Self-care strategies to cope with taste changes after chemotherapy.

Purpose/objectives: To describe factors related to taste changes, to examine patients' use of a self-care suggestion sheet to manage taste changes associated with chemotherapy, and to identify potentially useful strategies for managing specific taste changes after chemotherapy.

Design: Quasi-experimental, pre/post design.

Setting: Four outpatient urban and suburban oncology centers in Illinois.

Long-term central venous catheters: issues for care.

Long-term central venous catheters allow the safe administration of chemotherapy, blood and blood products, total parenteral nutrition, fluids, and other medications. Despite their benefits, the risk of certain complications (e.g.

Pre-treatment prognostic factors in stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients receiving combined modality treatment.

Approximately one-third of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients present with locally advanced disease. Increasing numbers of clinical trials are being conducted in this group of patients and recently a new international staging system has been introduced, resulting in the sub-division of Stage III into IIIa (potentially operable disease) and IIIb (inoperable disease). Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and Cox regression analyses were used to analyze data from 129 Stage III NSCLC patients who had been treated on two consecutive Phase II trials testing combined modality treatment.

Collaborative research under the unification model.

The research role of the clinical nurse specialist is often the most difficult to implement. At the masters level, efforts are generally directed at utilization and evaluation of research more than design and implementation. Collaboration between several investigators, however, is an efficient and effective method of pooling the resources of a variety of researchers, allowing the actualization of all aspects of the research process.

Correlates of fatigue in people with breast or lung cancer.

Fatigue is regarded as a universal and unavoidable side effect of cancer therapy, yet its epidemiology and prevalence in populations of people with cancer have not been well-documented. Using the conceptual framework of Piper, et al., this study examined and described the perception and manifestations of fatigue and its physiological, biochemical, and behavioral correlates.

Acute nonlymphocytic leukemia following etoposide and cisplatin combination chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung.

Combination chemotherapy is frequently used in the therapy of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but late complications are rarely recognized because of the short survival of most patients. Of 119 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with cisplatin and other drugs, four patients developed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL). All four patients received etoposide and cisplatin with or without vindesine.

Phase II study of carboplatin in previously untreated patients with metastatic small cell lung carcinoma.

Fourteen previously untreated patients with metastatic small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) were treated with carboplatin, 400 mg/m2, given as a 1-hour infusion every 28 days. Eleven patients had a partial response to therapy [response rate, 79% (95% confidence limits, 57%-100%)]. The median duration of response was 8 weeks (range, 4-41) and the median survival was 29 weeks (range, 11-68+).

A phase I-II study of bialkylator chemotherapy, high-dose thiotepa, and cyclophosphamide with autologous bone marrow reinfusion in patients with advanced cancer.

Twenty patients with disseminated cancer both untreated and previously treated received bialkylator chemotherapy, thiotepa, and cyclophosphamide and reinfusion of cryopreserved autologous bone marrow (ABMR). The cyclophosphamide dose was constant at 7.5 g/m2 over three days, while thiotepa was started at 1.

Protochemotherapy in non-small cell lung carcinoma. An attempt to increase surgical resectability and survival. A preliminary report.

Twenty patients with Stage IIIM0 (T3N2) non-small cell lung cancer were treated with vindesine, etoposide, and Platinol (cisplatin) (ELETOP) chemotherapy in an attempt to decrease tumor size and increase resectability and survival. ELETOP chemotherapy induced a 70% response rate (all partial responses) within 6 weeks, and three patients were able to undergo curative resection. Toxicities with ELETOP were moderately severe, with leukocyte and platelet nadirs on day 15.