Commentary - A comprehensive safety understanding of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor biosimilars and Intended Copy Biologics in treating chemotherapy associated febrile neutropenia.

Filgrastim, human white cell growth factor, Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), is a core medicine in the WHO list of Essential Medicines. For this reason, recent reporting of statistically significant safety and efficacy differences between reference and Biosimilar brands of filgrastim by Rastogi and the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology in 2020 is of great concern [Shruti Rastogi et al. Towards a comprehensive safety understanding of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor biosimilars in treating chemotherapy associated febrile neutropenia: Trends from decades of data.

Amlodipine gynaecomastia.

We report only the second published confirmed case of gynaecomastia caused by amlodipine (a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker). Gynaecomastia developed in a 70-year-old male within 3 months of starting amlodipine, and symptoms resolved within 3 weeks of drug withdrawal suggesting a strong relationship between amlodipine and gynaecomastia in this patient. Recent research has suggested possible interesting novel mechanisms for amlodipine gynaecomastia, which are discussed.

Treatment of keloids by surgical excision and immediate postoperative single-fraction radiotherapy.

The authors report the outcomes of patients with keloid scars treated with a protocol of extralesional excision and immediate single-fraction adjuvant radiotherapy. The design of the study was a retrospective analysis with up to 5-year outcome data. The setting was a single treatment team, University Teaching Hospital in London, United Kingdom.

Heterotopic bone formation: irradiation of high risk patients.

The Royal Marsden Hospital has adopted a policy for patient selection for the use of adjuvant radiotherapy to prevent heterotopic new bone formation (HTBF) limited to those at greater than 50% risk. The treatment protocol is 7 Gy post-operative megavoltage radiotherapy at mid-plane, in one fraction, given within 72 h of surgery. Since the introduction of this protocol in 1993, 26 joints have been treated in 25 patients.

Cervical lymph node relapses of head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma: is brachytherapy a therapeutic option?

Purpose: To report the results of interstitial brachytherapy (IBT) without salvage surgery for isolated cervical lymph node relapses.

Patient And Methods: From 1970 to 1989, 84 patients were treated; 76 patients had relapsed in sites of previous external beam radiation. In 72 patients, IBT was sole salvage treatment (mean, 56.

Ear-lobe keloids: treatment by a protocol of surgical excision and immediate postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy.

There is no universally agreed policy for treating keloid scars of the ear lobe following piercing. We treated 35 patients (34 women) for high-risk ear-lobe keloids; the average age was 24 years (range: 16-44 years). All had failed to respond to prior treatment with massage and silicone, and corticosteroid injection.

Salvage treatment for inoperable neck nodes in head and neck cancer using combined iridium-192 brachytherapy and surgical reconstruction.

The results of debulking surgery and re-irradiation with radioactive implants (brachytherapy) are reported for 39 patients with inoperable metastatic neck nodes from primary head and neck cancers. For 13 patients conventional salvage by partial debulking surgery and brachytherapy proved effective, with 68 per cent control at 1 year, but six patients suffered severe radiation fibrosis, necrosis and contractures. Some 26 patients were treated by combined tumour debulking, skin resurfacing and brachytherapy implant.