Combined systemic chronotherapy and hepatic artery infusion for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer confined to the liver.

Background: The optimal treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer is still a clinical challenge. We describe the use of combined hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) of irinotecan (CPT-11) in conjunction with systemic chronotherapy infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5FU), folinic acid and carboplatin in patients with colorectal liver metastases.

Methods: Twenty-three patients with colorectal cancer and isolated liver metastases were enrolled in this trial.

Tumor sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs predicted by changes in fluorescence intensity and polarization in vitro.

Background: We used the CellScan, a novel static cytometer, to monitor changes induced by anti-neoplastic drugs in the fluorescence intensity and polarization of fluorescently-labeled tumor cells.

Materials And Methods: T47D and T80 human breast cancer cell lines were exposed to navelbine and to 5-fluorouracil and the fluorescence properties of the treated cells, stained with fluorescein diacetate and rhodamine 123, were measured by the CellScan.

Results: A strong correlation was found between the inhibition of cell growth induced by the two drugs, as estimated from cell counts, and the resulting changes in fluorescence intensity and polarization, as monitored by the CellScan.

Breast carcinoma: a report on the potential usage of the CC chemokine RANTES as a marker for a progressive disease.

Background: High incidence and intensity of RANTES (CC chemokine) expression were noted in advanced breast carcinoma.

Objective: To present two cases of breast carcinoma patients in whom RANTES expression was analyzed in parallel to disease progression.

Results: Although no evidence of malignancy was detected in the axillary lymph nodes of the two patients, their disease progressed.

CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil) versus CNF (cyclophosphamide, mitoxantrone, 5-fluorouracil) as adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II lymph-node positive breast cancer: results by demographic and clinical subgroups.

A multicenter phase III randomized study comparing the efficacies of two adjuvant polychemotherapeutic regimens in 145 patients with stage II node-positive breast cancer: the standard chemotherapy combination, CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil), and an experimental protocol, CNF (cyclophosphamide, mitoxantrone [Novantrone], 5-fluorouracil) in which mitoxantrone replaced methotrexate. The finding of a significant advantage ( p= 0.04) in the disease-free survival for those receiving mitoxantrone (mean survival 4.