Maintenance treatment with capecitabine and bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer (CAIRO3): a phase 3 randomised controlled trial of the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group.

Background: The optimum duration of first-line treatment with chemotherapy in combination with bevacizumab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer is unknown. The CAIRO3 study was designed to determine the efficacy of maintenance treatment with capecitabine plus bevacizumab versus observation.

Methods: In this open-label, phase 3, randomised controlled trial, we recruited patients in 64 hospitals in the Netherlands.

Doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide with concurrent versus sequential docetaxel as neoadjuvant treatment in patients with breast cancer.

Background: This study was designed to determine whether delivering neo-adjuvant chemotherapy at a higher dose in a shorter period of time improves outcome of breast cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: Women with newly diagnosed breast cancer were randomly assigned to neoadjuvant chemotherapy of four cycles of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by four cycles of docetaxel (AC 60/600 - T 100 mg/m(2)) or six cycles of TAC (75/50/500 mg/m(2)) every 3 weeks. The primary endpoint was the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate, defined as no invasive tumour present in the breast.

Phase I trial of the combination of the Akt inhibitor nelfinavir and chemoradiation for locally advanced rectal cancer.

Purpose: To investigate the toxicity of nelfinavir, administered during preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

Material And Methods: Twelve patients were treated with chemoradiotherapy to 50.4 Gy combined with capecitabine 825 mg/m(2) BID.

Reliability of receptor assessment on core needle biopsy in breast cancer patients.

We compared the breast core needle biopsy and the resection specimen with respect to estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status to identify predictors for discordant findings. We retrospectively collected data from 526 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. ER, PR and HER2 status had been assessed in both the core needle biopsy and resection specimen.

Randomized, phase III trial of sequential epirubicin and docetaxel versus epirubicin alone in postmenopausal patients with node-positive breast cancer.

Purpose: The Docetaxel Epirubicin Adjuvant (DEVA) trial evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of incorporating docetaxel after epirubicin to create a sequential anthracycline-taxane regimen in early breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: After complete tumor excision, postmenopausal women with node-positive early breast cancer were randomly assigned to either epirubicin 50 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 every 4 weeks for six cycles (EPI × 6) or three cycles of epirubicin 50 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 every 4 weeks followed by three cycles of docetaxel 100 mg/m(2) on day 1 every 3 weeks (EPI-DOC). A subset of patients also participated in a quality of life (QOL) study.