Carboplatin plus oral etoposide in elderly patients with advanced non small cell lung cancer. A phase II study.

More than 30% of lung cancers arise in patients over 70 years old. Elderly patients are not considered to tolerate chemotherapy, are generally excluded from clinical trials, and are not considered eligible for aggressive cisplatinbased chemotherapy in clinical practice. The aims of the present study were to test the activity and toxicity of a combination of carboplatin and oral etoposide in patients over 70 years old with advanced non small cell lung cancer.

Weekly paclitaxel/cisplatin with concurrent radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a phase I study.

We designed a phase I study to determine the maximum tolerated doses of weekly cisplatin and paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) (doses escalated alternately) when given concurrently with standard or hyperfractionated radiotherapy (RT) and to define the nature of the dose-limiting toxicity. Chemotherapy-naive patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer received weekly combination cisplatin/paclitaxel with concurrent local RT. Radiation therapy was initially given at the dose of 1.

Weekly paclitaxel and cisplatin with concurrent radiotherapy in locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a phase I study.

Purpose: Both cisplatin (CDDP) and paclitaxel have shown good antitumor activity in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and are able to potentiate the antitumor effects of radiation therapy (RT). This study aimed to determine the maximum-tolerated doses (MTDs) of CDDP and paclitaxel (escalated alternately) when given concurrently with RT and to define the nature of the dose-limiting toxicity (DLT).

Patients And Methods: Chemotherapy-naive patients with locally advanced NSCLC received six weekly administrations of a CDDP-paclitaxel combination with concurrent local RT.

Preoperative radio-chemotherapy response as prognostic factor in colorectal cancer.

In order to demonstrate if radiotherapy (RT) is able to reduce the number of local recurrences and to increase the survival rate of patients (pts) with colorectal cancer, the authors are participating in a large randomized international trial with the goal of comparing patients treated with preoperative radiotherapy plus surgery and patients treated only by surgery. The authors noticed that some patients treated with preoperative radiotherapy showed a reduction in tumor size at the time of endorectal ultrasonography. The authors considered the incidence of recurrences in patients responsive to radiotherapy (RT responsive group), in patients non responsive to radiotherapy (RT non responsive group) and in patients not treated with radiotherapy (no RT group) with the aim of establishing if the responsiveness to preoperative radiotherapy could be considered a prognostic factor in colorectal cancer.

Alternated approach with local irradiation and combination chemotherapy including cisplatin or carboplatin plus epirubicin and etoposide in intermediate stage non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Prognosis of unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is disappointing; their median survival time does not exceed 8-12 months. Recently, some authors reported an increased response rate and sometimes a prolonged survival for patients with intrathoracic disease treated with local irradiation combined with cytotoxic drugs.

Methods: Fifty-eight consecutive patients with Stage IIIA or IIIB NSCLC were enrolled in a randomized Phase II trial of alternated treatment composed of four courses of combination chemotherapy and three cycles of local irradiation.

Combined curietherapy and surgery in management of stage II.B cervical carcinoma.

The results are presented of ten patients with stage II.B cervical carcinoma, treated with pre-operative after-loading intra-cavitary Iridium 192 followed by radical surgery. The benefits of this combined technique are the reduction of tumor volume, whether in the cervix or in the parametrium.

Radiotherapy and combination chemotherapy with carmustine, vincristine, and procarbazine (BVP) in primary brain tumors.

26 patients with astrocytoma grade II-III, and 36 with malignant glioma (astrocytoma grade IV or glioblastoma) were submitted three days after surgery to a cycle of combination chemotherapy, including BCNU, VCR, PCZ (BVP). Eighteen days after surgery, patients received 40 Gy (astrocytoma grade II-III) or 45 Gy (malignant glioma) of megavoltage whole-brain irradiation, with an additional boost to the 'tumor' bed of 20 Gy, delivered in 6 weeks. Vincristine was injected weekly during radiotherapy.

Influence on response to therapy and overall survival of mediastinal involvement by Hodgkin's disease.

To assess the prognostic significance of mediastinal involvement of Hodgkin's disease, 91 patients with stage I to III disease treated at our Institute were reclassified according to size of mediastinal disease and other clinical and therapeutic characteristics. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 46 of 67 (81%) patients without mediastinal involvement, and in 16 of 17 (94%) patients with small mediastinal masses, but only in 10 of 17 (59%) patients with large masses (P less than 0.05).

Combination chemotherapy (CVP or CHOP)- radiotherapy approach in early stage non-Hodgkins's lymphomas.

From January 1978 to December 1980, 42 patients with early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma other than of the gastrointestinal tract were treated with radiotherapy and combination chemotherapy. Eighteen patients in stage I were submitted to locally extended-field radiotherapy up to a mean dose of 48 Gy with a Co60 source and, after a 3-week rest period, to 6 cycles of combination chemotherapy. Twenty-four patients in stage II received 3 cycles of combination chemotherapy before and after irradiation, the same as for stage I.