Hepatitis B screening practice among older Chinese in the Greater Washington, DC, area.

Objectives: Older Chinese Americans are at greater risk of contracting hepatitis B virus (HBV) because they were born before the implementation of universal childhood vaccination policies. This study examined the prevalence of HBV screening, test results, and predictors of HBV screening among older Chinese.

Methods: Two hundred fifty-two Chinese immigrants (older than 50 years) recruited from Chinese-speaking physicians' offices in the Washington, DC, area participated in a cancer screening questionnaire.

Promoting Chinese-speaking primary care physicians' communication with immigrant patients about colorectal cancer screening: a cluster randomized trial design.

Chinese Americans underutilize colorectal cancer screening. This study evaluated a physician-based intervention guided by social cognitive theory (SCT) to inform future research involving minority physicians and patients. Twenty-five Chinese-speaking primary care physicians were randomized into intervention or usual care arms.

Ofatumumab and bendamustine in previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Despite initial responses > 90% with fludarabine and rituximab-based regimens, patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) invariably relapse and require further treatment. Ofatumumab and bendamustine have each shown efficacy in relapsed/refractory CLL with overall response rates (ORRs) of 58% and 76%, respectively. Given excellent data with bendamustine and rituximab in relapsed/refractory CLL/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), this phase II study evaluated the combination of ofatumumab and bendamustine in previously treated patients.

The 6-MP versus placebo clinical trial in acute leukemia.

Background: This article gives the status of clinical cancer research in the 1950's-1960's and tells the story of the development and conduct of the 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) versus placebo clinical trial in acute leukemia through the initiation, design, conduct and analysis stages, with emphasis on the ethical aspects of randomizing patients to 6-MP or placebo when in remission.

Purpose: The specific objective was to compare the lengths of remission for patients receiving 6-MP or placebo after achieving complete or partial remission from steroid treatment.

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled sequential study was conducted in which patients were paired by remission status at each of the eleven institutions participating in the study, and randomized to 6-MP or placebo within each pair of patients.

Treatment-subgroup interaction: an example from a published, phase II clinical trial.

Phase II trial designs that ignore between-patient heterogeneity and do not allow for treatment-subgroup interactions may produce very large false positive and false negative error rates if efficacy varies by subgroup. Recent discussions of this problem were illustrated with scenarios and computer simulations. In this short communication, we reanalyzed a published phase II trial to highlight the need to consider between-patient heterogeneity and the possibility of treatment-subgroup interaction when designing and analyzing phase II studies.