Primary CHOP Chemotherapy Followed by Involved Field Radiation Therapy in Clinical Stage I or II Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas / 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: Although radiation therapy had been the treatment of choice for localized non-Hodgkin's lymphoma(NHL), recent studies have revealed that treatment result after radiation therapy alone is not successful for localized aggressive NHL, if it is not pathologically but clinically staged. A prospective phase II trial was conducted to evaluate the therapeutic results of 4 cycles of CHOP chemotherapy followed by involved field radiation therapy in clinically staged localized aggressive NHL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of aggressive NHL(all intermediate grade and immunoblastic histology in NCI working formulation), Ann Arbor stage I or II without poor prognostic factors(presence of B symptoms, bulky diseases, or 2 or more extranodal involvement) were treated with 4 cycles of CHOP(cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone) followed by involved field radiation therapy of 3,000~6,000(median: 4,500) cGy. RESULTS: Between April 1990 and March 1995, 62 consecutive patients entered this trial. Forty six patients with measurable diseases were evaluable for response. Complete response was achieved in 41(89.1%) patients after CHOP chemotherapy and 4 more patients after subsequent radiation therapy, making total CR rate of 98%. Progression free survival(PFS) of all 62 patients were 2.2+~73+ months and 5 year PFS rate was 64.6%. Overall survival(OS) were 2.4+~75+ months and 5 year OS rate was 75.2%. Old age (> 60) was the only significant prognostic factor, which-affected overall survival negatively. Treatment was relatively well tolerated, but 3 patients died associated with treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Four cycles of CHOP chemotherapy followed by involved field radiation therapy is highly curative and safe treatment for clinically staged, localized aggressive NHLs.

Treatment of Multiple Pulmonary Arteriovenous Fistulas with Therapeutic Embolization in Osler-Rendu-Weber Syndrome / 결핵

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia(Osler-Rendu-Weber Syndrome) is characterized by telangiectasia of the skin and mucous membranes and intermittent bleeding from vascular abnormalities. About 20% of patients with this is syndrome have pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas. Pulmonary arteriovenous fistula is uncommon malformation which has an abnormal connection between the pulmonary capillary bed, in which venous blind in the pulmonary artery is shunted through the fistula into the pulmonary vein without exposure to alveolar oxygen and result in unoxygenated, desaturated systemic arterial blood, polycythemia, cyanosis and clubbing. Death often results from cerebral abscess and rupture of the malformation with massive hemorrhage. Therapeutic intervention is recommended for all symptomatic patients because of the risk of those serious complications. Treatment options include surgery and transcatheter obliteration with steel coils or detachable balloons. Therapeutic embolization has the advantages that multiple bilateral pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas can be occluded and also that the procedure can be repeated if necessary. Recently we experienced a case of the multiple bilateral pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas associated with telangiectatic change of hepatic artery and multiple angiodysplasia on the gastric mucosa in 41 years old female patient who had mild dyspnea of exertion(NYHA class II), clubbing finger, severe iron deficiency anemia. She was treated with embolization technique using steel coils and iron replacement. After the therapeutic embolization, significant improvement of dyspnea of exertion with disappearance of multiple pulmonary nodule on follow-up simple chest x-ray was noted. During the subsequent six months follow-up period, she bad the improvement of symptoms arid iron deficiency anemia.

Prognostic Factor Analysis of Small Cell Lung Cancer: Appropriateness of Two Staging System / 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: The two staging system, which divides the tumors into limited disease (LD) and extensive disease (ED) has been widely accepted as a major prognostic determinant in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). However this system has provoked several controversial issues in defining stage categories, for instance, ipsilateral pleural effusion as LD or ED. Furthermore, identification of favorable subgroups in the same stage has been recognized as an important factor to determine appropriate treatment strategies. In this study, we performed a retrospective analysis in an attempt to resolve the controversial issues about staging and identify the patient group with favorable prognosis based on this two staging system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical data of 233 patients with SCLC treated from 1990 to 1996 at Korea Cancer Center Hospital were retrospectively analyzed for this study. All patients were treated with chemotherapy containing cisplatin and/or radiotherapy. The independent prognostic factors for survival were identified by multivariate analysis using Cox's proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Performance status (relative risk of death [RR]:2.89), number of metastasis (RR:2.2), response to treatment (RR:2.2) as well as stage (RR:1.77) were identified as independent prognostic factors for survival in patient with SCLC. The median survival of patients with ipsilateral pleural effusion (13 months) which was categorized as ED was similar to that of patients with contralateral mediastinal or supraclavicular lymph nodes (13.8 months) or other LD patients (13.7 months). This result suggests that ipsilateral pleural effusion should be categorized as LD. In LD, response to treatment was the only independent prognostic factor (RR:2.34) and thoracic radiotherapy moderately improved survival as compared with combination chemotherapy alone (17.7 months vs. 10.4 months, p=0.06). In ED, the patient group with a good performance status (ECOG 0-1), normal range of serum alkaline phophatase, and metastasis less than 2 sites showed significantly prolonged survival, comparing with other ED patients (11.2 months vs. 7.2 months, p=0.0001). CONCLUSION: As a result of survival analysis, we confirmed independent prognostic factors such as stage and performance status in SCLC. We could recommend that LD category include patients with ipsilateral pleural effusion as well as those with contralateral lymphadenopathy. In ED, the survival in patients with favorable prognostic factors was comparable to LD, suggesting this patient group may be a candidate for aggressive therapy.

Three Cases of Interstitial Pneumonitis Developed after Anticancer Chemotherapy Containing Cyclophosphamide / 대한내과학회지

Development of diffuse pulmonary infiltrates in patients receiving chemotherapy is a major diagnostic challenge. Diffuse pulmonary infiltrates may be due to infection, pulmonary hemorrhage, pulmonary edema or drug-induced lung injury. Among these, pulmonary toxicity caused by antineoplastic agent is being recognized more frequently. Cyclophosphamide, an alkylating cytotoxic drug, is used widely in the treatment of malignancies including lymphoma. The incidence of pulmonary toxicity is probably less than 1 percent, and its relation with total dosages and schedule of the drug is not yet defined. The typical pictures of cyclophosphamide-induced pulmonary toxicity are non-productive cough, dyspnea, fever, hypoxemia with respiratory alkalosis and interstitial pneumonitis. However, relatively infrequent pulmonary toxicity of cyclophosphamide and frequent development of infectious pulmonary infiltrate in the patients treated with chemotherapy may hamper the early diagnosis of cyclophosphamide toxicity. Interstitial pattern and unresponsiveness to antibiotics of the pneumonitis might be the clues of suspicion. The best ways to treat the patients with cyclophosphamide toxicity are early diagnosis, discontinuation of the drug and early corticosteroid trial, although usefulness of steroid has not been firmly established. Recently, we experienced three cases of interstitial pneumonitis developing during cyclophosphamide-containing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the absence of neutropenia or thrombocytopenia. Early use of corticosteroid in later two cases could resolve the pulmonary complication completely, whereas the pneumonitis failed to improve in spite of the massive use of multiple antibiotics in the first case.

Phase II Study of Concurrent Chemotherapy with Etoposide and Cisplatin (EP) and Radiation Therapy for Unresectable Stage III Non-small Cell Lung Cancer / 결핵

BACKGROUND: Various combinations of treatment modalities have been reported in stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), however, the standard treatment modality has not established yet. Recently, the efficacy of concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy has been reported in locally advanced lung cancer. We evaluate the response rate, toxicity, arid survival of concurrent chemotherapy with etoposide and cisplatin(EP) arid radiation therapy for unresectable stage III NSCLC. METHODS: Between October 1995 and December 1996, 32 patients with histologically proven unresectable stage III NSCLC without, malignant pleural effusion were entered into this study. Twenty-nine patients were eligible for the response, survival, and toxicity analysis. Induction was two cycles of chemotherapy with etoposide arid cisplatin plus concurrent chest RT to 4500cGy. Resection was attempted if the clinical response offered surgical resectability. Boost radiation therapy upto 5940cGy and one cycle of EP were performed if the disease were stable or responsive but still unresectable. RESULTS: Of 29 eligible patients, 22(75.9%) showed partial response(PR). The progression free interval was 6.3months(range 1.1 to 19.5months). Surgical resection was performed in one patient The median survival was l2.1months and one-year survival rate was 50.6%. The major toxicity was leukopenia(> or = grade 3,46%) Thrombocytopenia over grade 3 was found in 1%. Radiation pneumonitis occurred in 13 patients(46%). CONCLUSION: Concurrent chemotherapy(EP) pins radiotherapy was effective and tolerable in the treatment of unresectable stage III NSCLC.