Patient-Reported Outcomes after Monitoring, Surgery, or Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Robust data on patient-reported outcome measures comparing treatments for clinically localized prostate cancer are lacking. We investigated the effects of active monitoring, radical prostatectomy, and radical radiotherapy with hormones on patient-reported outcomes. METHODS: We compared patient-reported outcomes among 1643 men in the Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment (ProtecT) trial who completed questionnaires before diagnosis, at 6 and 12 months after randomization, and annually thereafter. Patients completed validated measures that assessed urinary, bowel, and sexual function and specific effects on quality of life, anxiety and depression, and general health. Cancer-related quality of life was assessed at 5 years. Complete 6-year data were analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: The rate of questionnaire completion during follow-up was higher than 85% for most measures. Of the three treatments, prostatectomy had the greatest negative effect on sexual function and urinary continence, and although there was some recovery, these outcomes remained worse in the prostatectomy group than in the other groups throughout the trial. The negative effect of radiotherapy on sexual function was greatest at 6 months, but sexual function then recovered somewhat and was stable thereafter; radiotherapy had little effect on urinary continence. Sexual and urinary function declined gradually in the active-monitoring group. Bowel function was worse in the radiotherapy group at 6 months than in the other groups but then recovered somewhat, except for the increasing frequency of bloody stools; bowel function was unchanged in the other groups. Urinary voiding and nocturia were worse in the radiotherapy group at 6 months but then mostly recovered and were similar to the other groups after 12 months. Effects on quality of life mirrored the reported changes in function. No significant differences were observed among the groups in measures of anxiety, depression, or general health-related or cancer-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis of patient-reported outcomes after treatment for localized prostate cancer, patterns of severity, recovery, and decline in urinary, bowel, and sexual function and associated quality of life differed among the three groups. (Funded by the U.K. National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Program; ProtecT Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN20141297 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02044172 .).

Estimating the costs of the vaccine supply chain and service delivery for selected districts in Kenya and Tanzania.

Having data on the costs of the immunization system can provide decision-makers with information to benchmark the costs when evaluating the impact of new technologies or programmatic innovations. This paper estimated the supply chain and immunization service delivery costs and cost per dose in selected districts in Kenya and Tanzania. We also present operational data describing the supply chain and service delivery points (SDPs). To estimate the supply chain costs, we collected resource-use data for the cold chain, distribution system, and health worker time and per diems paid. We also estimated the service delivery costs, which included the time cost of health workers to provide immunization services, and per diems and transport costs for outreach sessions. Data on the annual quantities of vaccines distributed to each facility, and the occurrence and duration of stockouts were collected from stock registers. These data were collected from the national store, 2 regional and 4 district stores, and 12 SDPs in each country for 2012. Cost per dose for the supply chain and immunization service delivery were estimated. The average annual costs per dose at the SDPs were $0.34 (standard deviation (s.d.) $0.18) for Kenya when including only the vaccine supply chain costs, and $1.33 (s.d. $0.82) when including immunization service delivery costs. In Tanzania, these costs were $0.67 (s.d. $0.35) and $2.82 (s.d. $1.64), respectively. Both countries experienced vaccine stockouts in 2012, bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine being more likely to be stocked out in Kenya, and oral poliovirus vaccine in Tanzania. When stockouts happened, they usually lasted for at least one month. Tanzania made investments in 2011 in preparation for planned vaccine introductions, and their supply chain cost per dose is expected to decline with the new vaccine introductions. Immunization service delivery costs are a significant portion of the total costs at the SDPs.

Blood cyclosporine pharmacokinetics in patients undergoing marrow transplantation. Influence of age, obesity, and hematocrit.

Blood cyclosporine pharmacokinetics were studied in 85 patients aged 1-52 (median: 22) years undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of hematologic disease. Pharmacokinetic studies were carried out during the first two weeks posttransplant after an intravenous dose of 2.1-4.4 mg/kg. Whole-blood cyclosporine concentrations were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Multiple stepwise regression analysis indicated that age (P less than 0.001) and hematocrit (P less than 0.05) correlated with cyclosporine clearance (CL) while steady-state volume of distribution (Vss) did not correlate with any of the factors studied. Cyclosporine CL significantly differed among nonobese patients in different age groups; patients less than or equal to 10 years old had a higher mean CL (13.1 ml/min/kg) than patients 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, or greater than 40 years old (mean CL: 8.5-10.3 ml/min/kg) (P less than 0.05). No significant differences in cyclosporine CL and Vss were observed between obese (greater than 125% ideal body weight) patients and age-matched nonobese patients. Hematocrit values (range: 24-39) were inversely correlated with cyclosporine CL, which suggests that red blood cells function as important ligands in cyclosporine binding. These results show that blood cyclosporine CL is higher in marrow transplant recipients than in solid organ transplant recipients and that these differences may be related to lower hematocrits in marrow transplant recipients compared with solid organ transplant recipients. When compared with previously published serum cyclosporine CL data, our findings suggest that age-related changes in CL are primarily related to changes in plasma protein binding and that obesity does not significantly alter cyclosporine CL and Vss.

Monitoring of cyclosporine therapy with in vitro biological assays.

We examined the correlation between cyclosporine (CsA) levels and in vitro assays of immune function and hematopoiesis. Mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR), mitogen responses, suppressor cell (SC), cell-mediated lympholysis (CML), and erythroid colony (EC) assays were studied in dogs, and in vitro megakaryocytopoiesis was studied in mice. Serum CsA concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. After oral or intramuscular CsA dosing, lymphocyte proliferation, as measured by MLR, inversely correlated with in vivo serum CsA concentration. MLR responses decreased rapidly, and nearly complete inhibition coincided with peak CsA levels. While CsA concentration-related suppression of lymphocyte stimulation was also observed in mitogen-stimulated cultures, results were less predictable and similar to results with in vitro CsA addition, and higher serum CsA levels were required to achieve comparable suppression. In vivo serum or in vitro CsA levels greater than 300 ng/ml completely inhibited the development of cytotoxic effector cells but had no measureable effect on the expression of suppressor cells in the same cultures. Furthermore, CsA serum also caused concentration-related inhibition of EC growth. The addition of human embryonic kidney-conditioned medium, however, abrogated CsA-related inhibition of EC growth, which suggested that CsA indirectly inhibited EC growth, presumably by interfering with CsA-sensitive accessory cells. This was supported by studies in an in vitro model of murine megakaryocytopoiesis. In normal conditioned medium, megakaryocyte colonies were unaffected by the presence of CsA. However, when cells were cultured in conditioned medium prepared in the presence of CsA, profound inhibition of megakaryocyte growth was observed. These studies show that biologic assays can be used reliably to measure concentration-related changes in immunosuppressive activity of CsA. Further clinical studies are needed to evaluate the usefulness of pharmacodynamic monitoring of CsA therapy.

Renal cyclosporine clearance in marrow transplant recipients: age-related variation.

Cyclosporine is extensively metabolized in the liver and is subject to biliary elimination. Although only a small amount of the drug is eliminated unchanged in the urine, urine concentrations of the drug are much higher than blood or serum concentrations known to be associated with renal toxicity. Renal clearance (CL) of cyclosporine may be a sensitive correlate of nephrotoxicity, but renal CL studies of cyclosporine have not been reported in transplant patients. Therefore, we studied the renal CL of cyclosporine in 21 patients (median age, 27 yr) with hematologic malignancies undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. All patients received cyclosporine for prophylaxis or treatment of acute graft vs host disease. At the time of the study, all patients had normal renal function, as determined by serum creatinine concentration. Urine and serum cyclosporine concentrations were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Renal cyclosporine CL in different patients ranged from 1.8 to 79.8 mL/min. However, serial renal CL studies performed one week apart in two patients showed minimal intrapatient variability. Patients 25 years old or younger had a higher mean renal cyclosporine CL (39.7 mL/min) than older patients (17.9 mL/min) (P less than .05). These data show that renal cyclosporine CL is related to age and that renal CL in marrow transplant recipients is higher than the reported mean value in non-marrow-transplant patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age-dependent cyclosporine: pharmacokinetics in marrow transplant recipients.

We evaluated the effect of age on cyclosporine pharmacokinetics in 69 nonobese patients aged 10 months to 56 years (median 22 years) undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for treatment of aplastic anemia or hematologic malignancy. Cyclosporine pharmacokinetics were studied during the first 2 posttransplant weeks after an intravenous dose of 2.6 to 3.5 mg/kg. Serum cyclosporine concentrations were measured by HPLC. Cyclosporine concentration-time data were fitted to a two-compartment model with a nonlinear regression program. There was a significant inverse linear correlation between age and both total systemic clearance (CL) (r = 0.42; P less than 0.001) and volume of distribution at steady-state (Vss) (r = 0.33; P less than 0.01). Mean (+/- SE) cyclosporine CL was 82 +/- 21, 45 +/- 5, 38 +/- 9, 44 +/- 8, and 20 +/- 3 ml/min/kg and mean cyclosporine Vss was 34 +/- 11, 28 +/- 10, 15 +/- 4, 14 +/- 5, and 4.7 +/- 0.7 L/kg in patients 0 to 10 (n = 12), 11 to 20 (n = 19), 21 to 30 (n = 12), 31 to 40 (n = 17), and greater than 40 (n = 9) years old, respectively. Patients 0 to 10 years old had a significantly higher cyclosporine CL than those 11 to 40 or greater than 40 years old and also had a significantly larger Vss than those greater than 40 yrs old (P less than 0.05). Age-related differences in CL or Vss were also observed when these parameters were normalized by body surface area.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)