Capecitabine combined with cisplatin as first-line therapy in Chinese patients with advanced gastric carcinoma-a phase II clinical study / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the combination chemotherapy of capecitabine (X) with fractionated administration of cisplatin (C) in Chinese patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>141 patients with AGC were enrolled between July 2002 and August 2004. All patients had measurable tumor according to the criteria of RECIST, Karnofsky performance status > or = 60, adequate bone marrow, renal and hepatic functions. Prior radiotherapy or adjuvant chemotherapy was not permitted. Patients received oral administration of capecitabine at a dose of 1000 mg/m(2) twice a day on D1-D14, and intravenous infusion of fractionated cisplatin at a dose of 20 mg/m(2)/day on D1-D5. The regimen was repeated every 3 weeks, totally for 6 cycles.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 141 evaluable patients, there were 104 men and 37 women, with a median age of 54 years (range, 23 - 80 years). Metastases before chemotherapy were detected in lymph nodes (46.8%), liver (40.4%), lung (5.7%) and other area (10.6%). The median treatment duration was 6 cycles (range, 3 - 6 cycles). The objective response rate (RR) was 36.2% (51/141). The median follow-up period was 17.5 months. The median time to progress (TTP) was 9.0 months, and the median overall survival (OS) was 12.0 months. The most common treatment-related adverse events (grade 3/4) were: hand-foot syndrome (HFS) (2.1%), leucopenia (0.7%), abnormal alanine transaminase elevation (2.8%). There was no treatment-related death.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Capecitabine combined with fractionated cisplatin is highly effective and well tolerated as a first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer, with comparable results to 5-Fu plus cisplatin combination therapy.</p>

Observation and clinical significance of adjuvant chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea in premenopausal breast cancer patients / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>A retrospective analysis of 160 pre-menopausal breast cancer patients was carried out to elucidate the the menstrual outcome in those cases who had undergone adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery, and evaluate the relationship between chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea (CIA) and recurrence of the disease.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>160 pre-menopausal breast cancer patients were collected, 62/159 (39.0%) of them were node positive, 91/158 (57.6%) were ER positive, and 95/155 (61.3%) were PR positive. 111 cases had infiltrative ductal carcinoma, 26 cases had infiltrative lobular carcinoma, and 22 cases with others. In 152 cases data were collected by face-to-face interview and 8 cases by phone conversation. Types and cycles of chemotherapy regimen as well as menstrual abnormalities were recorded before, during, and after chemotherapy completion. Follow up duration was 12-72 months after chemotherapy completion for all patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>107 (66.9%) developed CIA, 24 cases returned to normal menses (22.4%), 83 cases continued CIA during more than 12-month follow up (77.6%). The rate of CIA increased with age (P < 0.01). During the follow up, disease free survival (DFS) rate was 85.9% in CIA group and 79.2% in non-CIA group, with no statistically significant difference. But in hormonal receptor positive patients, DFS was 80.0% in non-CIA and 90.1% in CIA, respectively (P = 0.04), showing a significant difference. Because of the small number of died cases, no analysis of the overall outcome was carried out.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Adjuvant chemotherapy causes ovarian function suppression, and may further leading to amenorrhoea. Women who experienced amenorrhoea after chemotherapy had a significantly better disease-free survival (DFS) rate showed by univariate analysis than women who continued normal menstruation. Chemotherapy is insufficient therapy for very young patients who are in high risk with hormone responsive disease, particularly when chemotherapy fails to induce amenorrhea. Further research is needed to evaluate interventional chemotherapy to improve the quality of life in women with early stage breast cancer who experienced ovarian toxicity. The post-chemotherapy menstruation status is a clinically valuable, objective and salient marker for sufficient endocrine effect of chemotherapy in ER/PR-positive premenopausal patients.</p>

Inhibitory effect of?-ray irradiation on rat vascular smooth muscle cells / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

Objective To investigate the mechanism of the inhibitory effect of ?-ray irradiation on rat vascular smooth muscle cells(VSMC). Methods The ef fect of ?-ray irradiation on proliferation of VSMC was observed by 3?H-TdR incor poration. After ?-ray irradiation, the VSMC cell cycle change was detected b y flo w cytometry. The expression of p53, cyclin D and PCNA was investigated by Wester n Blot. Results The inhibitory effect of ?-ray irradiation on VSMC proliferati on was dose-dependent. After ?-ray irradiation, VSMC was arrested in G 1 st age, w ith the expression of p53 increased but the expression of cyclin D and PCNA decr eased. Conclusions ?-ray irradiation can inhibit the proliferation of VSMC. T he main mechanism is probably due to the induction of cell cycle arrest and inhi bition of the VSMC mitosis ,during which process, p53,cyclin D and PCNA all pla y an important role .