Clinical activity of fulvestrant in metastatic breast cancer previously treated with endocrine therapy and/or chemotherapy

BACKGROUND/AIMS@#We conducted a retrospective analysis of the clinical activity of fulvestrant in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) previously treated with endocrine therapy and/or chemotherapy.@*METHODS@#We reviewed the medical records of all patients with MBC treated at Samsung Medical Center between January 2009 and August 2016. Patients received fulvestrant 250 mg intramuscularly every 28 days (from January 2009 to November 2010) or 500 mg intramuscularly every 28 days (from December 2010 to August 2016). Tumor responses were assessed every 8 weeks and at the end of treatment, as well as when disease progression was suspected.@*RESULTS@#A total of 84 patients were included in this study. A median of two previous endocrine treatments had been performed; 79% of the patients had received two or more endocrine treatments. Forty-five patients (54%) had been treated with chemotherapy for MBC before the fulvestrant treatment course. Visceral metastasis was found in 49 patients (58%). The estimated median progression-free survival and overall survival were 4.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4 to 5.5) and 32.5 months (95% CI, 17.6 to 47.4), respectively. The disease control rate was 40.5% (95% CI, 30.5 to 51.5); partial response was observed in 16% of the patients and stable disease was observed in 25% of the patients. The most frequently reported adverse reactions were mild-to-moderate grade myalgia (10.5% of the patients), injection site pain (7%), and fatigue (7%). Fulvestrant was generally well tolerated.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Fulvestrant showed encouraging clinical activity and favorable feasibility in postmenopausal women with MBC who had been treated with multiple endocrine therapies and/or cytotoxic chemotherapies.

The prognostic factors influencing overall survival in uterine cervical cancer with brain metastasis

BACKGROUND/AIMS@#The occurrence of brain metastasis (BM) has increased due to improved overall survival (OS) in uterine cervical cancer. However, research about prognostic factors and therapeutic guidelines for BM in uterine cervical cancer remains scarce due to the rarity of BM in this type of cancer. The present study evaluated the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors influencing OS in patients with BM from uterine cervical cancer.@*METHODS@#A total of 19 BM patients of uterine cervical cancer were analyzed retrospectively from January 1995 to December 2016.@*RESULTS@#The median and mean OS of all patients was 9.6 and 15.4 months. Treatment (vs. palliative care, p < 0.001), fewer than three regimens of chemotherapy before BM (vs. ≥ 3, p < 0.013), and chemotherapy after BM (vs. absence, p < 0.001) significantly increased the OS time. The Karnofsky performance status ≥ 70 (vs. < 70, p = 0.213), single BM (vs. multiple BM, p = 0.157), and small cell carcinoma (vs. others, p = 0.351) had numerically higher OS than others. Dual therapy (vs. single therapy, p = 0.182; vs. no therapy, p = 0.076) were associated with a longer OS time, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. In addition, the graded prognostic assessment (GPA) appeared to be a better prognostic tool than the recursive partitioning analysis.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The results of the present study suggest active multimodal treatment including neurosurgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy for BM of uterine cervical cancer with single BM, good performance status, histology of small cell carcinoma, and a better GPA.

Analgesic effect of quetiapine in a mouse model of cancer-induced bone pain

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) is one of the most common pains in patients with advanced neoplasms. Because of treatment-associated side effects, more than half of cancer patients are reported to have inadequate and undermanaged pain control. New mechanism-based therapies must be developed to reduce cancer pain. Quetiapine is a commonly used atypical antipsychotic drug. We report a study of the potential analgesic effects of quetiapine in a mouse model of CIBP and examine the mechanism of bone pain by analyzing the expression of various nociceptors. METHODS: Fifteen male C3H/HeN mice were arbitrarily divided into five groups: control and, CIBP with no treatment, quetiapine treatment, opioid treatment, and melatonin treatment. The mice were tested for mechanical hyperalgesia by determining the nociceptive hind paw withdrawal pressure threshold. Tissues from tibia were removed and subjected to quantitative and qualitative evaluations of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), TRPV4, acid-sensing ion channel 1 (ASIC1), ASIC2, and ASIC3 expression. RESULTS: Paw withdrawal pressure threshold was improved in the quetiapine treatment group compared with the CIBP group. Expression of TRPV1, TRPV4, ASIC1, ASIC2, and ASIC3 in the CIBP with quetiapine treatment group was significantly lower than that in the CIBP group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest an analgesic effect of quetiapine in the CIBP animal model and implicate TRPV and ASICs as potential targets for cancer pain management.

A Case of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia with Multiple Chloromas Treated Successfully with Dasatinib / 계명의대학술지

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder of the primitive hematopoietic stem cells. CML is characterized by the overproduction of myeloid cells, which results in marked splenomegaly and leukocytosis. CML presented by multiple chloromas is extremely rare. Multiple chloromas in the skin and brain are quite rare as the initial presentation of CML. These rare manifestation should alert clinicians to include CML in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with multiple non-pruritic skin nodules or neurologic symptoms. Dasatinib has promising therapeutic potential for managing intracranial leukemic disease. Here, we report the case of a patient who visited the hospital with multiple chloroma which is unusual presentation of CML, and treated with dasatinib successfully.

A Case of Double-unit Cord Blood Transplantation in Primary Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia / 계명의대학술지

Umbilical cord blood is an attractive source of hematopoietic stem cells in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Umbilical cord blood transplantation has merits of rapid availability and low risk of severe acute graft versus host disease. Umbilical cord blood should be an important source of stem cell transplantation for patients who have no suitable human leukocyte antigen-matched bone marrow, or peripheral stem cell donor. Transplantation of umbilical cord blood is limited by insufficient cell doses. This had led to the alternative concept of attempting to increase the number of cell doses using two cord blood units from different donor. We report a case of double-unit cord blood transplantation for 55-year-old male with primary refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Two Cases of Hypophosphatemic Osteomalacia After Long-term Low Dose Adefovir Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis B and Literature Review

Adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) is a nucleotide used as long-term therapy of chronic hepatitis B. Many published reports have shown that long-term high-dose therapy with adefovir can be associated with proximal renal tubular dysfunction resulting in significant hypophosphatemia, renal insufficiency and osteomalacia. We have encountered two patients who developed evidence of hypophosphatemic osteomalacia while on long-term low-dose adefovir therapy for chronic hepatitis B. We report on its clinical features and its potential resolution with cessation of the drug and supplementation with phosphate. We also reviewed the other published cases associated with hypophosphatemic osteomalacia after low-dose adefovir therapy. The symptoms and the hypophosphatemia improved after cessation of the drug and supplementation with phosphate in most cases. Patients taking adefovir long-term should receive regular investigation of the phosphate level and renal function.

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors in a Patient with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 / 대한내과학회지

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disease characterized by neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders involving tissues of neuroectodermal and mesenchymal origin. NF1 is caused by mutations in the NF1 gene, which is found on chromosome 17q11.2. Patients with NF1 are at increased risk of developing soft tissue sarcomas that arise within the stromal compartment of the gastrointestinal tract, termed gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). GISTs associated with neurofibromatosis differ from sporadic GISTs, particularly with respect to their lower response rate to imatinib. We recently experienced a case involving a 45-year-old man with NF1 who was admitted to the hospital with epigastric pain and vomiting. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a duodenal GIST with pancreatic invasion. He had a base substitution mutation involving replacement of 2041 cytosine with thymine. He was treated successfully with a surgical operation and adjuvant imatinib therapy.

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors in a Patient with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 / 대한내과학회지

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disease characterized by neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders involving tissues of neuroectodermal and mesenchymal origin. NF1 is caused by mutations in the NF1 gene, which is found on chromosome 17q11.2. Patients with NF1 are at increased risk of developing soft tissue sarcomas that arise within the stromal compartment of the gastrointestinal tract, termed gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). GISTs associated with neurofibromatosis differ from sporadic GISTs, particularly with respect to their lower response rate to imatinib. We recently experienced a case involving a 45-year-old man with NF1 who was admitted to the hospital with epigastric pain and vomiting. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a duodenal GIST with pancreatic invasion. He had a base substitution mutation involving replacement of 2041 cytosine with thymine. He was treated successfully with a surgical operation and adjuvant imatinib therapy.

Metachronous Double Primary Cancer after Diagnosis of Gastric Cancer / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: The pattern of double primary cancers after treatment for gastric cancer is important for a patient's survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the clinicopathologic data of 214 gastric cancer patients from October 1996 to November 2007 with regard to metachronous second primary cancers. RESULTS: Out of 5,778 patients with gastric cancer, metachronous second primary cancers occurred in 214 patients. The median age was 61.8 years, the number of male and female patients was 140 (65.4%), 74 (34.6%), respectively. The median time to the occurrence of second cancers after diagnosis of the first was 39.2 months (standard deviation, 31.2 months). The most common cancer was colorectal cancer, which occurred in 44 patients (20.6%), and lung cancer in 33 patients (15.4%), hepatocellular carcinoma in 26 patients (12.1%), ovarian cancer in 15 patients (7.0%), cervical cancer in 12 patients (7.0%), breast cancer in 11 patients (5.1%), and esophageal cancer in 11 patients (5.1%). The observed/expected (O/E) ratio showed a significant increase in colorectal (1.25), male biliary (1.60), ovarian (8.72), and cervical cancer (3.33) with primary gastric cancer. After five years from diagnosis of gastric cancer, secondary cancer occurred in 50 patients (23.4%), and breast cancer, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, lung cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma were the most frequent. CONCLUSION: The O/E ratio showed a significant increase in colorectal, male biliary, ovarian, and cervical cancer with primary gastric cancer, and second primary cancer as the main cause of death for these patients. A follow-up examination for metachronous double primary cancer is needed in order to improve the survival time in patients with gastric cancer.