Central nervous system (CNS) dissemination is a severe complication in cancer and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Brain metastases (BMs) are the most common types of malignant intracranial tumors and are reported in approximately 25% of patients with metastatic cancers. The recent increase in incidence of BMs is due to several factors including better diagnostic assessments and the development of improved systemic therapies that have lower activity on the CNS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganizing pneumonia is a clinical and histological condition in which the onset is usually subacute with respiratory symptoms and pulmonary infiltrates. It may be unknown origin (cryptogenic) or associated with other illnesses, infectious diseases or drugs. We present a 60 year-old female patient with a previous history of breast cancer, who was being treated with trastuzumab, an antiHER2 monoclonal antibody.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen are at considerable risk of recurrence in the first few years following initial treatment for early breast cancer. To reduce the risk of recurrence, including distant metastases, those with hormone-sensitive breast cancer receive adjuvant endocrine treatment. Lymph node metastases are a predictor of high risk of early recurrence and distant metastases; however, a significant number of women with node-negative disease will also develop distant metastases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim And Background: Intestinal alkalization could prevent irinotecan associated diarrhea modulating some chemical equilibria between irinotecan metabolites. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of this procedure in advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients (GICP).
Materials And Method: In this prospective study advanced GICP, receiving irinotecan based chemotherapy regimens, were well trained to add sodium bicarbonate to the water intake in order to accomplish intestinal alkalization.