[Integration of nutritional care into cancer treatment: need for improvement].

Progresses in cancer treatment transformed cancer into a chronic disease associated with growing nutritional problems. Poor nutritional status of cancer patients worsens morbidity, mortality, overall cost of care and decreases patients' quality of life, oncologic treatments tolerance and efficacy. These adverse effects lead to treatment modifications or interruptions, reducing the chances to control or cure cancer.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty in octogenarians: results and follow-up.

Objectives: To determine pain relief, performance status, morbidity, and mortality associated with percutaneous vertebroplasty for spinal pain in patients aged 80 years and older.

Design: Prospective, descriptive, third-party independent interview, clinical audit.

Setting: University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.

Oxaliplatin combined with irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (OCFL) in metastatic colorectal cancer: a phase I-II study.

Background: A phase I-II multicenter trial was conducted to define the maximal tolerated dose and describe the activity of an OCFL combination using oxaliplatin (OHP), irinotecan (CPT-11) and 5-fluorouracil (FU)/leucovorin (LV) in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC).

Patients And Methods: CRC patients not pretreated with palliative chemotherapy, with performance status < or =1 and adequate haematological, kidney and liver function, were eligible. Treatment consisted in weekly 24-h infusion 5-FU (2300 mg/m(2))/LV (30 mg) and alternating OHP (70-85 mg/m(2), days 1 and 15) and CPT-11 (80-140 mg/m(2), days 8 and 22) repeated every 5 weeks.

Pelvic osteoplasty in osteolytic metastases: technical approach under fluoroscopic guidance and early clinical results.

Purpose: To describe a new fluoroscopically guided technique for osteoplasty (or cementoplasty) of the superior and inferior pubic rami and ischial tuberosities and to provide information about the access routes and initial results on pain management after this technique.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-three lytic metastases of the superior and inferior pubic rami and ischial tuberosities were treated in 14 consecutive patients. Percutaneous access of the bones was performed under fluoroscopy.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty in metastatic disease: transpedicular access and treatment of lysed pedicles--initial experience.

For the treatment of lytic disease involving the pedicles of vertebrae in patients with metastatic disease, the authors performed percutaneous vertebroplasty by using an access route via the lysed pedicle. Fifty-one pedicles were treated in 32 consecutive patients. In all cases, a radiologically satisfactory filling of both the affected pedicle and the vertebral body was achieved.

Pulmonary blastoma: report of five cases and identification of clinical features suggestive of the disease.

Objective: Identification of clinical features suggestive of pulmonary blastoma (PB) through a retrospective comparison with cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) operated during the same period.

Methods: Between 1977 and 1999, five patients were operated for PB at Geneva University Hospital (four women and one man, aged 32-46 years--mean 36.8) versus 1913 consecutive patients (1558 men and 355 women, mean age 61.

Hepatitis G virus infection among liver graft recipients: anatomoclinical correlations.

Hepatitis G virus (HGV) causes persistent infection in man, but its disease association is controversial. We studied the HGV disease association in 25 liver transplantation (LT) recipients without evidence of hepatitis B and C infection. HGV RNA was tested by semiquantitative RT-PCR in serial serum samples and its presence was correlated with the biochemical and histological evidence of liver damage.

Hepatic tocopherol content in primary hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases.

The high incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhosis, where previous studies have indicated a severe reduction in several antioxidant vitamin factors, prompted us to compare plasma liposoluble vitamins with tocopherol content in healthy and neoplastic liver tissue in humans. This, with a view to a more positive preventive dietary approach, given the conflicting results obtained by liposoluble vitamin dietary supplementation in different malignancies. Eleven patients with cirrhosis, 18 patients affected by cirrhosis with HCC, and 10 patients with liver metastases (LM) from digestive tract adenocarcinomas were compared with controls who had undergone perlaparoscopic cholecistectomy.

Liposoluble vitamins and naturally occurring carotenoids in porphyria cutanea tarda.

The authors consider two groups of patients with overt sporadic porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) from different continents, with the aim of evaluating the possible impairment of the liposoluble antioxidative system, given the possible synergic effect of porphyrins and iron in promoting oxidative cellular damage. Twenty-three Italian outpatients with overt sporadic PCT and 11 outpatients with PCT from Buenos Aires (Argentina) were matched with 60 patients with liver cirrhosis and 52 healthy Italian controls. Serum levels of alpha- and beta-carotene, cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein, lycopene, retinol and alpha-tocopherol were detected by a high-performance liquid chromatographic technique devised in our laboratory, which afforded an accurate and simultaneous resolution of all these compounds.

Evidence for hepatitis B virus infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C with and without serological markers of hepatitis B.

To assess the influence of HBV infection on anti-HCV-positive chronic liver disease, we performed a prospective case-control study comparing 19 HBsAg-positive, anti-HCV-positive patients with 38 HBsAg-negative, anti-HCV-positive patients, pair-matched for age, sex, and ALT levels. HBV and HCV infections were investigated by standard serology and polymerase chain reaction. HCV RNA was found in all patients with CAH and in 90.