Smoking related cancers: a brief report on problem solving, distress, and risk behaviors in patients and caregivers.

Cancer diagnoses may adversely affect emotional functioning in patients and their caregivers, which in turn may increase risk behaviors, such as tobacco and alcohol use. This study investigates the relationships among problem-solving ability, distress, and risk behaviors in patients with head/neck and lung cancer and their caregivers. The authors hypothesized that patients and caregivers who experienced higher distress would engage in more risk behaviors, but that Social Problem-Solving (SPS) would moderate this effect, in that those who possessed greater SPS ability would engage in fewer risk behaviors.

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin for locally advanced head and neck cancer: Long-term follow-up of a Brown University Oncology Group Phase II Study (HN-53).

Background: A phase II study was conducted using concurrent paclitaxel, carboplatin, and external beam radiotherapy (RT) in patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

Methods: Forty-three patients (stage III, n = 12; stage IV, n = 31) were treated with 8 cycles of weekly paclitaxel (60 mg/m(2)), carboplatin (area under the curve [AUC] = 1), and RT (1.8 Gy daily; total dose, 66-72 Gy).

A Phase II trial of subcutaneous amifostine and radiation therapy in patients with head-and-neck cancer.

Purpose: Intravenous amifostine 200 mg/m2 reduces xerostomia in head-and-neck cancer patients. This Phase II study evaluated subcutaneous (s.c.

Preservation of functional hearing after gamma knife surgery for vestibular schwannoma.

Object: The goal of this retrospective study was to define the rates of preservation of functional hearing and growth control of vestibular schwannomas (VS) treated by gamma knife surgery (GKS) involving a consistent 12-Gy prescription dose.

Methods: One hundred thirty-four patients with unilateral VS underwent GKS between 1994 and 2000. The mean magnetic resonance (MR) imaging follow-up period was 31.