Cancer patient survival improvement is correlated with the opening of a community cancer center: comparisons with intramural and extramural benchmarks.

Purpose: We sought to determine whether survival of patients managed at a large community hospital improved after an affiliated facility opened and its associated programs were initiated.

Methods: Survival data for patients with invasive cancer was obtained from the Hoag Hospital tumor registry for the successive periods 1986-1991 and for 1992-1999 for historical intramural comparisons; national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program data for the same periods were used for contemporary and historical extramural comparisons.

Results: We observed survival improved significantly during 1992-1999 compared with 1986-1991 for all patients with invasive cancers (P < .

High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue for metastatic breast cancer: superior survival for tandem compared with single transplants.

During 1990-1999, we treated 60 patients with breast cancer who had distant metastases with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue (HDC) after they had responded to induction chemotherapy. HDC regimens were MiTepa (60 mg/m2 mitoxantrone by continuous intravenous infusion over 3 days plus 300 mg/m2 thiotepa intravenously over 2 hours daily x 3 days) and ICE (12 g/m2 ifosfamide, 1800 mg/m2 carboplatin, 2 g/m2 etoposide; all 3 by continuous intravenous over 4 days). At a median follow up >8 years, the median failure-free survival (FFS) was 13.

Intracavitary placement of autologous lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells after resection of recurrent glioblastoma.

This study was performed to obtain safety and survival data for patients with histologically confirmed recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) who received intralesional lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells following surgery. LAK cells were generated by incubating peripheral blood mononuclear cells with interleukin-2 for 3 to 5 days in vitro. Forty patients with pathologic confirmation of GBM at surgery had placement of autologous LAK cells into the tumor cavity.