serum levels predict depression remission is unclear. We hypothesize that the predictive value of serum BDNF levels in late-life depression is moderated by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) usage and early traumatization.

Unmyelinated tactile cutaneous nerves signal erotic sensations.

Introduction: Intrapersonal touch is a powerful tool for communicating emotions and can among many things evoke feelings of eroticism and sexual arousal. The peripheral neural mechanisms of erotic touch signaling have been less studied. C tactile afferents (unmyelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors), known to underpin pleasant aspects of touch processing, have been posited to play an important role.

Chemotherapy with cisplatin, epirubicin and docetaxel in transitional cell urothelial cancer. Phase II trial.

Cisplatin (CDDP), epirubicin (EPI) and docetaxel have single agent activity against urothelial transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of this combination in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial TCC. Patients with urothelial TCC who had no prior chemotherapy (prior adjuvant chemotherapy > 6 months allowed) were eligible for entry the study.

Paclitaxel in cisplatin or carboplatin-pretreated ovarian cancer. Phase II study.

A phase II trial was conducted in order to assess the efficacy and toxicity of paclitaxel given at a dose of 175 mg/m2 in a 3-hour infusion every 3 weeks in patients with recurrent or cisplatin (CDDP) carboplatin-refractory ovarian cancer. Forty-two patients with a median age of 61 years (range 34-76 years) entered the study. Most patients had bulky disease.

Chemotherapy with methotrexate, carboplatin, mitoxantrone (Novantrone) and vincristine (Oncovin) in transitional-cell urothelial cancer.

Forty-four patients with either metastatic or locally advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder were treated with the MCNO regimen (methotrexate 300 mg/m2 in 1,000 ml normal saline as a 4-hour infusion on days 1 and 14 with leucovorin rescue 15 mg 6-hourly for 6 doses; carboplatin 300 mg/m2 in 250 ml 5% distilled water as a 1-hour infusion on day 1; mitoxantrone (Novantrone) 10 mg/m2 in 100 ml 5% distilled water as a 30-min infusion on day 1, and vincristine (Oncovin) 1 mg/m2 as an intravenous bolus on days 1 and 14. Patients with metastatic disease were treated with 6 cycles, while patients with locally advanced disease were treated with 4 cycles of induction chemotherapy followed by cystectomy or radiotherapy. The overall response rate was 40%, with 15% complete response (CR).

An outpatient phase II study of subcutaneous interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha-2b in combination with intravenous vinblastine in metastatic renal cell cancer.

A prospective phase II trial was carried out to define the activity of a low-dose subcutaneous regimen of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon alpha-2b (IFN-alpha) in combination with intravenous administration of vinblastine (VLB) in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC). Thirty-one patients with advanced RCC who had received no prior biochemotherapy were treated with IL-2 4.5 MU x 2/24 h thrice weekly for 2 weeks, IFN-alpha 3 MU/24 h thrice weekly (alternating days) for 2 consecutive weeks and VLB 4 mg/m2 every 3 weeks.

Superiority of carboplatin monochemotherapy over carboplatin-based polychemotherapy in ovarian cancer.

Forty patients with previously untreated epithelial ovarian cancer (OC), with FIGO stages Ic-IV, were randomly allocated to receive intravenously either carboplatin (C) 400 mg/m2 every three weeks (C arm, 20 patients) or a combination of C 350 mg/m2, ifosfamide (I) 5 g/m2 with mesna every three weeks, vincristine (V) 1.4 mg/m2 (maximum total dose 2 mg) and bleomycin (B) 30 mg every ten days (CIVB arm, 20 patients). Responding patients received 6 courses of chemotherapy and all 40 patients were evaluable for toxicity, response and survival.

Comparison of two different doses of ondansetron plus dexamethasone in the prophylaxis of cisplatin-induced emesis.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two different doses of ondansetron (8 mg vs. 24 mg) plus dexamethasone in the prevention of cisplatin (CDDP)-induced emesis and nausea (acute and delayed). The persistence of the anti-emetic efficacy during the second cycle of chemotherapy was also assessed.

Chemotherapy for Merkel cell carcinoma with carboplatin and etoposide.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare malignant tumor of the skin. We treated three patients with Merkel call carcinoma with the combination of carboplatin and etoposide, which have been mostly used in the treatment of small cell lung carcinoma. Two patients experienced partial remission of short duration.

Treatment of primary fallopian tube carcinoma with cisplatin-containing chemotherapy.

Because of the rarity of the primary fallopian tube carcinoma, optimal primary therapy is still not well defined, and there is little information available regarding the efficacy of combination chemotherapy in advanced disease. The experience obtained by treating 14 patients with fallopian tube carcinoma--most of them with advanced disease--using a combination of cisplatin, adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide (CAP) (10 patients) or carboplatin plus cyclophosphamide (4 patients) is reported. One patient had Stage Ic disease, 2 had Stage II, 9 had Stage III, and 2 had Stage IV.

Adjuvant chemotherapy with dacarbazine, vindesine, and cisplatin in pathological stage II malignant melanoma.

Following curative lymph node dissection, 28 patients with pathological Stage II malignant melanoma (metastatic to regional lymph nodes) received adjuvant chemotherapy with dacarbazine, vindesine, and cisplatin (DVP); 32 more patients with similar characteristics refused adjuvant treatment. In the treated group, 15 patients (53%) developed dissemination of disease after 4 to 29 months; 20 (62%) of the patients who refused adjuvant treatment recurred after 4 to 25 months and received palliative treatment with DVP. No significant differences in survival or disease-free survival according to different patient characteristics could be detected between these two groups with the available patient population.

First line combination chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide in advanced ovarian cancer.

Thirty-one consecutive patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer entered a phase II study with cisplatin and etoposide combination chemotherapy. None of them had received prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Most patients had advanced (88%) or far advanced (61%) disease.

Treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma with dacarbazine, vindesine and cisplatin.

Twenty-seven patients with disseminated malignant melanoma were treated monthly with cisplatin (CDDP) 120 mg m-2 on day 1, vindesine (VDS) 3 mg m-2 on day 2 and dacarbazine (DTIC) 250 mg m-2 on days 2-6. None of them had received prior chemotherapy. All patients are evaluable for response and toxicity.

Treatment of disseminated germ cell tumours of the testis.

Between 1979 and 1987 64 men with non-seminomatous germ cell tumours of the testis were treated with chemotherapy. Nearly half of these patients had large volume disease. The most frequently used combinations were VAB-6 and POMB/ACE.