Pain treatment with high-dose, controlled-release oxycodone: an Italian perspective.

Objective: To investigate the possible role and tolerability of high-dose (>160 mg/day) oxycodone controlled release (CR) for the treatment of cancer and non-cancer pain.

Design: 227 patients with cancer or non-cancer pain were enrolled in an open-label, multi-center, Italian study in order to assess the adequacy of their existing pain management (using a numerical rating scale [NRS]) and the possible benefit high-dose oxycodone CR may offer patients experiencing uncontrolled pain.

Results: Pain was poorly controlled at baseline, with only 18.

[Approach to the problem of economic costs of the medical therapy of tumors].

The use of antitumoral drugs is increasing constantly. The economic cost pro capite of the commonest oncotherapeutic treatments has been analysed. The calculation is carried out on the basis of out-patient as well as in-patient treatment.

[Urinary hydroxyproline in advanced breast carcinoma and response to treatment with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MAP) in high doses].

The Authors have studied total urinary hydroxyproline (TUH), together with other hematochemical analyses, in 104 patients suffering from advanced breast cancer with or without bone metastases. TUH escretion is higher in patients with osseous lesions and, if simultaneous pathologic values of TUH and serum alcaline phosphatase occur, the presence of bone metastases is statistically even more probable. Moreover TUH seems to vary in accordance with the clinical response of the disease at osseous level in 46 patients treated with Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) at high doses, showing itself as a possible marker of not negligible clinical value.