Efficacy of Prophylactic Low-Molecular Weight Heparin for Ambulatory Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: Outcomes From the CONKO-004 Trial.

Purpose: Advanced pancreatic cancer (APC), in addition to its high mortality, accounts for the highest rates of venous thromboembolic events (VTEs). Enoxaparin, a low-molecular weight heparin, is effective in prevention and treatment of VTEs. Some small studies have indicated that this benefit might extend to patients with cancer.

First-line treatment of pancreatic cancer patients with the combination of 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid plus gemcitabine: a multicenter phase II trial by the CONKO-study group.

Purpose: This open-label, multi-center phase II study investigated the efficacy and safety of the combination of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/folinic acid (FA) plus gemcitabine (GFF) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The study is based on our completed dose finding phase I trial.

Methods: A total of 90 patients (pts) were recruited between 02/2000 and 04/2002 to receive 5-FU 750 mg/m(2) (24 h, i.

A prospective two-center study comparing wireless capsule endoscopy with intraoperative enteroscopy in patients with obscure GI bleeding.

Background: Capsule endoscopy enables noninvasive diagnostic examination of the entire small intestine. However, sensitivity and specificity of capsule endoscopy have not been adequately defined. We, therefore, compared capsule endoscopy by using intraoperative enteroscopy as a criterion standard in patients with obscure GI bleeding.

A phase II trial of gemcitabine in combination with 5-fluorouracil (24-hour) and folinic acid in patients with chemonaive advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background: Gemcitabine (Gemzar) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus folinic acid (FA) both have proven activity in the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The present study was initiated to investigate the efficacy of gemcitabine in combination with 5-FU-FA.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-eight patients, median age 60 years (range 34-70) with inoperable, stage IV, pancreatic cancer were enrolled into the study and treated on an outpatient basis.

[Secondary malignant neoplasms in patients with breast cancer].

Objective: This report analyzes the occurrence of secondary malignancies among patients with breast cancer.

Material And Methods: We evaluated all women diagnosed with breast cancer who were reported to the National Cancer Institute of the former GDR in 1976. There was a follow up of 5,485 patients from 1976 to 1988 (38,231 person-years at risk).

[Intensification of chemotherapy dosage in metastatic breast carcinoma?].

During the last decades, improvements in the median survival time in patients with metastasized carcinoma of the mamma were hardly achieved. There ist still a lack of evidence that the increase in the rate of remissions due to conventional chemotherapy leads to an improvement in survival time. In 450 female patients with metastasized carcinoma of the mamma, the survival time was analyzed with the begin of the metastatic spread in relation to the treatment success of the first palliative chemotherapy.

[Atrophic corpus gastritis and autoimmune gastritis].

The authors tried to clarify relations between autoimmune gastritis and isolated atrophic corpus gastritis by bioptic corporal and antral examinations from 150 probands as well as examinations of gastrin in serum and parietal cell antibody tests. Only 30% of all patients examined with isolated atrophic gastritis of the corpus part revealed criteria of an autoimmune gastritis. Therefore investigations of antibodies against parietal cells are necessary to mark off both clinical pictures.

[Ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy in tumor diagnosis].

Ultrasound guided fine needle biopsy led in 92 of 100 patients with suspected tumours to correct diagnostic results which determined the diagnostic and therapeutic management. Ultrasound-tomography may thus in connection with fine needle biopsy enlarge and simplify tumour diagnosis.

A comparative study of early gastric cancer.

Authors provided a comparative study of early gastric cancers (EGC) which were found in the Cancer Research Centre of the Academy of Medical Sciences of USSR (Group A) and in the Central Institute of Cancer Research of the Academy of Sciences of GDR (Group B). The most frequent EGC-type in group B was type II, while types I and III were more frequent in group A. The rate of lymph node metastases in group A was 4,54% versus 16,2% in group B.

[Parietal cell antibodies and stomach cancer].

Sera of 101 patients with histologically confirmed gastric cancers were investigated for parietal cell antibodies, which are the serological markers of chronic atrophic gastritis type A. These autoantibodies were more often found in patients with early than with advanced gastric cancers. They were more frequent in intestinal than in diffuse gastric cancers.

[Early detection of gastrointestinal tumors (author's transl)].

"Early cancers" of stomach and colon have a favourable prognosis, but mass screenings for these tumors with endoscopic or radiographic methods are ineffective and expensive. The simple nonspecific test for occult blood as a suitable method for early detection of stomach and colorectal cancer in high-risk patients seems to be more useful. Some suggestions are given to detect and to control risk groups.

[Errors in endoscopic diagnosis of early stomach cancer].

Authors deal with gastroscopic findings in 60 patients with early gastric cancers. With respect of macroscopic findings exclusively, one third early gastric cancers was thought by the endoscopist to be a benign lesion. The differentiation between benign and malignant ulcer was especially difficult.

[Endoscopy of the esophagus, stomach and duodenal bulb].

The authors report on the position of the endoscopy of oesophagus, stomach and duodenal bulb within the diagnostic endoscopy. The therapeutic endoscopy including polypectomy remains widely not taken into consideration. They particularly deal with the endoscopic-bioptic diagnosis of the stenoses of the oesophagus, the gastric ulcers and the early carcinoma of the stomach.

[Diagnostic problems in early gastric cancer].

It is reported on 48 early carcinomas in 47 patients who were diagnosed and treated in the Robert-Rössle-Institute Berlin-Buch between 1965 and 1977. In these cases the authors above all deal with the difficulties in the endoscopic and bioptic diagnostics which prove supreme in comparison to the X-ray diagnostics. In the patients who underwent a follow-up observation of more than 5 years the survival rate corresponds to the results reported by Japanese authors.

[Electrogastrographic studies in patients with gastric and duodenal ulcer].

The establishment of the motor activity of the gastrointestinal tract is difficult to be performed. The method of electrogastroenterography gives an evidence through an indirect registration of the summation vectors of the action potential. In patients with ventricular ulcer a statistically certain retardation of the changes of the potential/min.