Objective: Three-weekly docetaxel causes a high rate of febrile neutropenia, especially in the Asian population. Two-weekly docetaxel has been shown to reduce rate of febrile neutropenia in castrate-resistant prostate cancer patients. We conducted a preliminary study to investigate the safety of two-weekly docetaxel in advanced breast cancer patients. Methods: We recruited 10 patients with advanced breast cancer with ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance status score of zero to two, who needed chemotherapy in the first or second-line setting to receive two-weekly docetaxel for 8 cycles. The primary endpoint was safety and secondary endpoints were response rate and progression free survival. Results: The most reported adverse events were haematological (anaemia 100% and neutropenia 90%). The febrile neutropenia rate was 10%. The overall response rate was 20%. The median progression free survival was 5.0 months. Conclusion: Two-weekly docetaxel may be a reasonable alternative treatment regimen for patients with advanced breast cancer in the first or second-line setting. This regimen is yet to be compared with standard 3-weekly schedule in a phase 3 randomised clinical trial.

PURPOSE: Coronary artery disease is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. Some observational studies proposed that coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) might provide higher survival benefit than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in dialysis patients. There were not many studies of the comparison between the methods of coronary artery reperfusion therapy. Therefore, we compared the long term survival between PCI and CABG groups in dialysis patients. METHODS: We selected 104 patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) who had PCI (N=75) or CABG (N=29) in Ilsan-Paik Hospital from December 1999 to February 2010. We collected data from medical records and performed a retrospective analysis in ESRD patients hospitalized for the first coronary revascularization procedure. RESULTS: There was no difference in the basic characteristics between the two groups. However, the frequency of more than 3-vessel lesions or less than 30% ejection fraction was higher in the group of CABG than that of PCI. One and three-year survival rates were higher in the PCI group than those in the CABG group. However, there was no difference in the 5 year survival rate between the groups. In subgroup analysis for severe patients with 3-vessel coronary diseases or less than 30% of ejection fraction, there were no statistical differences in the 1, 3 and 5 year survival rates between the groups. In subgroup analysis for the patients maintaining dialysis more than three months, 1, 3, and 5 year survival rates were not statistically different. CONCLUSION: In ESRD and dialysis patients, there was no difference in the long-term survival between PCI and CABG.
Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary ; Coronary Artery Bypass ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Medical Records ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Reperfusion ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Transplants

PURPOSE: Recently, interest in peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) has increased, although clinical studies of the effect of PPAR-gamma expression on gastric cancer have not been reported yet. In this study, we investigated the role of PPAR-gamma expression in gastric cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred twenty-eight (128) samples of both gastric cancer and normal tissues were obtained from 128 patients who had undergone at a curative gastrectomy at Seoul Medical Center from Jan. 2001 to Dec. 2005. PPAR-gamma expression was determined by using immunohistochemical staining, and the results were analyzed. The statistical analysis was based on clinicopathological findings and the differences in survival rates. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 61, and the male:female ratio was 1.9:1. PPAR-gamma expression was significantly higher in cancer tissues than in normal tissue (81.3% vs. 57.0%, P<0.001). There was insignificant difference between well and moderately differentiated types and poorly differentiated types in terms of the expression of PPAR-gamma (87.0% vs. 74.6%, P=0.074). In the univariate analysis the survival rate was significantly increased when PPAR-gamma was expressed in normal tissue (P=0.003). In the multivariate analysis, only the UICC TNM staging had significance related to the survival rate. CONCLUSION: The rate of PPAR-gamma expression was higher in cancer tissue than it was in normal tissue from gastric cancer patients. In the univariate analysis, PPAR-gamma expression in normal tissue had significance with respect to survival, but the multivariate analysis showed no such significance. Thus, we should further evaluate more cases to determine whether or not such a significance exists.
Gastrectomy ; Humans* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Staging ; Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors ; Seoul ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; Survival Rate