Quality of life and outcome of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer receiving first-line chemotherapy with nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine: Real-life results from the prospective QOLIXANE trial of the Platform for Outcome, Quality of Life and Translational Research on Pancreatic Cancer registry.

Few data exist on health-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) receiving first-line chemotherapy (Awad L ZE, Mesbah M Boston, MA. Applying survival data methodology to analyze quality of life data, in Mesbah M, Cole BF, Ting Lee M-L (eds): Statistical Methods for Quality of Life Studies: Design, Measurements and Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002).

Evaluation of EGFR inhibitor-mediated acneiform skin toxicity within the double-blind randomized EVITA trial: A thorough gender-specific analysis using the WoMo score.

Acne-like skin reactions frequently occur in patients undergoing treatment with drugs inhibiting the epidermal growth factor receptor. Recently, the effects of vitamin K1 containing cream (Reconval K1) as prophylactic skin treatment in addition to doxycycline were explored in a double-blind randomized phase II trial (EVITA) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer receiving cetuximab. EVITA demonstrated a trend towards less severe skin rash in Reconval K1-treated patients using the tripartite WoMo skin reaction grading score as a thorough tool for quantification of drug related skin reactions.

High adherence of patients with multiple myeloma who receive treatment with immunomodulatory drugs (IMIDS) in hematology/oncology group practices in Germany.

Purpose: Immunomodulatory drugs (IMIDS) have changed the treatment and outcome of patients suffering from multiple myeloma. However, with the oral administration adherence becomes an issue. Since there is no "gold standard" in measuring adherence, we assessed the adherence of myeloma patients with the help of different data sources.

EVITA-a double-blind, vehicle-controlled, randomized phase II trial of vitamin K1 cream as prophylaxis for cetuximab-induced skin toxicity.

Background: Acne-like skin rash is a frequently occurring adverse event associated with drugs against the epidermal growth factor receptor. This randomized vehicle-controlled study investigated the addition of vitamin K1 cream to doxycycline in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with cetuximab.

Patients And Methods: Patients receiving first-line cetuximab + FOLFIRI were randomly assigned to prophylactic treatment with doxycylin and vitamin K1 cream or doxycycline and the vehicle.

[Workflow improvement and efficiency gain with near total digitalization of a radiology department].

Purpose: To determine the temporal changes of the workflow caused by digitalization of the radiology department after installation of digital luminescence-radiography (DLR), a radiology information system (RIS) and picture archiving and communication system (PACS) at the Missionsärztliche Klinik in April 2000.

Materials And Methods: In a comparative study, a workflow analysis by manual registration of different work steps was performed before (1999) and after (2001) digitalization of a radiology department.

Results: The digitalization shortened the examination time for patients from a mean of 8 min to 5 min.

[3D-Ct-planned interstitial HDR brachytherapy + percutaneous irradiation and chemotherapy in inoperable pancreatic carcinoma. Methods and clinical outcome].

Purpose: Clinical experiences in interstitial 192-iridium HDR brachytherapy for the treatment of unresectable pancreatic carcinoma are presented. Brachytherapy has been used as boost irradiation in a multimodality treatment concept together with external radiotherapy and simultaneous chemotherapy. Practicability during clinical routine, tolerability and toxicity of treatment are investigated.

[Abdominal surgery in the elderly--a retrospective analysis over 11 years].

Particular problems of abdominal surgery in geriatric patients were analyzed in a retrospective study of 1569 surgical procedures of the abdomen carried out in 1420 patients aged 70 years or more. Emergency procedures were necessary in 357 (22.8%) cases with a lethality of 25.

Combined isodose curves of high-dose rate interstitial brachytherapy with external-beam radiation therapy in pancreatic carcinoma.

From September 1989 until March 1992 nine patients with unresectable, though localized carcinoma of the pancreas were treated by a multimodality therapy consisting of palliative surgery, interstitial conformal brachytherapy in high-dose rate mode (HDRBT) with iridium-192 up to 30 Gy and external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) of about 52 Gy. Four patients simultaneously received two cycles of chemotherapy consisting of 5-FU and Leucovorin. Since high radiation doses are applied which are not tolerated in adjacent healthy tissues, doses to tumor and critical areas need to be known precisely and are to be adjusted before treatment.

Acute abdominal rhabdomyolysis after body building exercise: is there a "rectus abdominus syndrome?".

Report of a 19-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital after vigorous exercise with signs of the "acute abdomen" syndrome. Since intestinal reasons for the complaints were excluded, a myocardial infarction was considered. However, the excessively increased serum CK levels indicated a disorder of the voluntary muscles.

Paramagnetic changes in pulmonary tumors.

Electron spin resonance studies on healthy and tumorous human lung samples have been conducted in order to determine possible differences in free radical concentration and shaped of the spectra between the different sections of the lung. It could be shown that in healthy lung tissue the signal caused by the semidehydroascorbate (SDA) radical is not prominent because of the prevailing high partial oxygen pressure. On formation of a tumor, the spin concentration increases, possibly due to the higher metabolic rate; here, the SDA peak is also more pronounced which indicates alterations in the interaction between cell constituents and ascorbic acid.

[Continence of anus praeter -- a problem solved? Erlangen magnetic stoma seal (author's transl)].

Primary or secondary implantation of the Erlangen magnetic stoma seal in case of colostomy or ileostomy is technically simple, although it requires a critical selection of patients and careful surgical technique. The best follow-up of the operated cases should be in the special protological clinics in the hands of stoma therapists. About 15% of the cases meet local complications and therefore the magnet-ring is explanted.

[Complications following colostomy closure --resection or extraperitoneal closure?].

At the Surgical Clinic of the University Erlangen-Nürnberg 213 colostomies in the period between 1961 and 1971 have been closed. In 88 patients an extraperitoneal procedure and in 125 patients a resection was performed. We recommend resection, because complications (first of all leakage) have been observed less often than in the extraperitoneal method.

[Colostomy continence achieved with an implanted circular magnet (author's transl)].

A new method of providing a colostomy continent for faeces and gas is described. It consists of the subcutaneous implantation of a magnetic ring which is led outside through the lumen of the colon and sutured to the skin. The colostomy is closed with a magnetic cover.

[Injuries to the rectum in diagnostic and therapeutic measures (author's transl)].

From 1955 to 1973, 28 anus praeter or rectal perforations were observed in the Chirurgische Universitätsklinik Erlangen. Ten of these patients died. The perforation of the intestine was already noted at the time of injury in 14, in 14 it deteriorated until a peritonitis at the end of three days on the average required laparotomy.

[Continent colostomy through magnetic closure in animal experiments on dogs].

In dog experiments a continent colostomy be means of magnetic occlusion has been developed. Around a terminal anus praeter a silicon-coated ringmagnet was placed between muscular fascia and subcutaneous fascia. The colon was pulled through the lumen of the ring and sutured to the skin.