ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Promising new drugs such as lenalidomide, an immunomodulatory agent, are available for the treatment of multiple myeloma. We describe the process of creating a provincial guideline for the use of lenalidomide, alone or in combination with other drugs, in relapsed, refractory, or newly diagnosed disease (including smoldering and symptomatic patients, and candidates and non-candidates for transplant) and in maintenance treatment (after transplant or non-transplant therapy); and for strategies to manage lenalidomide-related toxicities. METHODS: Outcomes of interest included overall survival, event-free survival, progression-free survival, time to progression, time to next treatment, response rate, and incidence of serious toxicity. The medline, embase, and Cochrane Library databases, as well as meeting abstracts and the Web sites of relevant organizations, were systematically searched for relevant literature. RESULTS: Recommendations were developed using the evidence from published studies and the clinical expertise of the working group and of the Cancer Care Ontario Hematology Disease Site Group. CONCLUSIONS: Lenalidomide in combination with dexamethasone can be recommended for both previously untreated and treated patients with multiple myeloma. Guidelines for the management of cytopenias, venous thromboembolism, and second primary malignancies are discussed.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE AND METHODS: Using a retrospective chart review, we investigated the differences in survival and prognostic factors between patients with triple-negative breast cancer (tnbc) and those with non-tnbc. The review included 1018 breast cancer patients who were diagnosed between 2000 and 2005 in Essex, Kent, and Lambton counties in Ontario, Canada. RESULTS: Our findings indicate that, although the unadjusted results suggested that patients with tnbc were more likely than patients with non-tnbc to die [hazard ratio (hr): 2.29; 95% confidence interval (ci): 1.33 to 2.93], an adjusted survival analysis revealed no significant difference in overall survival between the groups (hr: 1.22; 95% ci: 0.63 to 2.39). The significant predictors of survival in the adjusted analysis were age, stage of cancer, and size of cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support those of earlier reports, which suggest that presenting tumour size is the most important prognostic factor in tnbc. Investigations into unique screening methods to identify these tumours at an earlier stage and to prevent advanced-stage cancer in this patient subpopulation are necessary.
