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Recurrence Free Survival (recurrence + free_survival)

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Medical Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Autoimmunity as a prognostic factor in melanoma patients treated with adjuvant low-dose interferon alpha

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 11 2007
Imke Satzger
Abstract Interferon alpha is used for the adjuvant treatment of malignant melanoma at different dosages (high-, intermediate-, low-dose therapy). Only a minority of patients might benefit from this therapy, and markers to identify such patients are missing. A recent study suggested that melanoma patients developing autoantibodies or clinical manifestations of autoimmunity during adjuvant high-dose interferon alpha treatment had a significant survival benefit. We retrospectively reviewed 134 melanoma patients from our institution treated with adjuvant low-dose interferon alpha therapy and correlated the development of autoimmune diseases with prognosis. Interferon (IFN) therapy was routinely monitored by history, physical examination and laboratory tests before, after the first month and then after every 3 months of therapy. During a median follow up of 46.0 months (8.5,79.0 months) 28 patients (20.9%) suffered from recurrences and melanoma related deaths occurred in 16 patients (11.9%). In 20 patients (14.9%) autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) was diagnosed during IFN therapy, one of these 20 patients developed rheumatoid arthritis later while continuing IFN therapy. Other autoimmune diseases were not observed. In 2 patients (one with AIT and one with arthritis) the autoimmune disease led to discontinuation of IFN therapy, in the other patients AIT remained subclinical or responded well to treatment while IFN therapy was continued. Kaplan,Meier analyses revealed a significant better recurrence free survival and a trend for a better overall survival for patients with AIT. Thus, autoimmunity triggered by low-dose IFN therapy appears to indicate an improved prognosis and should encourage continuation of IFN therapy. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases is safe and feasible in elderly patients

JOURNAL OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
Dietmar Tamandl MD
Abstract Background Surgery for colorectal liver metastases is part of the endeavor to cure metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy increases progression free survival in resectable patients. The safety and feasibility of this concept has not been investigated in elderly patients. Methods We performed a comparative analysis of data from 244 patients who were resected for colorectal liver metastases between 1999 and 2004 at our institution. Seventy patients were aged 70 or older; they form the basis of this analysis. Results Twenty-nine patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy (XELOX), 19; 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), 10) prior to surgery. XELOX was associated with higher response rates to chemotherapy (CR,+,PR: XELOX 68% vs. 5-FU 0%, P,=,0.001), and responding patients had a better overall (OS, P,<,0.001) and recurrence free survival (RFS, P,<,0.001) compared to others. Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was the only factor on multivariate analysis predicting longer OS and RFS (P,=,0.01 and P,=,0.001). Conclusion Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be administered safely in patients older than 70 years and appears to be effective in prolonging long-term outcome. Patients responding to neoadjuvant treatment have a significantly better prognosis after liver resection. J. Surg. Oncol. 2009;100:364,371. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

An Early Regional Experience with Expansion of Milan Criteria for Liver Transplant Recipients

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 9 2010
J. J. Guiteau
The Milan Criteria (MC) showed that orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) was an effective treatment for patients with nonresectable, nonmetastatic HCC. There is growing evidence that expanding the MC does not adversely affect patient or allograft survival following OLT. The adult OLT programs in UNOS Region 4 reached an agreement allowing lesions outside MC (one lesion <6 cm, ,3 lesions, none >5 cm and total diameter <9 cm,[R4 T3]) to receive the same exception points as MC lesions. Kaplan,Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to compare survival data. Chi-squared and Mann,Whitney U tests were used to compare patient data. A p - value of <0.05 was considered significant. All statistical analyses were performed on SPSS 15 (SPSS, Chicago, IL). Four hundred and forty-five patients were transplanted for HCC (363-MC and 82-R4 T3). Patient demographics were found to be similar between the two groups. Three year patient, allograft and recurrence free survival between MC and R4 T3 were found to be 72.9% and 77.1%, 71% and 70.2% and 90.5% and 86.9%, respectively (all p > 0.05). We report the first regionalized multicenter, prospective study showing benefit of OLT in patients exceeding MC based on preoperative imaging. [source]

Treatment outcome after radiotherapy alone for patients with Stage I,II nasopharyngeal carcinoma

CANCER, Issue 1 2003
Daniel T. T. Chua M.B.Ch.B.
Abstract BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to review the long-term treatment outcome of patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 1997 Stage I,II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who were treated with radiotherapy alone. METHODS One hundred forty-one patients with NPC had AJCC 1997 Stage I,II disease (Stage I NPC, 50 patients; Stage II NPC, 91 patients) after restaging and were treated with radiotherapy alone between September 1989 and August 1991. Fifty-seven patients had lymph node disease, and the median greatest lymph node dimension was 3 cm. The median dose to the nasopharynx was 65 grays. The median follow-up was 82 months (range, 4,141 months). RESULTS Patients who had Stage I disease had an excellent outcome after radiotherapy. The 10-year disease specific survival, recurrence free survival (RFS), local RFS, lymph node RFS, and distant metastasis free survival rates were 98%, 94%, 96%, 98%, and 98%, respectively. Patients who had Stage II disease had a worse outcome compared with patients who had Stage I disease: The corresponding 10-year survival rates were 60%, 51%, 78%, 93%, and 64%. The differences all were significant except for lymph node control. Among patients who had Stage II disease, those with T1,T2N1 NPC appeared to have a worse outcome compared with patients who had T2N0 NPC. No significant differences in survival rates were found with respect to lymph node size or status for patients with T1,T2N1 disease. CONCLUSIONS When patients with NPC had their disease staged according to the AJCC 1997 classification system, patients with Stage I disease had an excellent outcome after they were treated with radiotherapy alone. Patients with Stage II disease, especially those with T1,T2N1 disease, had a relatively worse outcome, and more aggressive therapy, such as combined-modality treatment, may be indicated for those patients. Cancer 2003;98:74,80. © 2003 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.11485 [source]