A general chemotherapy myelotoxicity score to predict febrile neutropenia in hematological malignancies.

Background: Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia is the most common adverse effect of chemotherapy and is often complicated by febrile neutropenia (FN). The objective of this study is to validate a classification of aggressiveness of a chemotherapy regimen and to evaluate its usefulness in a risk prediction model of FN in patients with hematological cancer at the beginning of a chemotherapy cycle.

Patients And Methods: Two hundred and sixty-six patients were prospectively enrolled and followed during 1053 cycles.

The use of low-energy laser (LEL) for the prevention of chemotherapy- and/or radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis in cancer patients: results from two prospective studies.

Background: Low-energy laser (LEL) treatment has been suggested as an effective and safe method to prevent and/or treat oral mucositis induced by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy; however, it has not gained wide acceptance so far.

Materials And Methods: We conducted two clinical trials testing the LEL technique: firstly, as a secondary prevention in patients with various solid tumors treated with chemotherapy who all developed severe mucositis after a previous identical chemotherapy and, secondly, as therapeutic intervention (compared to sham illumination in a randomized way) in patients with hematological tumors receiving intensive chemotherapy and having developed low-grade oral mucositis.

Results: We entered 26 eligible patients in the first study and 36 were randomized in the second study.

[The Cancer Registry of the Jules Bordet Institute, a new tool for the institution and its researchers. Description of cases incident in 2000-2001].

A hospital Cancer Registry has recently been initiated at the Jules Bordet Institute. The collected information allows to report pathology items such as incidence date, site, morphology and stage. It permits to describe the therapeutic choices, which, broken down by organ and stage, can be compared to guidelines in a process assessment.

[Belgian registry of thyroid cancer. Preliminary epidemiological characteristics revealed by a retrospective study (1988-1995). Belgian Thyroid Cancer Study Group].

The aim of a cancer registry is to study the incidence of cancer in a well-determined population and to allow epidemiological research to the setting up of diagnosis and therapeutic strategies. The Belgian Thyroid Cancer Study Group (BTCSG) was founded in 1990. In the present study we report data collected from 1988 to 1995 in 397 patients with a differentiated (papillary and follicular) thyroid carcinoma living in the french-speaking area of Belgium.