Single organ metastatic disease and local disease status, prognostic factors for overall survival in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer: Results from a population-based study.

Purpose: To analyse the prognostic impact on overall survival (OS) of single versus multiple organ metastases, organ affected, and local disease status in a population based stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cohort.

Methods: In this observational study, data were analysed of all histologically confirmed stage IV NSCLC patients diagnosed between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2012 registered in the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Location of metastases before treatment was registered.

Prognostic factors for the feasibility of chemotherapy and the Geriatric Prognostic Index (GPI) as risk profile for mortality before chemotherapy in the elderly.

Background: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is a multidimensional method to detect frailty in elderly patients. Time saving could be accomplished by identifying those individual items that classify elderly cancer patients at risk for feasibility of chemotherapy and for mortality.

Material And Methods: Patients older than 70 years of age were assessed before the first chemotherapy administration.

Addressing Palliative Sedation during Expert Consultation: A Descriptive Analysis of the Practice of Dutch Palliative Care Consultation Teams.

Main Objective: Since palliative sedation is considered a complex intervention, consultation teams are increasingly established to support general practice. This study aims to offer insight into the frequency and characteristics of expert consultations regarding palliative sedation.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of a longitudinal database.

Prognostic factors for the feasibility of chemotherapy and the Geriatric Prognostic Index (GPI) as risk profile for mortality before chemotherapy in the elderly.

Background: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is a multidimensional method to detect frailty in elderly patients. Time saving could be accomplished by identifying those individual items that classify elderly cancer patients at risk for feasibility of chemotherapy and for mortality.

Material And Methods: Patients older than 70 years of age were assessed before the first chemotherapy administration.

Cardiac monitoring during adjuvant trastuzumab therapy: Guideline adherence in clinical practice.

Background: Cardiotoxicity is an important adverse effect of adjuvant breast cancer treatment with trastuzumab and three monthly left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) monitoring is considered mandatory. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into LVEF monitoring during adjuvant trastuzumab treatment in clinical practice.

Material And Methods: In a multicenter retrospective study encompassing 328 patients, of which 171 patients were actually treated with trastuzumab, we analyzed the frequency and mode of LVEF monitoring and compared it with LVEF monitoring guidelines.

Incidence and treatment of recurrent disease after cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneally metastasized colorectal cancer: A systematic review.

Introduction: The optimal treatment for peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) of colorectal origin is a combination of cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS + IPC). Although 5-year survival rates of up to 40% have been reported, recurrent disease remains common and is estimated to be a strong negative prognostic factor for survival. This systematic review elaborates on the incidence of recurrent disease and the possibilities to prevent and treat recurrence.

PIpelle Prospective ENDOmetrial carcinoma (PIPENDO) study, pre-operative recognition of high risk endometrial carcinoma: a multicentre prospective cohort study.

Background: Endometrial carcinoma is the most common gynaecologic malignancy in industrialised countries and the incidence is still rising. Primary treatment is based on preoperative risk classification and consists in most cases of hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. In patients with serous and clear cell histology a complete surgical staging is mandatory.

The course of fatigue and its correlates in colorectal cancer survivors: a prospective cohort study of the PROFILES registry.

Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors who remain fatigued during long-term follow-up are at risk for worse health outcomes and need relevant interventions most. The aim of this study is to prospectively assess cancer-related fatigue (CRF) and four categories of CRF correlates (clinical characteristics, demographic characteristics, behavior/well-being, functional status).

Methods: CRC survivors diagnosed between 2000 and 2009, as registered in the population-based Eindhoven Cancer Registry, completed the Fatigue Assessment Scale at three annual time points.

Arbitration of discrepant BI-RADS 0 recalls by a third reader at screening mammography lowers recall rate but not the cancer detection rate and sensitivity at blinded and non-blinded double reading.

Purpose: To evaluate the characteristics of low suspicion lesions (BI-RADS 0) at blinded and non-blinded double reading of screening mammograms and to determine the potential effect of arbitration of discrepant BI-RADS 0 recalls by a third reader on screening outcome.

Methods: We included a series of 84,927 consecutive digital screening mammograms, double read in a blinded (43,184 screens) or non-blinded (41,743 screens) fashion, between July 2009 and July 2011. Discrepant readings were routinely recalled for further evaluation.

Contralateral lymph node recurrence in breast cancer: Regional event rather than distant metastatic disease. A systematic review of the literature.

Aims: After treatment for breast cancer, some patients experience a contralateral lymph node recurrence (CLNR). Traditionally, contralateral nodes are considered a distant site. However, aberrant lymph drainage after previous surgery is common.

Reliability of the Inverse Water Volumetry Method to Measure the Volume of the Upper Limb.

Background: Lymphedema of the upper extremity is a common side effect of lymph node dissection or irradiation of the axilla. Several techniques are being applied in order to examine the presence and severity of lymphedema. Measurement of circumference of the upper extremity is most frequently performed.

Treatment-related differences in health related quality of life and disease specific symptoms among colon cancer survivors: results from the population-based PROFILES registry.

Background: The goal of this study was to compare health related quality of life (HRQoL) and disease-specific symptoms between colon cancer patients treated with surgery only (SU) and surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy (SU+adjCT). Results were stratified for those aged <70 and ⩾70years. HRQoL of patients was also compared with an age- and sex-matched normative population.

Participation, yield, and interval carcinomas in three rounds of biennial FIT-based colorectal cancer screening.

Background: The effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening programs based on the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is influenced by program adherence during consecutive screening rounds. We aimed to evaluate the participation rate, yield, and interval cancers in a third round of biennial CRC screening using FIT and to compare those with the first and the second screening round.

Methods: A total of 3566 average-risk individuals aged 50-75 years were invited to participate in a third round of biennial FIT-based CRC screening.

Validation of death prediction after breast cancer relapses using joint models.

Background: Cancer relapses may be useful to predict the risk of death. To take into account relapse information, the Landmark approach is popular. As an alternative, we propose the joint frailty model for a recurrent event and a terminal event to derive dynamic predictions of the risk of death.

Survival after locoregional recurrence or second primary breast cancer: impact of the disease-free interval.

The association between the disease-free interval (DFI) and survival after a locoregional recurrence (LRR) or second primary (SP) breast cancer remains uncertain. The objective of this study is to clarify this association to obtain more information on expected prognosis. Women first diagnosed with early breast cancer between 2003-2006 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry.

Survival in relation to hospital type after resection or sorafenib treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma in The Netherlands.

Background And Objective: Despite an increase in recent years, hepatocellular carcinoma remains uncommon in the Netherlands. The aim of the current study is to explore potential effects of hospital type and volume on outcomes after resection or sorafenib in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Methods: Initial treatment and survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosed in the period 2005-2011 were based on data of the Netherlands Cancer Registration.

Peritoneal metastases from small bowel cancer: Results of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in The Netherlands.

Introduction: Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS + HIPEC) is currently considered the standard of care for pseudomyxoma peritonei, mesothelioma and peritoneal metastases (PM) from colorectal cancer. CRS + HIPEC has also been suggested as a potential treatment option in PM of the much rarer small bowel cancer. Therefore, the current study was undertaken to investigate the results of CRS + HIPEC in all HIPEC centers in The Netherlands.

Recent trends and predictors of multimodality treatment for oesophageal, oesophagogastric junction, and gastric cancer: A Dutch cohort-study.

Background: In recent years, evidence supporting multimodality treatment for oesophageal, oesophagogastric junction (OGJ), and gastric cancer has accumulated. This population-based cohort-study investigates trends and predictors of utilisation of multimodality treatment for oesophagogastric cancer in the Netherlands.

Patients And Methods: Data were obtained from the Netherlands Cancer Registry regarding patients with oesophageal (n = 5450), OGJ (n = 2168) and gastric cancer (n = 6683) without distant metastases who had undergone R0 or R1 surgery diagnosed between 2000 and 2012.

Variation in causes of death in patients with non-small cell lung cancer according to stage and time since diagnosis.

Background: Many patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) die within the first few years of diagnosis, and considerable excess mortality remains even after 5 years. We investigated the death rate and the distribution of causes of death for NSCLC patients by age and stage at diagnosis during long-term follow-up.

Patients And Methods: All 72 021 patients aged 45-89 years diagnosed with stage I-III NSCLC between 1989 and 2008 in the Netherlands and who died up till 2011 were derived from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and linked with the database of Statistics Netherlands for underlying causes of death.

The relevance of pathological verification in suspected pancreatic cancer.

Objectives: This population-based study assessed which factors were associated with pathological verification of pancreatic cancer.

Methods: All patients diagnosed with a malignancy of the pancreas between 1993 and 2010 in the South of the Netherlands (N=3321) were included.

Results: Pancreatic cancer was pathologically verified in 59% of patients.

Survival of older patients with metastasised breast cancer lags behind despite evolving treatment strategies--a population-based study.

Background: Older women are more likely to be diagnosed with primary metastasised breast cancer than their younger counterparts. Evolving treatment strategies of metastasised breast cancer have resulted in improved survival in younger patients, but it remains unclear if this improvement has occurred in older patients as well. The aim of this study was to assess changes in treatment strategies over time in relation to overall and relative survival of older patients compared to younger patients with primary metastasised breast cancer.

Overall survival in patients with a re-excision following breast conserving surgery compared to those without in a large population-based cohort.

Aim: To investigate the overall survival of invasive breast cancer patients with primary breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by re-excision compared to those with primary BCS only. The Dutch re-excision indications are less stringent compared to other European and Northern American countries (Society of Surgical Oncology-American Society for Radiation Oncology (SSO/ASTRO) guideline).

Methods: Retrospective analyses in women <75years with breast cancer stage pT1-T3 treated by BCS and radiotherapy between 1999 and 2012 from a population-based database.

Determinants of treatment waiting times for head and neck cancer in the Netherlands and their relation to survival.

Introduction: Waiting to start treatment has been shown to be associated with tumor progression and upstaging in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). This diminishes the chance of cure and might lead to unnecessary mortality. We investigated the association between waiting times and survival in the Netherlands and assessed which factors were associated to longer waiting times.

The use of medical claims to assess incidence, diagnostic procedures and initial treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in the Netherlands.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) may be underreported in cancer registries such as the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). Analysis of Dutch medical claims can complement NCR data on MDS and CMML. We analyzed data on 3681 MDS patients and 235 CMML patients aged ≥18 years with initial claims for MDS or CMML from the Dutch nationwide medical claims-based Diagnosis Treatment Combination Information System (DIS) between 2008 and 2010.