Background: The standard treatment of patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma is concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by chemotherapy. The voluminous number of patients with this disease and the constraints of limited facilities to accommodate such number of patients in our institution have brought about treatment modifications. This pilot study compared the 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with advanced nasopharyngeal cancer who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy as induct ion fol lowed by chemotherapy ver sus chemotherapy fol lowed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Patients and Methods: From 2005 to 2007, 30 patients with biopsy-proven stage III to IV-B nasopharyngeal cancer seen at the Medical Oncology Outpatient/Inpatient unit of the Philippine General Hospital were randomized to receive cisplatin (25 mg/m2 D1-4) on weeks 1, 4 and 7 of radiotherapy (70 Gy for 7 weeks) followed by cisplatin (20 mg/m2 D1-4) and 5-fluorouracil (1000 mg/m2 D1-4) on weeks 11, 15 and 19 (standard arm) or to receive cisplatin (20 mg/m2) on D1-4 and 5-fluorouracil (1000 mg/ m2 on D1-4) on weeks 1, 5 and 9 followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy. started after 4 weeks of the 3rd cycle of chemotherapy (week 13) with cisplatin (25 mg/ m2 on D1-4) given on weeks 13, 16 and 19 of treatment every 3 weeks dur ing radiotherapy (investigative arm).Treatment modifications were done based on creatinine clearance and toxicities. Carboplatin (AUC 5) was substituted for cisplatin for creatinine clearance < 30 ml/min or grade 3 hearing impairment. Results: Baseline characteristics were comparable except for age and histology. Median PFS was 19.6 months (standard arm) versus 25.7 months (investigative arm). 3-year PFS rates were 25% and 63%, respectively with hazard ratio 2.64 (p= 0.176). Median OS were 17.5 months and 21.5 months, respectively. 3-year survival rates were 36% and 25.4%, respectively with hazard ratio 0.92 (p= 0.889). The complete response rate was 18.7% (standard arm) versus 28.5% (investigative arm), partial response rate was 31.2% vs 21.4% and progressive disease was 31.2% and 28.5% respectively. Anemia, anorexia, nausea, vomiting and xerostomia were the most frequent grade 3 adverse events. Conclusion: Induct ion chemotherapy fol lowed by concur rent chemoradiotherapy appears to be comparable to the standard of concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by chemotherapy in terms of PFS and OS. However, no final conclusion can be drawn due to the small sample size and poor follow-up.

INTRODUCTION: The use of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and total mesorectal excision (TME) has shown promising results in the management of locally advanced rectal carcinoma, and is associated with improvement in local control, disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). However, these clinical endpoints cannot be properly assessed due to poor follow up among many patients. Other endpoints such as negative circumferential resection margins (CRM), pathologic complete response (pCR) and sphincter-preserving surgery (SPS) may serve as indirect means of assessing successful treatment. This study reports the experience of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Colorectal Polyp and Cancer (CRPoCan) Study Group in using neoadjuvant CRT and TME in the management of locally advanced rectal carcinoma, towards quality care.
METHODS: The Integrated Surgical Information System (ISIS) database of the Department of Surgery, PGH was queried for rectal cancer patients with pretreatment clinical stage II and III disease that underwent neo-adjuvant CRT followed by TME between January 2008 and December 2009. The final surgical pathology reports of the subjects were reviewed for treatment response. Response was categorized as: (1) positive or negative CRM; and (2) with or without pCR. The study assessed whether SPS was done.
RESULTS: Of 140 potential neoadjuvant CRT patients followed by TME, 82 patients completed the treatment. Thirty two of the patients who completed treatment (39%) were eligible since the other 50 patients (61%) had no post-operative histopathology results. Among those eligible, 10 patients (31%) had pCR. Only 1 patient had a positive CRM. Of the 14 patients whose tumor distance was ?5cm from the anal verge, only 1 patient underwent SPS. The small sample size was mainly attributed to low resources or treatment. Non-availability of post-operative histopathology results was due to poor record keeping.
CONCLUSION: The PGH CRPoCan Study Group's use of neoadjuvant CRT followed by TME for locally advanced rectal carcinoma has resulted in acceptable numbers of pCR and clear CRM but has not translated into an increased number of SPS. Despite the limitations of the study, the institutionalization of the multidisciplinary team in the PGH CRPoCan Study Group and the implementation of the ISIS database program are considered the first steps towards quality health care.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy ; Total Mesorectal Excision ; Polyp ; Surgical Pathology ; Rectal Cancer

High-Grade B-Cell Lymphoma (HGBCL) with gene rearrangements in MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 is an aggressive malignancy usually presenting in advanced stages. Current recommendations suggest the use of regimens more intensive than R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, prednisone), which are based on retrospective studies and single-arm prospective trials that included patients who are mostly in the advanced stage, and did not receive consolidation radiotherapy. The optimal approach and treatment of HGBCL, whether limited-stage (LS) or advanced-stage, remains to be determined. Here we describe the promising outcomes of three patients with LS and low IPI HGBCL with the use of R-CHOP as induction chemotherapy regimen, which was followed by consolidation radiotherapy. Three women, 54-, 60-, and 64-years of age diagnosed to have HGBCL with MYC, and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements, with Ann Arbor stages I-IIE were included in this case series. All three patients had complete metabolic response to 6 cycles of R-CHOP and was subsequently treated with consolidation involved site radiotherapy (ISRT; total dose 30-36 Gy). Chemotherapy and radiotherapy were tolerated very well. All patients remain to be in remission, with the longest being at 23 months. Outcomes of patients with HGBCL generally remain to be poor, but this may not be the case for patients with limited-stage disease and favorable clinicopathologic risk profile. Nevertheless, the treatment of HGBCL is currently evolving and more studies are needed to determine the ideal approach and preferred chemotherapy regimen. Also, more studies are needed to elucidate the potential role of consolidation radiotherapy in patients with limited-stage HGBCL to improve survival outcomes. Findings of this case series suggest that patients with LS HGBCL may still derive benefit from R-CHOP followed by consolidation ISRT, but prospective trials are needed to confirm this.

OBJECTIVES: 1) To determine if there is an association between physical examination by cervical palpation, pre-operative contrast-enhanced multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT), and intraoperative lymph node assessment, with final histopathology in the evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis in Filipino patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. 2) To determine the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), accuracy, and likelihood ratios of cervical palpation, contrast enhanced MDCT, and intra-operative lymph node assessment compared with final histopathology in the evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis in Filipino patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

METHODS: Study Design. Retrospective; Cross-sectional. Setting. Tertiary Government Hospital Charity Section, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Department of Radiology, Department of Pathology. Participants, Patients or Population. Retrospective chart review of all biopsy proven head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients admitted at the charity ward of a Otorhinolaryngology Department from 2008-2010 who had documented admission physical examination, a pre-operative contrast enhanced multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scan of the neck done in the same institution within 20 days or less from date of surgery, and underwent neck dissection with appropriate cervical lymph node level specimen labeling with subsequent post-operative histopathologic evaluation of submitted specimens for neck node metastasis by the Pathology Department of the same institution. After set of exclusion criteria was applied, the analyzed sample included 82 lymph node level samples from 9 patients with head and neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCCA).

RESULTS: Pre-operative contrast enhanced MDCT, and intraoperative nodal assessment, were both significantly correlated with the final histopathologic evaluation of neck node metastasis as evaluated with Fisher's Exact test (p = 0.00). Cervical palpation however was not able to show a significant association (p=0.099).Cervical palpation had a sensitivity of 25.00% (8.33-52.59%), specificity of 90.91% (80.61-96.25%), NPV of 83.33 (72.30-90.73%), PPV of 40.00 (13.69-72.63%), accuracy of 78.05%, and a likelihood ratio of 3.33. Pre-operative contrast enhanced MDCT had a sensitivity of 43.75% (20.75-69.45%), specificity of 93.94% (84.44-98.04%), NPV of 87.32 (76.80-93.69%), , PPV of 63.64 (31.61-87.63%), accuracy of 84.15%, and a likelihood ratio of 12.06. Intraoperative surgical evaluation had a sensitivity of 68.75% (41.48-87.87%), specificity of 93.94% (84.44-98.04%), NPV of 92.54 (82.74-97.22%), PPV of 73.33 (44.83-91.09%), accuracy of 89.02%, and a likelihood ratio of 34.10. Further analysis with McNemar's Test comparing MDCT and Intraoperative assessment showed no significant difference (p = 0.387).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In the evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in the local setting, the extent of neck dissection, clinical staging and prognosis, as well as adjuvant therapy can be guided by pre-operative contrast enhanced MDCT and intra-operative nodal assessment. Contrast-enhanced MDCT can aid treatment planning in preoperative or non-operative cases; but intraoperative evaluation can be used to guide final extent of surgery. Evaluation solely by physical examination by cervical palpation unfortunately in this study was not able to show a significant association with final histopathology.

Human ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Palpation ; General Surgery ; Sensitivity And Specificity