Management of Frail and Not-Frail elderly cancer patients in a hospital-based geriatric oncology program.

Purpose: To evaluate management and outcome of patients >or=70 years admitted to our Medical Oncology ward and evaluated by Multidimensional Geriatric Assessment before treatment with standard or "elderly-friendly" chemotherapy regimens, a list of which was developed within our Geriatric Oncology Program based on published clinical trials and personal experience.

Patients And Methods: Charts of patients treated from January 2004 to January 2006 were reviewed for choice of treatment, tumor response, toxicities and survival.

Results: 117 patients (median age 75 years) were divided into Frail (F) (34.

When should trastuzumab be stopped after achieving complete response in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients?

We report the case of a woman with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who achieved prolonged complete remission of multiple liver metastases after treatment with weekly trastuzumab plus paclitaxel but relapsed in the brain soon after stopping trastuzumab maintenance therapy which had been prosecuted for almost three years. In the absence of randomized trials, the optimal duration of trastuzumab administration after achieving complete remission of metastatic breast cancer remains questionable.

Structure of chicken plasma retinol-binding protein.

The crystal structure of the specific carrier of retinol (retinol-binding protein, RBP) purified from chicken plasma has been determined (space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with a=46.06(5) A, b=53.56(6) A, c=73.

[Characteristics of epidemiological strains of influenza A virus (H3N2) isolate in 1997-1999. Virus A/Moscow/10/99--a candidate to become the vaccine strain].

Antigenic properties of influenza A(H3N2) viruses isolated during two epidemic seasons 1997-98 and 1998-99 in Russia are analyzed. All strains are antigenic variants of the reference strain A/Sydney/5/97. Characteristics of epidemic strain A/Moscow/10/99, proposed by WHO expert committee as vaccine strain for 1999-2000 have been studied.