[The possible benefit of artificial intelligence in an organized population-related screening program : Initial results and perspective].

Background: Mammography screening programs (MSP) have shown that breast cancer can be detected at an earlier stage enabling less invasive treatment and leading to a better survival rate. The considerable numbers of interval breast cancer (IBC) and the additional examinations required, the majority of which turn out not to be cancer, are critically assessed.

Objective: In recent years companies and universities have used machine learning (ML) to develop powerful algorithms that demonstrate astonishing abilities to read mammograms.

Breast cancer patients enrolled in the Swiss mammography screening program "donna" demonstrate prolonged survival.

Study Goal: We compared the survival rates of women with breast cancer (BC) detected within versus outside the mammography screening program (MSP) "donna".

Methods: We merged data from the MSP with the data from corresponding cancer registries to categorize BC cases as within MSP (screen-detected and interval carcinomas) and outside the MSP. We analyzed the tumor stage distribution, tumor characteristics and the survival of the women.

Critical Evaluation of Transcripts and Long Noncoding RNA Expression Levels in Prostate Cancer Following Radical Prostatectomy.

Introduction: The clinical course of prostate cancer (PCa) is highly variable, ranging from indolent behavior to rapid metastatic progression. The Gleason score is widely accepted as the primary histologic assessment tool with significant prognostic value. However, additional biomarkers are required to better stratify patients, particularly those at intermediate risk.

Screening is associated with lower mastectomy rates in eastern Switzerland beyond stage effects.

Background: A recent study found an influence of organized mammography screening programmes (MSPs) on geographical and temporal variation of mastectomy rates. We aimed to quantify the effect on the example of one of the cantonal programmes in Switzerland.

Methods: We used incidence data for the years 2010-2017 from the cancer registry of Eastern Switzerland.

Global Disparities in Breast Cancer Genetics Testing, Counselling and Management.

Hereditary breast cancers, mainly due to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, account for only 5-10% of this disease. The threshold for genetic testing is a 10% likelihood of detecting a mutation, as determined by validated models such as BOADICEA and Manchester Scoring System. A 90-95% reduction in breast cancer risk can be achieved with bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy in unaffected BRCA mutation carriers.

Quality of Life in Second-Line Treatment of Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Using Cabazitaxel or Other Therapies After Previous Docetaxel Chemotherapy: Swiss Observational Treatment Registry.

Background: The aim was to evaluate quality of life (QoL), pain, and fatigue in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treated with different regimens after first-line docetaxel, as well as disease progression.

Patients And Methods: Patients with mCRPC having received first-line chemotherapy with docetaxel were eligible. Second-line treatment choice was at the discretion of the local investigator.

Integrated analysis of the prostate cancer small-nucleolar transcriptome reveals SNORA55 as a driver of prostate cancer progression.

Metastasis is the primary cause of death in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have long been considered "housekeeping" genes with no relevance for cancer biology. Emerging evidence has challenged this assumption, suggesting that snoRNA expression is frequently modulated during cancer progression.

Impact of Training Bolivian Farmers on Integrated Pest Management and Diffusion of Knowledge to Neighboring Farmers.

Teaching farmers integrated pest management (IPM) in farmer field schools (FFS) has led to reduced pesticide use and safer handling. This article evaluates the long-term impact of training farmers on IPM and the diffusion of knowledge from trained farmers to neighboring farmers, a subject of importance to justify training costs and to promote a healthy and sustainable agriculture. Training on IPM of farmers took place from 2002 to 2004 in their villages in La Paz County, Bolivia, whereas dissemination of knowledge from trained farmer to neighboring farmer took place until 2009.

Preoperative versus postoperative docetaxel-cisplatin-fluorouracil (TCF) chemotherapy in locally advanced resectable gastric carcinoma: 10-year follow-up of the SAKK 43/99 phase III trial.

Background: Fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer has been reported to be effective by several meta-analyses. Perioperative chemotherapy in locally advanced resectable gastric cancer (RGC) has been reported improving survival by two large randomized trials and recent meta-analyses but the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and optimal regimen remains to be determined. We compared a neoadjuvant with adjuvant docetaxel-based regimen in a prospective randomized phase III trial, of which we present the 10-year follow-up data.

Mutation Profiling of Lung Cancers with Long-Term Response to Gefitinib Therapy.

Background: The role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and unknown EGFR mutation status has recently been questioned.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients with unknown EGFR mutation status and long-term response (LTR) to gefitinib in the Swiss Iressa expanded access program (EAP). We assessed patient characteristics, and performed Sanger sequencing and next generation sequencing on archived tumor tissue.

A Phase II Study of the Central European Society of Anticancer-Drug Research (CESAR) Group: Results of an Open-Label Study of Gemcitabine plus Cisplatin with or without Concomitant or Sequential Gefitinib in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urothelium.

Introduction: This phase II trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, gefitinib, in combination with first-line chemotherapy in advanced urothelial cancer.

Methods: Chemotherapy-naïve patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma were randomized 1:1:1 to receive six cycles of chemotherapy (gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, and cisplatin 70 mg/m2 on day 1 of every cycle) concomitantly with gefitinib 250 mg/day (arm A); or with sequential gefitinib (arm B); or alone (arm C). The primary endpoint was the time to progression (TTP).

Multidisciplinary care in patients with prostate cancer: room for improvement.

Purpose: New multimodality treatment approaches for prostate cancer require multidisciplinary management of patients. We aimed to assess the current practices of multidisciplinarity and their possible implications in treatment management in Switzerland.

Methods: In a survey, urologists and medical oncologists in Switzerland were asked to include at least 25 or 15 consecutive patients with the diagnosis of prostate cancer, respectively.

The antihormonal preventive therapy of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

With the continuing increase of median life expectancy of important segments of the world's population, cancer incidence, as well as cancer related morbidity and mortality, are constantly increasing, especially for developing countries and for breast and prostate cancer, the predominant gender-associated cancer types. In addition to continuing, with more and more expensive efforts to develop new and more effective cancer treatments, it is health-politically and medico-professionally important to realise that only successful approaches to primary cancer prevention of major and frequent cancer types will be able to change this socially and economically unfavourably outlook. It is therefore encouraging to see that primary (or pharmacologic, interventional) cancer prevention programs have been successfully developed over the past decade for individuals at elevated risk for breast and prostate cancer on the basis of several scientifically well-conducted, prospective chemoprevention trials, mainly with synthetic anti-hormones (anti-estrogens and anti-androgens) in the USA, in Europe and Australia.

[Principle and practice of clinical phase III studies].

Randomized phase III studies compare new treatments with standard therapy according to defined guidelines and legal rules. Large international randomized phase III studies are some of the most complex and expensive medical experiments. The results of such trials will decide about the future of new drugs and are the basis of evidence-based medicine and the development of clinical guidelines.

A clinical phase II study with sorafenib in patients with progressive hormone-refractory prostate cancer: a study of the CESAR Central European Society for Anticancer Drug Research-EWIV.

Sorafenib is a multi-kinase inhibitor with antiangiogenic and antiproliferative activity. The activity of sorafenib in progressive hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) patients was investigated in a phase II clinical study. Progressive HRPC patients received sorafenib 400 mg bid p.

Quality of analgesic treatment in patients with advanced prostate cancer: do we do a better job now? The Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) experience.

Goals Of Work: The aim of this study was to evaluate pain intensity and the application of the WHO guidelines for cancer pain treatment in patients with prostate cancer treated at Swiss cancer centers.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed a series of five multicenter phase II clinical trials which examined the palliative effect of different chemotherapies in patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate carcinoma. Of 170 patients, 1,018 visits were evaluable for our purpose, including ratings of pain intensity by patients and prescribed analgesics.

An open-label, noncomparative phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of docetaxel in combination with gefitinib in patients with hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer.

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men, however, therapeutic options are limited. 50-90% of hormone-refractory prostate cancer cells show an overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which may contribute to uncontrolled proliferation and resistance to chemotherapy. In vitro, gefitinib, an orally administered tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown a significant increase in antitumor activity when combined with chemotherapy.

Occupational pesticide intoxications among farmers in Bolivia: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Pesticide use and its consequences are of concern in Bolivia due to an intensive and increasing use.

Methods: To assess the magnitude and reasons for occupational pesticide intoxication, a cross-sectional study with interviews and blood-tests was performed among 201 volunteer farmers from 48 villages in the temperate and subtropical valleys in the eastern part of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia. Of these 171 male farmers using pesticides in their agricultural production were used in the statistical analysis, including linear- and logistic regression analysis.

Fatigue and menopausal symptoms in women with breast cancer undergoing hormonal cancer treatment.

Background: Hormonal treatment for women with breast cancer is frequently proposed in the adjuvant as well as in the palliative setting. Therefore, many women are confronted with early menopause and prolonged oestrogen deprivation and consequently with a variety of quality of life issues, such as menopausal symptoms and fatigue.

Patients And Methods: It was the aim of this study to explore the occurrence and frequency of menopausal symptoms in women with breast cancer, undergoing hormonal cancer treatment and to investigate their relationship with fatigue.