[Pleural mesothelioma. A case report]. / Mesotelioma pleurico. Descrizione di un caso.

Malignant mesothelioma can be considered a rare neoplasm, very aggressive, chemo- and radio-resistant, characterized by high percentage of mortality and precarious quality of life. Surgery, radio- and chemo-therapy must be administered with articulate strategy and with realistic objective of palliation. Our experience can represent a model in this direction: we treated a patient with palliative surgery and following loco-regional and "maintenance" systemic chemotherapy with taxol at minimal efficacious dosage (135 mg/m2 every 3 weeks). After 27 months the patient is alive and with a good quality of life.

5-Fluorouracil plus interferon alpha-2a compared to 5-fluorouracil alone in the treatment of advanced colon carcinoma: a multicentric randomized study.

Biochemical modulation is one of the most interesting fields in cancer chemotherapy. Interferon-alpha (IFNalpha) is a cytokine that is able to influence the pharmacodynamics of 5-fluorouracil (5FU) through a number of mechanisms. With the aim of confirming some data emerging from the literature, we initiated a multicentric randomized study comparing the combination of 5FU and IFNalpha-2a with 5FU alone in the treatment of advanced or metastatic colon cancer. A group of 205 colon cancer patients (104 in the 5FU arm and 101 in the 5FU + IFNapha-2a arm) were included in the final intention-to-treat analysis. Rectal cancers were not considered eligible. All patients had measurable disease, were aged 75 years or less, had a Karnofsky index of at least 60 and had good bone marrow, renal, liver and cardiac functions. No previous chemo-immunotherapy was allowed. The treatment was 750 mg/m2 5FU (4 h i.v. infusion) on days 1 5 and then i.v. bolus weekly, starting from day 12, with or without IFNalpha-2a given s.c. three times weekly (starting dose 3 x 10(6) IU rising to 9 x 10(6) IU, if tolerated). Patients were treated until progression or, if responsive, for a maximum of 48 weeks and then observed for a period of 2 years. The primary end-point of the study was objective clinical response (OR); secondary parameters were time to progression, overall survival, and time to death after progression. WHO criteria were used for both clinical response and toxicity measurements. Dose reduction was planned a priori in the event of significant toxicity due to 5FU, IFNalpha-2a or both. Association between primary and secondary end-points and treatment was studied by univariate and multivariate analysis. Altogether, 47 patients achieved a documented response. A 25% OR was observed in the combination arm while a 21% OR was seen in the 5FU arm; this difference is not statistically significant (P = 0.6). Patients with a small tumour burden (below 5 cm2) showed a higher probability of response in both arms. Patients in the experimental arm had a higher but not statistically significant cumulative progression-free probability. Median survival was 47.1 weeks overall, while it was 43.7 and 48.5 weeks in the control and experimental arms, respectively. The combination was clearly more toxic than 5FU alone, leukopenia being the most frequent side-effect in the experimental arm and nausea and vomiting in the control arm. In conclusion these results are quite disappointing and 5FU + IFNalpha-2a can not be considered a standard treatment for advanced colon cancer.

Dose-finding study of 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine in combination with fixed doses of cisplatin and L-folinic acid for the treatment of advanced or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

In order to assess the maximum tolerated dose of 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5dFUR) combined with a cisplatin (20 mg/m2 i.v.) and L-folinic acid (100 mg/m2 i.v.), 5-day schedule 19 consecutive chemotherapy-naive patients affected by advanced or recurrent carcinoma of the head and neck were entered in this phase I trial. Doses of 5dFUR were escalated from a starting level of 2,000 mg/m2/day up to 3,000 and 5,000 mg/m2/day. At the latter step the dose-limiting acute toxicities were stomatitis and diarrhea, which were of WHO grade 3-4 and occurred in 3 and 1 out of 4 evaluated patients, respectively. Other grade 3 acute toxicities were leukopenia, anemia, renal impairment, and neurologic symptoms, observed in 1 patient each. Furthermore, one possibly treatment-related death was registered among patients entered in the highest dose level. Eleven out of 19 patients (58%; 95% CI:34-80%) showed a complete (2 cases) or partial (9 cases) response to this treatment, regardless of the 5dFUR dosage employed. From our results we may define the maximum tolerated dose of 5dFUR to be associated with cisplatin and L-folin acid used in this trial as 3,000 mg/m2/day x 5 days. Assessment of the real activity of this combination chemotherapy deserves further studies.

[Comparative evaluation of norfloxacin and cinoxacin in the therapy of complicated infections of the urinary tract]. / Valutazione comparativa della norfloxacina e della cinoxacina nella terapia delle infezioni complicate delle vie urinarie.

A randomized clinical study was conducted in order to compare the effectiveness of norfloxacin and cinoxacin in complicated urinary tract infections. Norfloxacin proved effective in 80% of the 40 patients treated, cinoxacin in only 60%.

[Biological tumor markers]. / I biomarcatori tumorali.

The classification of tumor markers can at present be only provisional since in this field new acquisitions are reported daily. Nevertheless, during the last few years, a number of monographs and chapters in oncology texts have become available for students and physicians in which certain parameters (sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of individual markers) are illustrated, thus allowing for a more accurate evaluation of their diagnostic efficacy and offering indications as to which of these markers are most useful in relation to the site of the tumor. Although tumor markers are present throughout the organism, the above review is limited to those found in blood. Clinical results obtained to far have already lead to the conclusion that tumor markers are useful above all for the diagnostic and therapeutic follow-up of patients rather than for the diagnosis of tumors. The present tendency is for the association of several markers since a higher percentage of positive results is achieved both for diagnostic purposes and for the detection of residual foci after apparently successful treatments and for the precocious detection of recurrences, as well as for the evaluation of the efficacy of ongoing therapies.