Effect of pregnancy on the pharmacokinetics of paclitaxel: a case report.

Breast cancer during pregnancy is increasingly common as women delay childbearing until later in life. Safe administration of adjuvant chemotherapy during pregnancy has been reported. Physiologic and metabolic changes during pregnancy could alter the pharmacokinetics of these agents. This is a pilot study to prospectively study the pharmacokinetics of chemotherapeutic agents during pregnancy. Herein, we report the initial results with paclitaxel in the first patient.

Acute bilateral pulmonary emboli occurring while on adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy with anastrozole: Case report and review of the literature.

Hormonal therapy is the mainstay of adjuvant treatment for women with early-stage estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Recently, the aromatase inhibitors have moved to the forefront of adjuvant hormonal therapy, however, the adverse effects of these agents are not yet fully understood. It is generally accepted that tamoxifen, but not the aromatase inhibitors, is associated with an increased risk of thrombosis in women with breast cancer. Studies comparing aromatase inhibitors to tamoxifen in the adjuvant setting have reported a lower rate of venous thromboembolism with the aromatase inhibitors, yet the incidence of venous thromboembolism with these new agents is higher than that expected in the general population. Here we report a case of acute bilateral pulmonary emboli occurring while on adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy with anastrozole, and review the literature on the incidence of venous thromboembolism during the use of aromatase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting.

Parenteral estrogens for prostate cancer: can a new route of administration overcome old toxicities?

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the mainstay of management of advanced-stage prostate cancer and recently has been shown to improve survival when administered in earlier stages of the disease. The oncologic benefits of ADT might be partially offset, however, by a reduction in quality of life because of adverse effects. In addition to the well-recognized adverse consequences of ADT, recent evidence suggests that ADT is associated with dyslipidemia, impaired glucose metabolism, adverse body compositional changes, and osteoporosis. Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop less toxic forms of ADT. A novel approach to this problem is the use of estrogen to induce androgen suppression. Whereas oral estrogen therapy is known to be associated with thromboembolic complications, studies of parenteral estrogen in men with prostate cancer suggest that the use of parenteral estrogen achieves target androgen suppression, does not adversely affect prothrombotic protein levels, and is not associated with adverse metabolic, skeletal, and body compositional changes when compared with conventional ADT. Herein, we review the data for parenteral estrogen use in prostate cancer, the antineoplastic mechanisms of action of estrogen in prostate cancer, the potential advantages of parenteral estrogen compared with conventional ADT, and the remaining barriers in the use of parenteral estrogen in prostate cancer.