Although rare, clinicians and patients must be aware that therapy related malignancies, specifically acute myeloid leukemia (AML), can occur as a complication of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Vigilance for signs and symptoms is appropriate. AML with t (8;16) is a specific translocation leading to formation of a fusion protein (MYST3/CREBBP). The MYST3/CREBBP AML tends to develop with...

Based on meta-analyses and the results of several trials, adjuvant chemotherapy is currently recommended for stage II and stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after complete tumor resection, and may be considered for patients with stage IB NSCLC ≥ 4 cm. As individualized therapy becomes integrated into the care of advanced NSCLC, its role in early stage NSCLC and, in particular...

BACKGROUND Choice of treatment for early-stage breast cancer depends on many factors, including the size and stage of the cancer, the woman's age, comorbid conditions, and perhaps the costs of treatment. We compared the costs of all medical care for women with early-stage breast cancer cases treated by breast-conserving therapy (BCT) or mastectomy. METHODS A total of 1675 women 35 years old o...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to assess the role of adjuvant therapy in stage I-III gallbladder cancer (GBC) patients who have undergone R0 resection. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical data were collected on 441 consecutive patients who underwent R0 resection for stage I-III GBC. Eligible patients were classified into adjuvant therapy and surveillance only groups. Propensity score matchin...

Compared with the breast cancer risk women in the general population have, breast cancer survivors have a substantially higher risk of developing a second primary contralateral breast cancer. Adjuvant hormonal therapy reduces this risk, but preliminary data indicate that it may also increase risk of hormone receptor-negative contralateral tumors. We conducted a population-based nested case-cont...

Determining the optimal individual adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer patients is a challenging undertaking because it requires translating data from clinical trials that have involved thousands of patients into a highly individualized, risk-adjusted approach for the patient at hand. Choosing adjuvant therapy for women with breast cancer includes consideration of four issues: A) evalua...

BACKGROUND In this study, the potential impact of a new national guideline for adjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer (introduced in The Netherlands in 1998) was assessed, as well as the modifications of this guideline, issued in 2001. Both the change in total number of patients eligible for adjuvant therapy, as well as the cost-effectiveness of the changed clinical management of these pati...

Background: Low-grade astrocytomas are the most common pediatric central nervous system tumours. They can occur anywhere in the central nervous system and are often challenging to treat. Methods: A retrospective review to compare the response to therapy for spinal cord astrocytomas to that of brain astrocytomas. Results: Five patients had low-grade spinal cord astrocytoma and 43 had low-grade b...