Is there relationship between excision repair cross-complementation 1 expression level and response to treatment and prognosis in an advanced stage lung cancer treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy?

AIM: It is important to know the tumor resistance against cisplatin before the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the response to treatment and survival in patients with NSCLC treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy according to excision repair cross-complementation 1 (ERCC1) expression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among 119 patients treated with cisplatin and vinorelbine or docetaxel, 39 (32%) patients enrolled who have enough tumor tissue to analyze ERCC1 expression. ERCC1 expression defined as negative in score 0-1, positive in score 2-3. RESULTS: There was no difference between ERCC1 positive and negative groups (P = 0.63). Mean survival was 14.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI]; 10.0-19.3 month) in ERCC1 negative group, 10.9 months (95% CI; 7.4-14.3 month) in ERCC1 positive group (P = 0.23). Progression free survival was 7.9 months in ERCC1 negative group (95% CI; 5.8-9.9 months), 6.2 months in ERCC1 positive group (95% CI; 4.0-8.5 months) (P = 0.27). CONCLUSION: Identification of ERCC1 expression level of tumor tissues in NSCLC patients before treatment was not useful in prediction of treatment response and prognosis.

Case of Behçet's disease presenting with bilateral multiple pulmonary arterial aneurysms.

Pulmonary arterial involvement is a rare but life-threatening complication of Behçet's disease (BD). A 28-year old male, presented with hemoptysis, fever, dyspnea, weight loss and recurrent oral ulcers was diagnosed with Behçet's disease with multiple bilateral pulmonary arterial aneurysms confirmed following a CT and MRI. scan Besides pulmonary involvement, ocular involvement was also shown. Complete regression was noted during the first year of the therapy with cyclophosphamide and corticosteroid. The patient is still under the hospital for follow ups with favourable outcome predicted.

Microalbuminuria in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: In this study, the presence of microalbuminuria in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in whom no proteinuria was determined by conventional methods, has been studied taking into account the possible relationship between microalbuminuria and respiratory parameters and their predictive role on mortality. METHODS: Twenty-five cases with COPD who had been hospitalized because of an acute exacerbation and 25 healthy age and sex matched volunteers were included in the study. Microalbuminuria measurement, arterial blood gas analysis, and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) measurements were performed in the COPD group at the beginning of hospitalisation (admission) and after therapy for an average period of 14 +/- 6 days when they were stable at the time of discharge (discharge). Urinary albumin/creatinine (a/c) ratio > or = 2.5 mg/mmol was accepted as microalbuminuria. RESULTS: Microalbuminuria was detected in 14 (56%) subjects at admission and in 7 (28%) subjects at discharge in the COPD group and in 1 (4%) subject in the control group. There were statistically significant differences among these groups (admission-control p < 0.001, discharge-control p = 0.023, admission-discharge p = 0.016). In COPD group, mean a/c ratio was 3.9 +/- 3.8 at the time of admission, 1.7 +/- 1.9 at discharge and 0.5 +/- 0.5 mg/mmol in the control group. There were statistically significant differences among these groups (admission-control p < 0.001, discharge-control p = 0.029, admission-discharge p = 0.002). In the COPD group there were negative correlation between the microalbuminuria values at admission and arterial pO2 and oxygen saturation (p = 0.031, r = -0.433 and p = 0.002, r = -0.596 respectively). There were no relation between the microalbuminuria values and age, arterial pH, pCO2, FEV1 percent predicted, FVC percent predicted and FEV1/FVC. There were no statistically significant differences between the subjects with or without microalbuminuria according to the median survival time. CONCLUSIONS: In a quite large number of patients with COPD in whom no proteinuria were determined by conventional methods, especially at the time of exacerbation, microalbuminuria could be seen. Microalbuminuria was related with hypoxemia but has no predictive role on mortality.