Prognosis in young women less than 40 years of age with brain metastasis from breast cancer.

Background: Brain metastasis from breast cancer (bca) in young women is doubly devastating because both quality of life and life expectancy are significantly reduced. With new radiation technology and drugs that have emerged, survival is expected to increase for these young women.

Methods: Using the oacis and sardo patient databases, we identified 121 patients diagnosed with bca and brain metastasis between 2006 and 2016 at the University of Montreal Hospital Centre.

Safety of trastuzumab after trastuzumab emtansine-induced nodular regenerative hyperplasia: A case report.

Introduction: Trastuzumab emtansine is an antibody-drug conjugate targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 use in recurrent metastatic breast cancer. Cases of trastuzumab emtansine-induced nodular regenerative hyperplasia are often reported as overt noncirrhotic portal hypertension with ascites and variceal bleeding.

Case Report: We report the case of a 61-year-old woman who present multiple stellate angiomas with gradual increased liver transaminases and reduced platelet count during a 27-months course on trastuzumab emtansine therapy for recurrent metastatic breast cancer.

Ultimate journey of the terminally ill: Ways and pathways of hope.

Objective: To better understand the role of hope among terminally ill cancer patients.

Design: Qualitative analysis.

Setting: A tertiary specialized cancer centre in Canada.

Subgroup Analyses from a Phase 3, Open-Label, Randomized Study of Eribulin Mesylate Versus Capecitabine in Pretreated Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Purpose And Methods: Our secondary analyses compared survival with eribulin versus capecitabine in various patient subgroups from a phase 3, open-label, randomized study. Eligible women aged ≥18 years with advanced/metastatic breast cancer and ≤3 prior chemotherapies (≤2 for advanced/metastatic disease), including an anthracycline and taxane, were randomized 1:1 to intravenous eribulin mesylate 1.4 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8 or twice-daily oral capecitabine 1250 mg/m(2) on days 1-14 (21-day cycles).

Use of Intermediate Endpoints in the Economic Evaluation of New Treatments for Advanced Cancer and Methods Adopted When Suitable Overall Survival Data are Not Available.

Objectives: This study assessed the use of intermediate endpoints in the economic evaluation of new treatments for advanced cancer and the methodological approaches adopted when overall survival (OS) data are unavailable or of limited use.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify economic evaluations of treatments for advanced cancer published between 2003 and 2013. Cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses expressed in cost per life-year gained and cost per quality-adjusted life-year using an intermediate endpoint as an outcome measure were eligible.

A global economic model to assess the cost-effectiveness of new treatments for advanced breast cancer in Canada.

Objective Considering the increasing number of treatment options for metastatic breast cancer (MBC), it is important to develop high-quality methods to assess the cost-effectiveness of new anti-cancer drugs. This study aims to develop a global economic model that could be used as a benchmark for the economic evaluation of new therapies for MBC. Methods The Global Pharmacoeconomics of Metastatic Breast Cancer (GPMBC) model is a Markov model that was constructed to estimate the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life years (QALY) of new treatments for MBC from a Canadian healthcare system perspective over a lifetime horizon.

Health-related quality of life in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer treated with eribulin mesylate or capecitabine in an open-label randomized phase 3 trial.

The clinical benefit of eribulin versus capecitabine was evaluated using health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data from a phase 3 randomized trial in patients with pretreated advanced/metastatic breast cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00337103). The study population has been described previously (Kaufman et al.

Phase III open-label randomized study of eribulin mesylate versus capecitabine in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer previously treated with an anthracycline and a taxane.

Purpose: This phase III randomized trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00337103) compared eribulin with capecitabine in patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

Patients And Methods: Women with MBC who had received prior anthracycline- and taxane-based therapy were randomly assigned to receive eribulin or capecitabine as their first-, second-, or third-line chemotherapy for advanced/metastatic disease.

"New" metastases are associated with a poorer prognosis than growth of pre-existing metastases in patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with chemotherapy.

Introduction: Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) endpoints often only weakly correlate. This analysis investigates how different progression events impact on OS, using data from two phase 3 studies with eribulin in women with advanced/metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

Methods: In Study 301, 1102 women with ≤2 prior chemotherapies for advanced/MBC were randomized to eribulin mesylate (1.

Progression-free survival as a potential surrogate for overall survival in metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Progression-free survival (PFS) and time to progression (TTP) are frequently used to establish the clinical efficacy of anti-cancer drugs. However, the surrogacy of PFS/TTP for overall survival (OS) remains a matter of uncertainty in metastatic breast cancer (mBC). This study assessed the relationship between PFS/TTP and OS in mBC using a trial-based approach.

Ixabepilone-associated peripheral neuropathy: data from across the phase II and III clinical trials.

Purpose: Dose-limiting neuropathy is a major adverse event associated with most of the microtubule-stabilizing agent-based chemotherapy regimens. Ixabepilone, a semisynthetic analogue of the natural epothilone B, has activity against a wide range of tumor types. Peripheral neuropathy (PN), associated with ixabepilone treatment, is usually mild to moderate, predominantly sensory and cumulative.

Phase II multicenter trial of anthracycline rechallenge with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide for first-line therapy of metastatic breast cancer previously treated with adjuvant anthracyclines.

Purpose: Anthracyclines are a component of breast cancer chemotherapy regimens in both adjuvant and metastatic settings. Anthracycline rechallenge for metastatic disease, for those previously exposed to adjuvant anthracyclines, may not be considered because of concerns about efficacy, tolerability, and cumulative cardiotoxicity.

Patients And Methods: This prospective, multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial examined the efficacy and safety of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) 35 mg/m(2) plus cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m(2) as first-line therapy, delivered every 3 weeks, in 70 patients who developed metastatic disease more than 12 months after completion of an adjuvant anthracycline-containing regimen.

Chemotherapy-induced emesis: quality of life and economic impact in the context of current practice in Canada.

In this study, we estimated the proportion of patients who experience chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in current practice and evaluated the impact of CINV on quality of life and cost in Canada. Patients receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy were recruited from 4 Canadian oncology centers. Patients used diaries to record information on their activities, incidence of nausea and vomiting, and health resources consumed each day for 5 days following chemotherapy.

Phase II clinical trial of ixabepilone (BMS-247550), an epothilone B analog, as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer previously treated with anthracycline chemotherapy.

Purpose: There is a need for new agents to treat metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in patients for whom anthracycline therapy has failed or is contraindicated. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of the novel antineoplastic, the epothilone B analog ixabepilone, in patients with MBC previously treated with an adjuvant anthracycline.

Patients And Methods: Patients were age >or= 18 years and had received a prior anthracycline-based regimen as adjuvant treatment.

Primum non nocere: could the health care system contribute to suffering? In-depth study from the perspective of terminally ill cancer patients.

Objective: To explore terminally ill patients' perceptions of their own suffering in order to describe, from these patients' perspective, some elements of health care providers' response to suffering.

Design: Qualitative study using content analysis methods suited to a grounded theory approach.

Setting: Teaching and nonteaching hospital oncology clinics, palliative care services (both ambulatory and in-unit), and family practices.

Temozolomide in metastatic breast cancer (MBC): a phase II trial of the National Cancer Institute of Canada - Clinical Trials Group (NCIC-CTG).

Background: Temozolomide is an oral alkylating agent that crosses the blood-brain barrier, and has preclinical activity in breast cancer. This phase II trial sought to determine the activity and toxicity of temozolomide in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Temozolomide was administered in a dose dense schedule of 150 mg/m(2) on days 1-7 and 15-21 in a 28-day cycle.

Recurrence of a non-seminomatous germ cell tumor in the seminal vesicle 20 years after initial diagnosis and treatment.

We present a case of a pathologic stage 1, right sided, non-seminomatous germ cell tumor recurrence in the left seminal vesicle, 20 years after initial diagnosis and treatment. The patient was treated with three salvage cycles of bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatinum. At 24 months of follow-up after completion of chemotherapy, digital rectal and TRUS examinations revealed complete resolution of the lesion.

The nature of suffering and its relief in the terminally ill: a qualitative study.

The essential mandate of medicine is the relief of suffering. However, the quest for an integrated model towards a conceptualization of suffering is still ongoing and empirical studies are few. Qualitative inquiry using 31 in-depth interviews and content analysis was carried out between 1999 and 2001 in 26 patients diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Activity and safety of the antiestrogen EM-800, the orally active precursor of acolbifene, in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

Purpose: To determine the efficacy and safety of EM-800 (SCH-57050), the precursor of acolbifene, a new, highly potent, orally active, pure antiestrogen in the mammary gland and endometrium, for the treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: Forty-three post menopausal/ovariectomized women with breast cancer who had received tamoxifen, either for metastatic disease or as adjuvant to surgery for > or = 1 year, and had relapsed were treated in a prospective, multicenter, phase II study with EM-800 (20 mg/d [n = 21] or 40 mg/d [n = 22] orally). Results Thirty-seven patients had estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors (>10 fmol/mg; mean, 146 fmol/mg cytosolic protein), three patients had ER-negative/progesterone receptor-positive tumors, and three patients had undetermined ER status.

Prospective randomized trial of docetaxel versus doxorubicin in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Purpose: This phase III study compared docetaxel and doxorubicin in patients with metastatic breast cancer who had received previous alkylating agent-containing chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Patients were randomized to receive an intravenous infusion of docetaxel 100 mg/m(2) or doxorubicin 75 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks for a maximum of seven treatment cycles.

Results: A total of 326 patients were randomized, 165 to receive doxorubicin and 161 to receive docetaxel.

Two different schedules for integrating filgrastim as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of patients with advanced stage Hodgkin's lymphoma receiving MOPP/ABV hybrid chemotherapy.

Purpose: Management of advanced-stage Hodgkin's disease with a MOPP/ABV hybrid regimen (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, Adriamycin, bleomycin and vinblastine) has yielded a high complete response rate (75-85%). However, myelosuppression can limit delivery of treatment. Filgrastim has been shown to reduce chemotherapy-related neutropenia and allow for on-time administration of planned doses of chemotherapeutic agents.

A multicenter, double-blind comparison of i.v. and oral administration of ondansetron plus dexamethasone for acute cisplatin-induced emesis. Ondansetron Acute Emesis Study Group.

A total of 530 patients were treated in this multicenter, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group study to compare the anti-emetic efficacy and safety of a once daily ondansetron oral regimen with a once daily i.v. dosing regimen over a 24 h period, administered to patients prior to receiving cisplatin (50 mg/m2 or greater) chemotherapy.

The impact of postchemotherapy nausea and vomiting on quality of life after moderately emetogenic chemotherapy.

The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of postchemotherapy nausea and vomiting (PCNV) after moderately emetogenic chemotherapy on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with cancer being treated in a routine clinical practice setting. The European Organization for Research and Treatment in Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) was administered on day 2 and day 6 following moderately emetogenic chemotherapy to 119 patients with a variety of cancers. Patients kept daily diaries to record the occurrence and severity of nausea and vomiting.

Use of dexamethasone and granisetron in the control of delayed emesis for patients who receive highly emetogenic chemotherapy. National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group.

Purpose: To evaluate the roles of granisetron and dexamethasone for emesis control on days 2 through 7 after the administration of cisplatin in doses of 50 mg/m2 or greater to patients who had not previously received chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Four hundred thirty-five eligible and assessable patients were randomized to one of two arms in a double-blind fashion: arm A; granisetron 3 mg intravenous (i.v.