Quality of life in cancer patients undergoing anticoagulant treatment with LMWH for venous thromboembolism: the QUAVITEC study on behalf of the Groupe Francophone Thrombose et Cancer (GFTC).

BACKGROUND: Clinical guidelines recommend at least 3-months low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) treatment for established venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cancer patients. However, no study has analyzed the impact of 3-6 months of LMWH therapy on quality-of-life (QoL) in cancer patients. RESULTS: Among 400 cancer patients included at M0, 88.8% received long-term LMWH. Using a random-effects linear regression model with time as covariate, QoL scores in the MOS SF-36 (Global HRQoL, 1.3-fold per month [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81-1.79], p < 0.0001) and EORTC QLQ-C30 (global health status/qol, 2.25-fold per month [95% CI 1.63-2.88]; p < 0.0001) questionnaires significantly improved over the 6-month study period in patients treated with LMWH, while VEINES-QOL scores did not change. In the MOS SF-36 and EORTC QLQ-C30, the following factors were associated with change in QoL: symptomatic VTE, cancer dissemination and histological type. Factors pertaining to reduced mobility were also identified as significant predictors of QoL outcomes, including being bedridden in the MOS SF-36 and ECOG score ≥ 2 in the EORTC QLQ-C30. Presence of acute infection and not undergoing anti-angiogenic therapy were additional factors associated with QoL improvement in the EORTC QLQ-C30. METHODS: QUAVITEC, a prospective, longitudinal, multicenter study, recruited all consecutive eligible adult cancer patients with objectively confirmed VTE between February 2011 and 2012. Patients were asked to answer three QoL questionnaires at anticoagulant treatment initiation (M0) and at 3 (M3) and 6 (M6)-month follow-ups. CONCLUSION: QUAVITEC is the first study to show that QoL was improved in cancer patients receiving long-term LMWH treatment for established VTE.

No impact of passive smoke on the somatic profile of lung cancers in never-smokers.

EGFR and HER2 mutations and ALK rearrangement are known to be related to lung cancer in never-smokers, while KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA mutations are typically observed among smokers. There is still debate surrounding whether never-smokers exposed to passive smoke exhibit a "smoker-like" somatic profile compared with unexposed never-smokers. Passive smoke exposure was assessed in the French BioCAST/IFCT-1002 never-smoker lung cancer cohort and routine molecular profiles analyses were compiled. Of the 384 patients recruited into BioCAST, 319 were tested for at least one biomarker and provided data relating to passive smoking. Overall, 219 (66%) reported having been exposed to passive smoking. No significant difference was observed between mutation frequency and passive smoke exposure (EGFR mutation: 46% in never exposed versus 41% in ever exposed; KRAS: 7% versus 7%; ALK: 13% versus 11%; HER2: 4% versus 5%; BRAF: 6% versus 5%; PIK3CA: 4% versus 2%). We observed a nonsignificant trend for a negative association between EGFR mutation and cumulative duration of passive smoke exposure. No association was found for other biomarkers. There is no clear association between passive smoke exposure and somatic profile in lifelong, never-smoker lung cancer.

Outcomes in recurrent small-cell lung cancer after one to four chemotherapy lines: a retrospective study of 300 patients.

Standard treatment of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a combination of etoposide and platinum for patients with extensive disease, associated with radiotherapy for patients with limited disease (LD). Therapeutic strategies for relapse, although well characterized, are disappointing. Between 1997 and 2009, 300 patients were treated for SCLC at Grenoble University Hospital. We analyzed patients' characteristics and outcomes at different treatment steps, to determine prognostic factors and propose subsequent treatment strategies according to "sensitive", "resistant" or "refractory" status established after first-line treatment (L1). The median patient age was 63.2 years, 46.3% had LD, and 23% were female. The objective response rate (ORR) to first-line chemotherapy was 73% [CI(95%): 67.6-77.9] and median survival was 13 months. After L1, comparison between "refractory" and "sensitive" groups showed more extensive disease (76.6% vs. 34.3%, p=0.003), poorer Performance Status (PS 0-1: 48.4% vs. 67.8%, p=0.008), more endocrine paraneoplastic syndrome (18.7% vs. 8.4%, p=0.03) and more composite histology (17.2% vs. 4.9%, p=0.004) in "refractory" patients. After second line (L2), ORR was 55.8% [CI(95%): 45.2-66.0] in "sensitive", 18.2% [CI(95%): 8.2-32.7] in "resistant", and 14.7% [CI(95%): 4.9-31.0] in "refractory" groups; with partial response only for the last two groups. After L3 and L4, ORR was 24.0% [CI(95%): 14.9-35.2] in "sensitive", 9.1% [CI(95%): 11.2-29.2] in "resistant" with partial response only. No response was observed for "refractory". After L1, the median survival was respectively 23, 10 and 6.4 months for "sensitive", "resistant" and "refractory" groups (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that LD and classical SCLC histology were positive predictors of belonging to the "sensitive" group. Positive factors for survival were sensitivity to L1, PS 0-1, LD, Charlson score <4, no endocrine paraneoplastic syndrome and no occupational exposure. Limited disease is the major predictive factor for sensitivity to treatments and survival. Factors linked to the patients' clinical presentation also impact on survival. With currently recommended drugs, the "sensitivity" of the patient determined by the response to L1 indicates that it is pointless to treat "sensitive" with L4, "resistant" with L3 and "refractory" with L2, except for a few selected patients after multidisciplinary group discussion.

[A difficult end of life]. / Une fin de vie difficile.

The law specifies how a doctor may write a medical certifcate and how a patient or his beneficiaries can obtain his medical records. It's important for a doctor to know this rules. A 56 years old patient was referred to our hospital for pulmonary adenocarcinoma cT2N2M1, the clinical stage was IV. The patient underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy. During the treatment, the relations with the family were difficult. The patient refuse to accept the doctors tell his son any information and get married with his companion in secret. After patient's death, the son and the wife asked for many medical certificates. The doctors turned down so the son asked for the patient medical records. This observation asks the question of the medical certificates: how and when write them, which are obligatories? Moreover, how should a patient or his beneficiaries obtain medical records?

[Confidentiality in medical practice: tell no one]. / Le secret médical à tout prix?...

Medical confidentiality is sometimes difficult to impose on patient's families, especially in the field of oncology. Here, we describe the case of a 54-years-old woman with a T1N0M0 lung adenocarcinoma. After the diagnosis was made, she advised the medical team not to inform her family about her disease. Although the patient was aware of the high-risk of relapse, she was lost of follow-up after first-line treatment. Five years later, she presented with multi-metastatic recurrence and had to be admitted in an intensive-care unit for severe respiratory failure due to tumor progression. She kept refusing to inform her family, which in the end was contacted by the patient's sister, a few hours before her death. This observation highlights the absolute inviolability of medical confidentiality and led the French Association of Young Pneumologist to initiate a multi-disciplinary symposium on ethical problems raised by the management of patients with lung cancer.

[A difficult diagnosis]. / Un diagnostic difficile...

The patient information and obtaining their consent before any therapeutic constitute a basis for medicine exercise. However, there are situations where the physician may be in default. In that case, concepts of benefit/risk balance, of clear and appropriate information, and of legal liability for medico-surgical staff takes all their magnitude. That was the case in our observation, with a 69 years old patient with history of smoking, presenting a suspicious lung opacity which will require, following an agreement by multidisciplinary meeting, an exploration by thoracotomy despite an acceptable but altered respiratory function, as a result of a post-smoking broncho-emphysema. The non-malignant character of the suspected lesion raise questions about the risks involved, the benefit/risk balance, and the legal risk scopes of the medicosurgical staff as defined in the Cancer programme framework.

Prevalence and pattern of antinuclear autoantibodies in 347 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The presence of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA) was investigated in a large cohort of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in order to assess their frequency, specificity and prognostic relevance. ANA were analysed in 347 patients with different histological subgroups of NHL and in 213 controls using an indirect immunofluorescence technique on HEp2 cells. As the appearance of autoantibodies may be found after treatment of NHL, samples were collected at the time of diagnosis of NHL before any therapy. Sixty-six (19%) NHL patients and 12 (5.6%) patients from the control group displayed ANA. The prevalence between the two groups was found to be significantly higher in NHL patients (P < 0.0001) with a marked increased prevalence in follicular and mantle cell lymphoma subgroups. Autoantibodies directed against mitotic proteins or mitotic-associated proteins were found in 6.9% of NHL patients versus 0.5% in the control group (P < 0.001), with a significantly increased incidence in follicular and mantle cell lymphoma subgroups (P < 0.0001). Some 28% of the patients with positive ANA displayed clinical symptoms that could correspond to classical autoimmune manifestations, this frequency appearing to be higher in the marginal zone/mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma subgroup. These data demonstrate a significant incidence of ANA before any treatment in NHL occurrence, which seems to be higher in some histological subgroups with particular ANA, such as ANA directed against mitotic proteins or mitotic-associated proteins.