• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6663-6667
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• 2013

Purpose: The current research was conducted to investigate the efficacy and safety of pemetrexed given continuously as a basement agent for first-, second- to third line chemotherapy of patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma. Patients and Methods: Patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma who were diagnosed in Jiangsu Cancer Hospital and Research Insitute, were enrolled. All received pemetrexed 500 $mg/m^2$ (intravenous; on day 1), and another chemotherapieutic agent every 3 weeks until disease progression, or intolerable toxicity. Then the patients were changed to a second line chemotherapy that was still based on pemetrexed 500 $mg/m^2$ and another chemotherapeutic agent differing from the first line example, until disease progression, or intolerable toxicity. When third line chemotherapy was needed, pemetrexed 500 $mg/m^2$ and another new chemotherapeutic agent were combined until disease progression. Evaluation of efficacy was conducted after two cycles of chemotherapy using the Response Evaluation Criteria for Solid Tumors. Toxicity was recorded according to NCI Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.0. Results: From January 2010 to September 2013, 15 patients were enrolled. Their median age was 56 years (range 43 to 77 years). Eight patients were male and 7 female. Five patients (33.3%) achieved PR, while 6 patients (40.0%) remained stable, no CR on first line; and 1 PR (7.7%), 5 stable (38.5%) were recorded when pemetrexed was ordered in second line; 5 patients (41.7%) were stable after pemetrexed was combined in third line; no complete response was observed. Main side effects were grade 1 to 2 neutrophil suppression and thrombocytopenia. Other toxicities included elevated transaminase and oral mucositis, but no treatment related death occurred. Conclusions: Pemetrexed continuously as a basement agent from first-, second- to third line chemotherapy is mildly effective in treating patients with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma with tolerable toxicity.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.550-558
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• 2001

Background : It has been reported that younger patients with lung cancer have characteristic features that differ from those in older patients. The prognosis for young patients with this disease is controversial. This study aimed to determine the clinicopathological characteristics, the survival rate, and the risk factors associated with the overall survival rate in younger patients with lung cancer. Methods : The records of 120 young(age${\leq}40$) patients with histologically confirmed lung cancer in the Korea Caneer Center Hospital(KCCH) between Jan. 1992 and Dec. 1998 were retrospectively reviewed. Of 5,082 lung cancer patients registered at the KCCH from 1992 to 1998, 120 older(age>40) patients were randomly selected as the controls. Results : More female patients(45.0% vs. 20.0%, p<0.001) and more adenocarcinoma cases(64.2% vs.38.3%, p<0.001) were found in the younger group, when compared to the older patients. In NSCLC, advanced disease(stage IIIB and IV) was more common in the younger patients(90.2%) than in the older patients(62.7%) (p<0.001). The Median survival was 8.6 months in the younger patients and 12.2 months in the older(p=0.003). In a multivariate analysis, only the advanced-stage was an independent negative prognostic factor. Conclusions : Lung cancer in the younger age group presents with a more advanced stage resulting in a poor survival rate, which suggests that lung cancer in this population is more aggressive than in older patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8235-8238
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• 2016

Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer causing high morbidity and mortality worldwide. An increasing incidence of lung cancer has been observed in India. Objectives:To evaluate the clinicpathological profile and haematological abnormalities associated with lung cancer in Bangalore, India. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was carried out over a period of 2 years. A total of 96 newly diagnosed and histopathologically confirmed cases of lung cancer were included in the study. Results: Our lung cancer cases had a male to female ratio of 3:1. Distribution of age varied from 40 to 90 years, with a major contribution in the age group between 61 and 80 years (55.2%). Smoking was the commonest risk factor found in 69.7% of patients. The most frequent symptom was cough (86.4%) followed by loss of weight and appetite (65.6%) and dyspnea (64.5%). The most common radiological presentation was a mass lesion (55%). The most common histopathological type was squamous cell carcinoma (47.9%), followed by adenocarcinoma (28.1%) and small cell carcinoma (12.5%). Distant metastasis at presentation was seen in 53.1% patients. Among the haematological abnormalities, anaemia was seen in 61.4% of patients, leucocytosis in 36.4%, thrombocytosis in 14.5% and eosinophilia in 19.7% of patients. Haematological abnormalities were more commonly seen in non small cell lung cancer. Conclusions: Squamous cell carcinoma was found to be the most common histopathological type and smoking still remains the major risk factor for lung cancer. Haematological abnormalities are frequently observed in lung cancer patients, anaemia being the commonest of all.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.311-316
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• 2016

Breast cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer mortality in Iran. Social determinants of health are among the key factors affecting the pathogenesis of diseases. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the social determinants of breast cancer survival time with parametric and semi-parametric regression models. It was conducted on male and female patients diagnosed with breast cancer presenting to the Cancer Research Center of Shohada-E-Tajrish Hospital from 2006 to 2010. The Cox proportional hazard model and parametric models including the Weibull, log normal and log-logistic models were applied to determine the social determinants of survival time of breast cancer patients. The Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to assess the best fit. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA (version 11) software. This study was performed on 797 breast cancer patients, aged 25-93 years with a mean age of 54.7 (${\pm}11.9$) years. In both semi-parametric and parametric models, the three-year survival was related to level of education and municipal district of residence (P<0.05). The AIC suggested that log normal distribution was the best fit for the three-year survival time of breast cancer patients. Social determinants of health such as level of education and municipal district of residence affect the survival of breast cancer cases. Future studies must focus on the effect of childhood social class on the survival times of cancers, which have hitherto only been paid limited attention.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10363-10366
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• 2015

Background: The aim of this study was to determine diagnostic and prognostic roles of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in breast cancer patients. To date, data are limited on associations of primary breast carcinoma (PBC) and benign proliferative breast disease (BPBD) with preoperative NLR values. Materials and Methods: Our study covered of 120 female patients with PBC and 50 with BPBD. Diagnostic values of NLR were estimated using sensitivity, specificity and areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC). Results: NLR values were significantly higher in the PBC patients than in those with BPBD, with an AUC of 0.668 in the PBC case. The optimal cut-off for NLR was 2.96 and this was validated in the testing set, giving a sensitivity and a specificity of 79.7% and 76.2%, respectively, in PBC patients. Conclusions: Preoperative high NLR is a significant diagnostic predictor of distinction of breast cancer from BPBD and elevated NLR is also an important prognostic marker for primary invasive breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3377-3381
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• 2014

Background: The incidence of colorectal cancer increases with vitamin D deficiency as shown in recently published studies. In addition, prospective investigations have indicated that low vitamin D levels may be associated with increased mortality of colorectal cancer, especially in stage III and IV cases. However, the exact incidence of vitamin D deficiency and the relation between vitamin D deficiency and osteopenia/osteporosis is still not known. The aim of this study is to identify severity of vitamin D deficiency and absolute risk factors of osteopenia/osteoporosis in colorectal cancer survivors. Materials and Methods: A total of 113 colorectal cancer survivors treated with surgery and/or chemotherapy ${\pm}$ radiotherapy were recruited from medical oncology outpatient clinics during routine follow-up visits in 2012-2013. Bone mineral densitometry (BMD) was performed, and serum 25-OH vitamin D levels were also checked on the same day of the questionnaire. The patients was divided into 2 groups, group A with normal BMD and group B with osteopenia/osteoporosis. Results: The median age of the study population was 58 (40-76). Thirty (30.0%) were female, whereas 79 (70.0%) were male. The median follow-up was 48 months (14-120 months). Vitamin D deficiency was found in 109 (96.5%); mild deficiency (20-30 ng/ml) in 19 (16.8%), moderate deficiency (10-20 ng/ml) in 54 (47.8%) and severe deficiency (<10 ng/ml) in 36 (31.9%). Osteopenia was evident in 58 (51.4%) patients whereas osteoporosis was noted in 17 (15.0%). Normal BMD was observed in 38 (33.6%). No apparent effects of type of surgery, presence of stoma, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and TNM stage were found regarding the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis. Also, the severity of the vitamin D deficiency had no effect in the risk of osteopenia and osteporosis (p=0.93). In female patients, osteopenia/osteoporosis were observed in 79.5% patients as compared to 60.7% of male patients (p=0.04). Conclusions: In our study, vitamin D deficiency and osteopenia/osteoporosis was observed in 96.5% and 66.4% of colorectal cancer survivors, respectively. There is no defined absolute risk factor of osteopenia and osteoporosis in colorectal cancer survivors. To our knowledge, in the literature, our study is the first to evaluateall the risk factors of osteopenia and osteoporosis in colorectal cancer survivors.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.234-240
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• 2010

Purpose: Most gastric cancer patients undergo operations at large tertiary hospitals in Korea. However, some patients are treated at low volume hospitals. We investigated patient outcomes after gastric surgery at a secondary hospital and compared with outcomes of large volume centers. Materials and Methods: We included 184 patients who underwent gastric surgery for gastric cancer at our hospital from January 2003 to December 2008. We conducted a retrospective study and evaluated the clinicopathological characteristics, clinical outcomes and survival rate of patients. Results: Mean age was 61.7 years old. Male to female ratio was 2.2 : 1. Proportion of early gastric cancer was 38.6% and that of advanced gastric cancer was 61.4%. The 5 year overall survival rate of 184 patients was 66.3%. The overall survival rate was significantly lower for people over 62 years old. The morbidity rate and mortality at our hospital were 10.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Conclusions: The overall survival rate, morbidity and mortality were similar to those of the previous reports from Korea. Treatment of gastric cancer at a secondary hospital is feasible and safe. Standardization of operations and management of gastric cancer patients of the Korean Gastric Cancer Association is the most important factor to achieve these outcomes.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.470-476
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• 2006

Low-dose rate brachytherapy(LDR) has been effective modality for treatment of oral cancer. But the disadvantage of LDR is radioexposure of medical staff. To overcome this problem, high dose rate(HDR) brachytherapy has been developed. Our study evaluates the outcomes of patients with tongue cancer as treated by HDR brachytherapy. Between 2002 and 2005, eight patients with carcinoma of the tongue were treated with HDR brachytherapy. Five patients had AJCC stage I or II disease and the remaining three patients had AJCC stage III or IV. The male-to-female ratio was 2:6 and the mean age was 60.1 years (range: 21-80 years).The median follow-up time was 23.8 months (range: 7-55 months). There was no local failure until now. Three patients showed some complications. Two patients showed soft tissue necrosis. There was no bone sequela in all cases. Our experience in treating tongue cancer with HDR brachytherapy is encouraging, because it gave a satisfactory local control. Prospective studies are necessary to delineate the optimum indication for this treatment modality and long-term outcome.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6481-6490
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• 2015

Background: Esophageal cancer (EC) is among the most common malignancies in Eastern Africa, but the occurrence of EC in Sudan has rarely been described in the scientific literature. This paper reports the results of a consecutive case series of all EC patients who visited one of the two public cancer treatment centers in the country in 1999-2012, providing a first description of this disease in a treatment center located in central Sudan. Materials and Methods: Clinical and demographic data for all EC patients who visited the Department of Oncology of the National Cancer Institute at the University of Gezira (NCI-UG) from 1999 to the end of 2012 were abstracted and tabulated by sex, tumor type and other characteristics. Results: A total of 448 EC patients visited NCI-UG in 1999-2012, and the annual number of EC cases increased steadily from 1999. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was the predominant EC tumor type (90%), and adenocarcinoma (ADC) was reported in 9.4% of the EC cases. The overall male-to-female ratio for EC was 1:1.8, but the ratio was tumor type-dependent, being 1:2 for SCC and 2:1 for ADC. Only 20% of EC patients reported having ever used tobacco and/or alcohol, and the vast majority of these patients were male. At the time of EC diagnosis, 47.3% of the patients resided in Gezira State. Some EC patients from Gezira State seek out-of-state treatment in the national capital of Khartoum instead of visiting NCI-UG. Conclusions: The annual number of EC patients visiting NCI-UG has increased in recent years, approximately half of these patients being from Gezira State. Although this consecutive series of EC patients who visited NCI-UG was complete, it did not capture all EC patients from the state. A populationbased cancer registry would provide more complete data required to better understand EC patterns and risk factors.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.322-328
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• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to report two cases which suggest Oryeongsan as a pharmacological treatement option for cancer-induced secondary lymphedema. Methods : The cases were two female patients with peripheral edema. The first was diagnosed with cervical cancer with paraaortic lymph node metastasis and suffered from bilateral edema of the lower extremities. The second was a breast cancer patient with right arm lymphedema, which was aggravated after a weekly regimen of chemotherapy. Oryeongsan was orally administered for 3-4 days to both patients. Results : The symptoms in lower extremities and body weight of the cervical cancer patient decreased. The breast cancer patient did not lose body weight, but pain in upper extremities was reduced. Conclusions : Oryeongsan may potentially be an option for secondary lymphedemas, including cancer-induced lymphedema.