ABSTRACT
Hemolysis is an uncommon and usually late complication of malignancy, and very rarely the presenting feature. Cancer-associated hemolysis may be immune-mediated, or may result from thrombotic microangiopathy accompanied by thrombocytopenia. We describe an unusual case of isolated hemolysis in the setting of occult metastatic breast cancer. The patient initially presented with symptomatic anemia, with evidence of hemolysis but with negative direct antiglobulin testing and a normal platelet count. Subsequent investigation discovered metastatic adenocarcinoma of the breast involving bone marrow. Hemolysis worsened despite initial treatment with cytotoxic chemotherapy and a trial of corticosteroids, but later resolved with aromatase inhibitor therapy.
ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Patients with type 2 diabetes have increased cancer risk and cancer-related mortality, which can be reduced by metformin treatment. However, it is unclear whether metformin can also modulate clinical outcomes in patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A meta-analysis of 20 publications that included 13,008 subjects was performed to investigate the association between metformin and overall survival (OS) as well as cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: We found that there was a relative survival benefit associated with metformin treatment compared with treatment with other glucose-lowering medications in both OS and CSS (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55-0.79 and HR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.46-0.84, respectively). These associations were also observed in subgroups by cancer type and country. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that metformin is the drug of choice in the treatment of patients with cancer and concurrent type 2 diabetes.
Subject(s)
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/drug therapy , Hypoglycemic Agents/therapeutic use , Metformin/therapeutic use , Neoplasms/mortality , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/complications , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/mortality , Humans , Neoplasms/drug therapyABSTRACT
Treatment options for patients with lower risk non-del(5q) myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who fail erythroid stimulating agents are restricted to one of the hypomethylating drugs with an expected response rate of approximately 50%. Ezatiostat HCl, an agent with the potential for producing multi-lineage responses in this population is currently in clinical investigation phase. This case report describes a 77 year old male who received less than two cycles of therapy with ezatiostat HCl which had to be aborted due to intolerable side effects, but which produced a sustained normalization of all three blood counts. This trilineage response has now lasted for more than a year. Interestingly, the patient began with a del(5q) abnormality and responded briefly to lenalidomide. Upon relapse of the anemia, a bone marrow showed the disappearance of the del(5q) but the appearance of a new clonal abnormality t(2;3). Given that the patient had a complete cytogenetic response to a truncated exposure to lenalidomide followed by a trilineage response to an even briefer course of ezatiostat HCl suggests a potential role for ezatiostat HCl in del(5q) patients who relapse following lenalidomide.
Subject(s)
Erythroid Cells/drug effects , Glutathione/analogs & derivatives , Myelodysplastic Syndromes/drug therapy , Administration, Oral , Aged , Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use , Chromosome Deletion , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2/genetics , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3/genetics , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5/genetics , Glutathione/administration & dosage , Hemoglobins/metabolism , Humans , Lenalidomide , Male , Myelodysplastic Syndromes/genetics , Remission Induction , Thalidomide/analogs & derivatives , Thalidomide/therapeutic use , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a clonal lymphoid malignancy that affects over 7000 patients in the United States annually. The disease remains one of the great success stories in the recent history of cancer treatment. More than 80% of HL patients will be expected to be long-term survivors because of recent advances in radiation therapy and combined chemotherapy. However, for the subset of patients who relapse after initial therapy, HL remains a challenging disease. Indeed, for patients who relapse after salvage high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant, effective therapeutic options remain limited, and further new therapies are warranted. This article provides a review of the current literature regarding salvage therapy for HL.
