Results of a volunteer program to conduct dietary intervention research for women.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) initiated the Breast Cancer Dietary Intervention Project (BCDIP) to involve community volunteers in cancer-related intervention research activities focused on dietary fat reduction in women with breast cancer. This article presents data on the volunteer aspects of the project, with two aims: (a) to describe the volunteer recruitment and intervention designed for the BCDIP, conducted jointly by the American Cancer Society and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and (b) to present baseline characteristics and predictors of retention of the BCDIP volunteers. There were five types of volunteers, called volunteer adjunct researchers or VARs, in the BCDIP.

Acute tumor lysis syndrome associated with concurrent biochemotherapy of metastatic melanoma: a case report and review of the literature.

Background: Treatment of solid tumors rarely has been associated with tumor lysis syndrome. However, to the authors' knowledge the clinical scenario has not been reported previously in melanoma patients.

Methods: A patient with bulky metastatic melanoma was treated with concurrent biochemotherapy using interleukin-2, interferon-alpha, and a combination of cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine.

Feasibility of using volunteer research staff to deliver and evaluate a low-fat dietary intervention: the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Dietary Intervention Project.

This report presents the results of a study to examine the feasibility of using volunteers as research staff for a randomized trial of whether reduction in dietary fat intake could prevent or delay breast cancer recurrence. We examined whether volunteers could be trained to recruit study participants, deliver a complex and intensive dietary intervention, and monitor intervention effectiveness. Volunteers, who were mostly employed nurses and dietitians, screened 521 women, of whom 293 were eligible and 144 were randomized.

Sequential cyclophosphamide-prednisone and vincristine-bleomycin (CPOB). An effective, schedule-dependent treatment for advanced diffuse histiocytic lymphoma.

In an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group non-Hodgkin's lymphoma clinical trial, 90 patients with Stage III or IV diffuse histiocytic lymphoma (DHL) were treated with one of four chemotherapy regimens. All patients were previously untreated with chemotherapy, and careful restaging was required to document responses. Each treatment included cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone (COP) plus Adriamycin (COPA), BCNU (BCVP) or bleomycin (COPB and CPOB).

Comparison of four-combination chemotherapy programs in metastatic breast cancer: comparison of multiple drug therapy with cytoxan, 5-FU and prednisone versus cytoxan and adriamycin, versus cytoxan, 5-FU and adriamycin, versus cytoxan, 5-FU and prednisone alternating with cytoxan and adriamycin.

In 126 postmenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer, four chemotherapeutic combination programs were tested. Patients were stratified and randomized to one of the four programs: (1) fluorouracil, cytoxan and prednisone (CFP): (2) fluorouracil, cytoxan and Adriamycin (CAF); (3) cytoxan and Adriamycin (CA); or (4) alternating combinations of CFP-CA. Objective response rates were 17% for 18 patients on CFP, 25% for 40 patients on CAF, 42% for 41 patients on CA and 63% for 19 patients on CFP-CA.