A review on clinical management and pharmacological therapy on hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT).

Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) or Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome, is an autosomal dominant rare disease characterized by localized angiodysplasia. This is manifested as epistaxis, mucocutaneous and gastrointestinal telangiectases, and arteriovenous malformations in the pulmonary, cerebral or hepatic circulation. The prevalence is between 1 in 5,000 to 8,000, although it is higher in some regions.

Current situation of zalutumumab.

Background: Increased EGFR expression has been observed in many tumours. This overexpression usually correlates with a more advanced disease stage, a poorer prognosis and a worse chemotherapy response. EGFR inhibition has been considered an attractive approach in cancer treatment.

Treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer: from gemcitabine single agent to combinations and targeted therapy.

The prognosis of advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma is still poor nowadays. Gemcitabine in monotherapy (30-min infusion) has been the standard of treatment during the last decade, and many clinical trials have failed to demonstrate an improvement in overall survival (OS) with the addition of different drugs to gemcitabine, including cetuximab and bevacizumab. Nevertheless, some modest but interesting advances have been provided by combinations such as gemcitabine-erlotinib, gemcitabine-capecitabine and gemcitabine plus a platinum salt.

Retrospective analysis of surgical resection after induction chemotherapy for patients with T4b squamous cell head and neck cancer.

Background: Standard treatment of patients with T4b squamous cell head and neck cancer (T4b-SCHNC) is concomitant chemo-radiotherapy (CT-RT). Recent Phase III trials with Taxane containing induction chemotherapy (IC) suggest that IC could also play a role in this setting. The value of resecting the residual mass after IC and before RT is not yet clear in this context.