1. Adjuvant TNF-a therapy to electrochemotherapy with intravenous cisplatin in murine sarcoma exerts synergistic antitumor effectivenessMaja Čemažar, Vesna Todorović, Janez Ščančar, Urša Lampreht Tratar, Monika Savarin, Urška Kamenšek, Simona Kranjc Brezar, Andrej Cör, Gregor Serša, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: Background. Electrochemotherapy is a tumour ablation modality, based on electroporation of the cell membrane, allowing non-permeant anticancer drugs to enter the cell, thus augmenting their cytotoxicity by orders of magnitude. In preclinical studies, bleomycin and cisplatin proved to be the most suitable for clinical use. Intravenous administration of cisplatin for electrochemotherapy is still not widely accepted in the clinics, presumably due to its lower antitumor effectiveness, but adjuvant therapy by immunomodulatory or vascular-targeting agents could provide a way for its potentiation. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore the possibility of adjuvant tumour necrosis factor % (TNF-%) therapy to potentiate antitumor effectiveness of electrochemotherapy with intravenous cisplatin administration in murine sarcoma. Materials and methods. In vivo study was designed to evaluate the effect of TNF-% applied before or after the electrochemotherapy and to evaluate the effect of adjuvant TNF-% on electrochemotherapy with different cisplatin doses. Results. A synergistic interaction between TNF-% and electrochemotherapy was observed. Administration of TNF-% before the electrochemotherapy resulted in longer tumour growth delay and increased tumour curability, and was significantly more effective than TNF-% administration after the electrochemotherapy. Tumour analysis revealed increased platinum content in tumours, TNF-% induced blood vessel damage and increased tumour necrosis after combination of TNF-% and electrochemotherapy, indicating an anti-vascular action of TNF-%. In addition, immunomodulatory effect might have contributed to curability rate of the tumours. Conclusion. Adjuvant intratumoural TNF-% therapy synergistically contributes to electrochemotherapy with intravenous cisplatin administration. Due to its potentiation at all doses of cisplatin, the combined treatment is predicted to be effective also in tumours, where the drug concentration is suboptimal or in bigger tumours, where electrochemotherapy with intravenous cisplatin is not expected to be sufficiently effective.
Keywords: electrochemotherapy, TNF, adjuvant immunotherapy, cisplatin
Published in DiRROS: 17.04.2024; Views: 102; Downloads: 22
 Full text (978,26 KB) |
2. Effectiveness of adjuvant trastuzumab in daily clinical practiceErika Matos, Branko Zakotnik, Cvetka Grašič-Kuhar, 2014, original scientific article Abstract: Background. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer is an entity with aggressive behaviour. One year of adjuvant trastuzumab significantly improves the disease free survival in the range of 40-50% and reduces the risk of dying from HER2 positive breast cancer by one third. Adjuvant treatment with trastuzumab became available in Slovenia in 2005 and the aim of this study is to explore, if the exceptional results reported in adjuvant clinical trials are achieved also in daily clinical practice. Patients and methods. An analysis of tumour and patient characteristics, type of treatment and outcome (relapse free and overall survival) of 313 patients (median age 52 years) treated at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana in years 2005-2009 was performed. Results. Median follow-up was 4.4 years. Sixty-one patients relapsed and 24 died. Three and four years relapse free survival was 84.2% and 80.8% and the overall survival was 94.4% and 92.5%, respectively. Independent prognostic factors for relapse were tumour grade (HR 2.10; 95% CI 1.07-4.14; p = 0.031) and nodal stage (HR 1.35; 1.16-1.56; p < 0.0001) and for the overall survival nodal stage only (HR 1.36; 1.05-1.78; p = 0.021). Conclusions. The outcome in patients with adjuvant trastuzumab in daily clinical practice, treated by medical oncologists, is comparable to results obtained in international adjuvant studies.
Keywords: breast cancer, trastuzumab, adjuvant, clinical practice
Published in DiRROS: 11.04.2024; Views: 108; Downloads: 23
Full text (549,44 KB) |
3. Capecitabine in adjuvant radiochemotherapy for gastric adenocarcinomaIrena Oblak, Marija Skoblar Vidmar, Franc Anderluh, Vaneja Velenik, Ana Jeromen, Jasna But-Hadžić, 2014, original scientific article Abstract: Background. In patients with non-metastatic gastric cancer surgery still remains the treatment of choice. Postoperative radiochemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin significantly improves the treatment outcome. The oral fluoropyrimidines, such as capecitabine, mimic continuous 5-fluorouracil infusion, are at least as effective as 5-fluorouracil, and such treatment is more comfortable for the patients. Patients and methods. In the period from October 2006 to December 2009, 101 patients with gastric cancer in stages Ib-IIIc were treated with postoperative chemoradiation with capecitabine. Distal subtotal resection of the stomach was performed in 46.3%, total resection in 50.5% and multivisceral resection in 3.2% of patients. The main endpoints of this study were loco-regional control (LRC), disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS). The rates of acute side-effects were also estimated. Results. Seventy-seven percent of patients completed the treatment according to the protocol. The median followup time of all patients was 3.9 years (range: 0.4-6.3 years) and in survivors it was 4.7 years (range: 3.2-6.3 years). No death occurred due to the therapy. Acute toxicity, such as nausea and vomiting, stomatitis, diarrhoea, hand-foot syndrome and infections of grade 3 or 4, occurred in 5%, 1%, 2%, 8.9% and 18.8% of patients, respectively. On the close-out date 63.4% patients were still alive and with no signs of the disease. The 4-years follow-up survey showed that LRC, DFS, DSS and OS were 95.5%, 69.2%, 70.7%, and 66.2%, respectively. Higher pN-stage and splenectomy were found to be independent prognostic factors for all four types of survival and perineural invasion and lower treatment intensity for DFS, DSS and OS.
Keywords: gastric cancer, adjuvant therapy, radiochemotherapy
Published in DiRROS: 11.04.2024; Views: 84; Downloads: 17
Full text (519,56 KB) |
4. |
5. |
