[Cigarette smoking and lung cancer-elucidating an enigma]. / Fumatul si cancerul bronho-pulmonar--o enigma elucidata.

The complexity of tobacco smoke leads to some confusion about mechanisms by with is caused lung cancer. Tobacco smoke contains many carcinogens, but 20 of them are deeply involved in causing lung cancer induction. Of these, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and tobacco specific nitrosamine are likely to play a major role. This review include a discussion of the mechanisms of interaction between DNA and tobacco smoke carcinogens and the relationships with mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. By focusing in this review on several important carcinogens in tobacco smoke, the complexities in understanding tobacco-induced cancer can be reduced, and new approaches for lung cancer prevention can be envisioned.

[Renal cancer :therapeutical dilemma]. / Cancerul renal--dilema optiunilor terapeutice!

Renal cell carcinoma constitutes 3% of all adult malignancies. Surgical resection remains the cornerstone of management for localised renal cell carcinoma. No effective postsurgical adjuvant therapy has been established for patients with locally advanced disease who are a high risk for recurrence. The effective treatment of metastatic kidney cancer remains a challenge. Despite extensive investigations with different treatment modalities, metastatic renal cell carcinoma remains high resistant to systemic therapy. Combination chemotherapy alone or in combination with cytokine, is a very little use. Small numbers of patients' exhibits complete or partial responses to interferon and/or interleukin-2, but most patients do not respond and few survive over the long term. New immunologic approaches to the treatment of both advanced and high-risk postsurgical disease are focusing on novel vaccine therapies to target both renal epithelial and vascular antigens.

[The prognostic factors for survival in advanced forms of non-small-cell lung cancer]. / Factori prognostici pentru supravietuire în formele avansate de cancere pulmonare non-microcelulare.

UNLABELLED: This study attempted to determinate the prognostic value for survival of various clinical, biological and therapeutical prognostic factors in patients with non-resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHOD: We performed a retrospective study on 236 patients with histologically proved unresectable NSCLC. We collected 36 variable and analysed them by univariate and multivariate methods in order to establish their influence on survival. RESULTS: The global estimated median survival time was 10 month. In univariate analysis were significantly related to survival: age (> 60 years), weight loss (> 5%), local extend of of disease, Karnofsky performance index (< 70%), stage of disease (stage IIIA vs. IIIB, IV), hemoglobinemia (< 10 g%), calcemia, platelet count, radiotherapy total dose (< 50 Gy), Cisplatin chemotherapy. In a Cox regression model, the explanatory variables were: age > 60 years, Karnofsy performance index 70%, stage IIIB and IV, thoracic total radiotherapy dose < 50 Gy. These results led to a classification of the patients into three subgroups (prognostic index). CONCLUSION: We confirm by our analysis the role of independent factors for survival and we obtained three prognostic groups, the best one needs a radio-chemotherapy association.