BACKGROUND Treatment options are scarce in pretreated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. RAD001, an oral inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), has shown phase I efficacy in NSCLC. METHODS Stage IIIb or IV NSCLC patients, with two or fewer prior chemotherapy regimens, one platinum based (stratum 1) or both chemotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor ty...

BACKGROUND The use of cetuximab in combination with platinum (P) plus 5-fluorouracil (F) has previously been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of metastatic squamous cell cancer of head and neck (SCCHN). We investigated the efficacy and outcome of this protocol as a first-line treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic disease. We evaluated overall-survival (OS), progressio...

PURPOSE Oral fluoropyrimidine (S-1, capecitabine) has been considered as an important part of various regimens. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of S-1-based therapy versus capecitabine -based therapy in gastrointestinal cancers. METHODS Eligible studies were identified from Pubmed, EMBASE. Additionally, abstracts presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conferenc...

BACKGROUND Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a heterogeneous group of tumors, and approximately 40-50% of patients with STS develop metastatic disease. The median overall survival of those patients was 12 months and their 5-year survival rate was 8%. Therefore, study on more effective treatment, especially the targeting therapies, is urgently needed. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety...

BACKGROUND Panitumumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting epidermal growth factor receptor, is used in combination with chemotherapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, the effects of panitumumab in combination with irrinotecan-based chemotherapy remain uncertain. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of combination tr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE For metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with controlled extrathoracic disease after systemic treatment, stable or progressive primary lung lesions may cause respiratory symptoms and increase comorbidities. In the present study, we sought to investigate whether aggressive palliative thoracic radiotherapy (RT) can enhance local control and improve the sur...

BACKGROUND Low-molecular-weight fucoidan (LMF) is widely used as a food supplement for cancer patients. However, all of the studies are in vitro or were conducted using mice. Therefore, powerful clinical evidence for LMF use is relatively weak. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of LMF as a supplemental therapy to chemo-target agents in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. MET...

Bendamustine, active in multiple myeloma (MM), is a bifunctional mechlorethamine derivative with alkylating properties. Bortezomib, approved to treat MM, is effective in combination with alkylators. The tolerability and efficacy of bendamustine plus bortezomib in relapsed/refractory MM was assessed in an open-label, dose-escalating, phase I/II study. Patients aged ≥18 years received intravenous...

Comprehensive characterization of individual patients' tumour is important to realize personalized medicine. Here, we investigate to identify subsets that benefit from capecitabine plus RAD001 in advanced gastric cancer (GC) patients by comprehensive high-throughput genomic analysis (nCounter assay). Archival tumour tissue blocks, if possible, were collected at phase II trial of capecitabine pl...

BACKGROUND Amrubicin, a new anthracycline agent, has shown high activity for small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) in previous studies. However, a combination regimen with amrubicin and platinum has been investigated little. On the basis of previous phase I study, we conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy and the safety of amrubicin and carboplatin for elderly patients with SCLC. METHODS Chemo...