Choosing a concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimen for squamous cell head and neck cancer: A systematic review of the published literature with subgroup analysis.

Background: A systematic review was conducted to develop clinical recommendations for concomitant chemotherapy (CT) and radiotherapy (RT) in patients with locally advanced squamous cell head and neck cancer (SCHNC).

Methods: Results of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were pooled using Meta-analyst(0.988) software.

Systematic overview of the evidence for brachytherapy in clinically localized prostate cancer.

Background: Brachytherapy (permanent implantation of radioactive seeds) has emerged as an alternative to existing standard therapy with radical prostatectomy or external beam radiotherapy in the treatment of clinically localized (T1 and T2) prostate cancer. The Genitourinary Cancer Disease Site Group of the Cancer Care Ontario Practice Guidelines Initiative examined the role of brachytherapy in treating clinically localized prostate cancer.

Methods: A systematic review of articles published from 1988 to April 1999, retrieved through a search of MEDLINE and CANCERLIT databases, was combined with a consensus interpretation of the evidence in the context of conventional practice.

Surveillance programs for early stage non-seminomatous testicular cancer: a practice guideline.

Background And Purpose: To identify an appropriate surveillance program for men with clinical stage I non-seminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis (NSGCT).

Materials And Methods: A systematic review of the published literature was combined with a consensus process, around the interpretation of the evidence in the context of conventional practice, to develop an evidence-based practice guideline.

Results: No randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing surveillance schedules were found, but data from 12 case series and one RCT which compared radiotherapy with surveillance were reviewed.

Estrogen and gender do not affect fatigue resistance of extensor digitorum longus muscle in rats.

The effects of estrogen on skeletal muscle fatigue are controversial. To determine the effects of estrogen and gender on rat extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle, we either injected 40 microg beta-estradiol 3/benzoate.kg BW(-1) to female rats or sham injected male or female rats for 14 days.

Increased force development rates of fatigued mouse skeletal muscle are graded to myosin light chain phosphate content.

Phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chain (R-LC) increases the Ca2+ sensitivity of cross-bridge transitions, which determine rate of force development in skinned skeletal muscle fibers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether phosphorylation of R-LC is the molecular basis for the increased force development rates (+dF/dtmax) observed in fatigued mouse extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) (stimulated in vitro at 25 degrees C). Parameters of twitch and tetanic force were obtained after the application of different-frequency conditioning stimuli (CS), which were used to vary R-LC phosphorylation and reduce peak tetanic force (Po).