[Analysis of one-year mortality of radically operated patients over 70 years with nonsmall cell lung cancer].

One-year lethality was studied in 613 patients older than 70 years who underwent surgery for lung cancer for the period of 1970-2002. During the first year after surgery 166 patients died (27.1%) and besides from the generalization of the disease - 92.2%, from other causes - 7.8%. The highest rate of one-year lethality was observed after pneumonectomy (39.4%), the lowest one - after lung margins resection (16.5%). It was found that the most important factor in one-year lethality rate was N2 lymph node status. Risk of dying from the generalization of the disease during the first year sharply increased in group of patients underwent extended and combined pneumonectomy (one-year lethality of 52.6% and 57.1%, respectively), pneumonectomy with N2 (56,0%), lobectomy in peripheral cancer with metastases of N2 level (63,6%), especially when the amount of the tumor was more than 5 cm (83.3%).

Piezoelectric immunosensors for the detection of individual antibiotics and the total content of penicillin antibiotics in foodstuffs.

Piezoelectric immunosensors on the basis of homologous and group-specificantibodies have been developed for detecting penicillin G, ampicillin, and the total content of penicillin antibiotics. The receptor coating of the sensor was obtained by the immobilization of penicillin G or ampicillin hapten-protein conjugates on the polypyrrole film obtained by electropolymerization and activated by glutaraldehyde. The affinity constants and the cross reactivity coefficients have been calculated. This made it possible to estimate the affinity and specificity of the polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies used. The calibration curves are linear in the range of concentrations 2.5-250.0 ng ml(-1) (penicillin G), 2.5-500.0 ng ml(-1) (ampicillin), and 1-500 ng ml(-1) (group of penicillin). The limits of detection are 0.8 ng ml(-1), 3.9 ng ml(-1), which are lower than MRL, established for penicillin antibiotics. The sensors were tested in detecting penicillins in milk, pork, beef, liver.

A piezoelectric immunosensor for chloramphenicol detection in food.

A piezoelectric immunosensor on the basis of electrogenerated polymer for detecting trace quantities of chloramphenicol, a drug which is used in veterinary for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, was developed. The detection was conducted in a competitive format with the use of hapten-protein conjugate and monoclonal antibodies. The limit of detection is 0.2 ng ml(-1), the calibration curve is linear in the range of concentrations 0.5-100.0 ng ml(-1). Chloramphenicol was detected in food (meat, milk, egg, honey).

Biomarker analysis in a phase III study of pemetrexed-carboplatin versus etoposide-carboplatin in chemonaive patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Clinical results of a randomized phase III trial comparing pemetrexed-carboplatin (PC) with etoposide-carboplatin (EC) in chemonaive patients with extensive-stage disease small-cell lung cancer (ED-SCLC) resulted in trial closure for futility; biomarker analyses using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are described herein. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thymidylate synthase (TS), excision repair cross complementing-1 (ERCC1), glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase (GARFT), and folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS) were investigated using IHC (n=395). SNPs were genotyped for TS, FPGS, γ-glutamyl hydrolase (GGH), methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), folate receptor-α FR-α, and solute carrier 19A1 (SLC19A1; n=611). RESULTS: None of the IHC biomarkers (folate pathway or ERCC1) were found to be predictive or prognostic in this setting. rs2838952 (adjacent to SLC19A1) had significant treatment-independent association with overall survival (OS; hazard ratio 0.590, P=0.01). Nine GGH-associated SNPs interacted with rs3788205 (SLC19A1) for OS on the PC arm. rs12379987 (FPGS) interacted with treatment for OS (interaction P=0.036). CONCLUSION: Potential ERCC1 and folate pathway IHC biomarkers failed to predict outcome in either study arm in ED-SCLC. SNPs in regions including FPGS and SLC19A1 and interacting SNPs in GGH and SLC19A1 were associated with differences in OS; however, none of these SNPs predicted for greater survival with PC over EC.

[Rationale for surgical treatment of octogenarians with lung cancer].

Lung cancer was treated by surgery in 17 patients (males--13, females--4) aged more than 80 years, i.e. 2% of surgical patients older than 70 (n-870). The chief death-causing factors were cardiovascular insufficiency and thromboembolism of the pulmonary artery.

[Immediate results of pneumonectomies in lung cancer patients older than 70 years].

During 1970-2002 pneumonectomy for lung cancer was fulfilled on 155 patients older than 70 years of age. Immediate postoperative lethality took place in 19.3%. From 142 male patients after pneumonectomy 30 (21.1%) patients died, from 13 female patients - nobody died. The whole time was divided into 3 periods 10 years each. It was noted that postoperative lethality decreased from 21.4% in the first period to 13.8% - in the third one. Lethality was substantially decreased in patients aged 70-72 from 32.6% in 1970-1981 to 6.9% in 1992-2002. In patients older than 75 lethality failed to decrease. The main causes of lethal outcomes were acute cardio-vascular insufficiency and thromboembolism of the pulmonary artery.

[Immediate results of pulmonary resection carried out for lung cancer in patients older than 70 years].

Pulmonary resection was carried out for lung cancer in 155 patients aged more than 70 yrs (1970--2002). Operative mortality was 19.3%. Out of 142 male survivors, 30 (21.1%) died later, while none did out of 13 female survivors. Post-operative mortality fell from 21.4% within the first decade to 13.8% in the third one. Particularly marked decrease was registered in the 70-72 year bracket--from 32.6% (1970--1981) to 6.9% (1992--2002). However, no progress was reported in patients aged more than 75 yrs. Among the main causes of lethality were acute cardio-vascular insufficiency and lung artery thromboemboly.

[The response of peripheral blood lymphocytes from lung cancer patients to in-vitro treatment with recombinant interleukin-2]. / Izuchenie otveta limfotsitov perifericheskoi krovi bol'nykh rakom legkogo na obrabotku in vitro rekombinantnym interleikinom-2.

The cytotoxic activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes of 135 lung cancer patients was studied. A wide range of cytotoxicity values was shown--from 0 to 88%. During the randomized investigation of these patients no strong correlation was found between the levels of cytotoxicity and the cancer stages. A certain tendency of increasing the number of patients with weak cytotoxic activity upon progressing disease was followed. The lymphocytes with a strong natural killer activity did not react on the in vitro incubation with interleukin-2. The lymphocytes with a strong was obtained when the lymphocytes with the lowest cytotoxicity levels were incubated with this immunomodulator.

Prognostic value of non-MHC-restricted killer cell activity in lung cancer.

The prognostic value of peripheral blood non-MHC-restricted cytotoxicity against the myeloid leukaemic line K562 in lung cancer patients was studied. At the time of diagnosis and before operation, 57 patients with lung cancer were tested for cytotoxicity and subsequently followed for up to 4 years. In addition, 145 lung cancer patients, 30 patients with non-neoplastic lung diseases and 76 healthy donors were tested for cytotoxicity without the follow-up, in order to correlate the stage of lung cancer and the growth rate of tumours to the level of non-MHC-restricted cytotoxicity. On average, lung cancer patients had similar non-MHC-restricted cytotoxicity to the controls. However, patients with stage II-IV diseases showed an impaired activity, stages III and IV differing significantly from the controls. This result shows that the decline in natural killer (NK) activity is associated with tumour burden. Patients with slowly growing neoplasms had stronger cytotoxic activity than patients with fast or moderately progressing disease. In the follow-up study, the whole material of 57 patients showed only a slight correlation between cytotoxicity and survival: 42% of the patients with strong activity survived for more than 2.5 years, whereas 6% of the patients with weak activity did so. In stage I patients there was no correlation between cytotoxicity and survival, nor was there a correlation in patients with stages II-IV of the disease. Hence, in our group of patients the determination of cytotoxicity preoperatively yielded no prognostic information beyond that already available from staging. However, those stage II-IV patients that survived for 1 year or more after the diagnosis and cytotoxicity tests, showed a significant correlation between cytotoxicity and survival.

[The role of conservative resection in surgical treatment of patients with lung cancer]. / Rol' ékonomnykh rezektsii v khirurgicheskom lechenii bol'nykh rakom legkogo.

The immediate and end results of 56 limited segmental resections of the lung (palliative--12 and radical--44) for cancer were studied. Postoperative mortality was 6.8% and five-year survival--50.0%. It is suggested that surgery for peripheral cancer without regional metastasis should be recommended for tumors under 2 cm in diameter in poor-risk patients. The procedure should be preferred for treatment of adenocarcinoma.

[Histological structure and tumor size as prognostic factors in the surgical treatment of patients with peripheral lung cancer]. / Gistologicheskaia struktura i velichina opukholi kak faktory prognoza pri khirurgicheskom lechenii bol'nykh perifericheskim rakom legkogo.

An analysis of long-term (5 years) results of treatment of 444 patients with peripheral lung cancer has shown that in adenocarcinoma the tumor size is of no significance for prognosis of the disease while in squamous cell carcinoma of more than 5 cm diameter the prognosis is significantly worse (almost 2 times). Since the squamous cell carcinoma is known to be the less biologically active form of lung carcinomas the authors consider that the main task is the organization of measures for early detection of this kind of tumors less than 5 cm in diameter.

[Effect of tumor size and site on the prognosis in patients subjected to surgery for peripheral cancer of the lung]. / Vliianie velichiny i lokalizatsii opukholi na prognoz u bol'nykh, operirovannykh po povodu perifericheskogo raka legkogo.

An analysis of 5-year end results of the surgical treatment of 444 patients with peripheral cancer of the lung failed to establish any correlation between tumor size and prognosis in cases of lymph node involvement. In metastasis-free patients, the best results were obtained with tumor diameters under 2 cm regardless of their localization in lung tissue and with 2--4.9 cm tumors embedded in lung parenchyma. The results were somewhat worse in cases of tumors with diameters of 5.0 cm and more located deep in lung tissue as well as with tumors measuring more than 2 cm and extending through the visceral pleura and adjacent lobes. The worst end results were recorded in cases of tumors larger than 2 cm which extended into the adjacent structures of the thoracic cavity.

[Growth rate as one of the characteristics of peripheral lung cancer]. / Temp rosta kak odna iz kharakteristik perifericheskogo raka legkogo.

A correlation between the rate of growth of peripheral cancer of the lung and patient's age was established by a study involving 262 cases. The duration of tumor presence in the body appeared to be a factor influencing the process of tumor dissemination to regional lymph nodes. An analysis of the long-term results of surgical treatment of 127 patients yielded a significant correlation between the time of doubling of tumor size and survival within the first two years after operation. At later stages, survival rates tended to rise in patients with slowly-growing tumors, with the exception of those with the tumor doubling time under 20 days and a bad prognosis.