ABSTRACT
AIMS: A retrospective analysis of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) was performed to assess their outcome regarding relative dose intensity (RDI) of chemotherapy administered in primary treatment. METHODS: A total of 194 patients were divided into three groups with different RDI of primary chemotherapy (100%, 90-99% and <90%). Reduced RDI in two groups (90-99% and <90%) was caused by the delay of the interval between the administration of some chemotherapeutic courses. The probability of complete remission (CR), disease relapse, event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) as the basic parameters of patient outcome were statistically compared. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis showed here were no significant differences in probability of CR (HR 0.9, 95% CI [0.75-1.08], P=0.5), risk of relapse (HR 1.34, 95% CI [0.92-1.94], P=0.11) or death (HR 1.52, 95% CI [0.94-2.5], P=0.13). There were also no significant differences in probability of EFS (mean 13 vs. 10 vs. 12 years, P=0.17; HR 1.54, 95% CI [0.91-2.6], P=0.22) or OS (mean 15 vs. 13 vs. 14 years, P=0.13; HR 1.52, 95% CI [0.93-2.5], P=0.13). CONCLUSION: We found no significant impact of primary chemotherapy delay resulting in reduced RDI on outcome in HL patients.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/administration & dosage , Hodgkin Disease/drug therapy , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Female , Hodgkin Disease/pathology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Recurrence, Local , Neoplasm Staging , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Survival Rate , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
AIMS: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that occult tumour cells in peritoneal lavage are a negative prognostic factor in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Real-time RT-PCR analysis of CEA, EGFR and hTERT transcript levels was used to identify occult tumour cells in peritoneal lavage samples from 96 pancreatic cancer patients. RESULTS: We found significant association between CEA expression levels in peritoneal lavage and clinical stage. We also found that EGFR transcript levels were higher in peritoneal lavage samples from patients with high grade tumours than in samples from patients with low grade tumours. Detection of CEA and/or EGFR occult tumour cell markers in the peritoneal lavage was associated with significantly shorter overall survival and increased hazard ratio for disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the presence of occult tumour cells in peritoneal lavage is a negative prognostic factor for survival in pancreatic cancer patients, and that detection of occult tumour cells using PCR-based methods can identify patients with advanced disease for whom radical surgery is likely to have little benefit.
