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Volume 4, Number 7 (July 2007) | |||||
Letter from the Editor |
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425 |
Community-based investigators: our vast talent pool The West Clinic, Memphis, TN Increasingly, community oncologists serve as principal investigators for industry-sponsored trials and their own investigator-initiated trials. This phenomenon represents a growing and welcome trend away from the traditional model of single-site academic center trials. While there is nothing wrong with the old system, a great need exists for more community-based practitioners to design, oversee, and participate in research protocols. This issue features several reports from leading clinical investigators in diverse diseases that are of interest to every oncologist.
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Original Contributions |
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431 |
Concurrent chemoradiation followed by esophageal resection vs chemoradiation alone for localized esophageal cancer Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, TN; Spartanburg Regional Medical Center Spartanburg, SC, and Wellstar Cancer Research, Marietta, GA Patients with localized (clinical stages I–III), potentially resectable carcinoma of the esophagus received concurrent chemotherapy (paclitaxel/carboplatin/infusional 5-fluorouracil) and radiation therapy (45 Gy) for 6 weeks. After restaging, patients who remained surgical candidates were randomly assigned to receive either definitive esophageal resection or continued chemoradiation to a definitive radiation therapy dose (64.8 Gy). In this multicenter community-based study, combined modality therapy was curative in approximately one third of patients with localized esophageal cancer. Both combined modality approaches evaluated in the study produced similar results; however, a successful randomized trial is required to define optimal treatment.
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Chronic low dose-intensity pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for advanced malignancies Joan Karnell Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; and PharmaScribe, LLC, Skillman, NJ This retrospective analysis of patients who were treated with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) at a single center between 2000 and 2004 revealed that approximately one half were treated with a chronic, low dose-intensity regimen of PLD (20 mg/m² Q2W). Regardless of tumor type, this dosage regimen appeared to be well tolerated, with no cardiotoxicity reported, despite high cumulative doses in many patients, and few reports of mucositis or hand-foot syndrome. Prospective studies in larger populations are warranted to further examine the efficacy and safety of this dosage regimen of PLD in specific tumor types.
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Controversies in Patient Care |
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447 |
Treatment options for the advanced asymptomatic prostate cancer patient: an active immunotherapy approach North Shore Prostate Cancer Consultation and Treatment Service, A Division of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates, East Setauket, NY A significant portion of men with advanced metastatic prostate cancer are asymptomatic. Optimal treatment approaches for these patients are still being debated. Currently, docetaxel is the only approved chemotherapy shown to increase survival in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with metastatic disease. However, the novel sipuleucel-T is an investigational immunotherapeutic approach to treating metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer. Because of its mild toxicity profile, sipuleucel-T may be especially appealing to the asymptomatic patient.
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Managing Side Effects |
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455 |
Pegfilgrastim-induced bone pain: incidence, risk factors, and management in a community practice Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP), East Syracuse, NY, and University of Rochester Cancer Center CCOP Research Base, Rochester, NY Pegfilgrastim administration has helped oncologists to administer full-dose myelosuppressive chemotherapy and has facilitated the use of dose-dense chemotherapy. Bone pain—the major toxicity of pegfilgrastim—may negatively affect patients’ quality of life and preclude further administration of this growth factor. This community-based study found that pegfilgrastim-induced bone pain is a significant problem, is unpredictable, and is often refractory to administered analgesics, including narcotics. | ||||
COMMENTARY The West Clinic, Memphis, TN
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ESA Update |
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453 |
Clarifying risks reported in a meta-analysis Center for Practical Health Reform, Atlantic Beach, FL
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Let doctors make the medical decisions The West Clinic, Memphis, TN We need balanced payment reform as well as transparency in treatment.
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Adverse Events Alert |
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461 |
Hematologic malignancy risk with granulocyte colony-stimulating factors Division of Hematology/Oncology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Division of Geriatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; 4 VA Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy Research, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL
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Brief Communications |
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462 |
Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans case report: when drug therapy can obviate the need for surgery Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
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464 |
Liposomal doxorubicin extravasation Grant Medical Center, Columbus, OH
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Washington Update |
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466 |
Two conversations Community Oncology Alliance, Memphis, TN
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Technology |
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468 |
In the loop: building your own Intranet
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© 2007 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. |
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