• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제76권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

Maintenance therapy has emerged as a novel therapeutic paradigm for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Maintenance therapy that aims to sustain a clinically favorable state after first-line chemotherapy has two strategies. Switch maintenance therapy entails switching to a new and non-cross-resistant agent in an alternating or sequential manner, on completion of first-line chemotherapy. Continuous maintenance therapy keeps ongoing administration of a component of the current regimen after four to six cycles of chemotherapy, if there is a stable disease, or better response. Both maintenance therapies can be continued, until disease progression. The potential evidence regarding maintenance therapy includes providing the opportunity to receive additional treatment, through sustaining tumor shrinkage, and delayed emergence of tumor-related symptom. Thus far, debates over the parameters used to predict the effectiveness of maintenance therapy, financial burden, and uncertainty of improving the quality of life exist. Despite many debates, maintenance therapy, which is currently recommended, has been disclosed to be beneficial.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제81권2호
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• pp.148-155
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• 2018

Background: Although targeted therapy and immuno-oncology have shifted the treatment paradigm for lung cancer, platinum-based combination is still the standard of care for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Pemetrexed continuation maintenance therapy has been approved and increasingly used for patients with nonsquamous NSCLC. However, the efficacy of this strategy has not been proven in patients without driving mutations. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical benefit of pemetrexed continuation maintenance to conventional platinum-based doublet in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-negative lung adenocarcinoma. Methods: A total of 114 patients with EGFR-negative lung adenocarcinoma who were treated with platinum doublet were retrospectively enrolled. We compared the survival rates between patients received pemetrexed maintenance after four-cycled pemetrexed/cisplatin and those received at least four-cycled platinum doublet without maintenance chemotherapy as a first-line treatment. Results: Forty-one patients received pemetrexed maintenance and 73 received conventional platinum doublet. Median progression-free survival (PFS), which was defined as the time from the day of response evaluation after four cycles of chemotherapy to disease progression or death, was significantly higher in the pemetrexed maintenance group compared to conventional group (5.8 months vs. 2.2 months, p<0.001). Median overall survival showed an increasing trend in the pemetrexed maintenance group (22.3 months vs. 16.1 months, p=0.098). Multivariate analyses showed that pemetrexed maintenance chemotherapy was associated with better PFS (hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.87). Conclusion: Compared to conventional platinum-based chemotherapy, premetrexed continuation maintenance treatment is associated with better clinical outcome for the patients with EGFR wild-type lung adenocarcinoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.2413-2419
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• 2013

Background: Use of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs ) is now standard for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effects of EGFR-TKIs in maintenance therapy for advanced NSCLC patients are still unclear. The preent meta-analysis was performed to examine pooled data of randomized control trials (RCT) where EGFR-TKIs were compared against placebo in maintenance regimens for patients with advanced NCSLC to quantify potential benefits and determine safety. Methods: Several data bases were searched, including PubMed, EMBASE and CENTRAL, and we performed an internet search of conference literature. The endpoints were objective response rates (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). We performed a meta-analysis of the published data, using Comprehensive Meta Analysis software (Version 2.0). with a fixed effects model and an additional random effects model, when applicable. The results of the meta-analysis are expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) or risk ratios (RRs), with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs). Results: The final analysis included six trials, covering 3,758 patients. Compared with placebo, EGFR-TKIs maintenance therapy improved ORR and PFS for patients with advanced NSCLC, the difference being statistically significant (P<0.05), but proved unable to prolong patients' OS. The main adverse reactions were diarrhea and rashes. Conclusion: EGFR-TKIs demonstrated encouraging efficacy, safety and survival when delivered as maintenance therapy for patients with advanced NSCLC after first-line chemotherapy, especially for the patients who had adenocarcinomas, were female, non-smokers and patients with EGFR gene mutations.

• Annals of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.226-228
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• 2018

Various endocrine dysfunctions occur during chemotherapy, including hypoglycemia. However, reports of hypoglycemia associated with 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) are rare. Herein, we report an 8-year-old boy with severe symptomatic hypoglycemia likely due to 6-MP during chemotherapy. He had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia 3 years previously and was in the maintenance chemotherapy period. Treatment included oral dexamethasone, methotrexate, and 6-MP, of which only 6-MP was administered daily. Hypoglycemic symptoms appeared mainly at dawn, and his serum glucose dropped to a minimum of 37 mg/dL. Laboratory findings showed nothing specific other than increased serum cortisol, free fatty acids, ketone, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase. Under the hypothesis of hypoglycemia due to chemotherapy drugs, we changed the time of 6-MP from evening to morning and recommended him to ingest carbohydrate-rich foods before bedtime. Hypoglycemia improved dramatically, and there was no further episode during the remaining maintenance chemotherapy period. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of this type of hypoglycemia occurring in an Asian child including Korean.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.129-142
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• 1995

Purpose: Traditionally the patients with early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck was treated with radiotherapy. But the results were not satisfactory due to distant relapse. Although combined treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy was tried with some improved results and chemotherapy alone was also tried in recent years, the choice of treatment for the patients with early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck has not been defined Therefore, in order to determine the optimum treatment method, we analysed retrospectively the outcomes of the patients with Ann Arbor stage I and II non-Hodgkin's lymphoma localized to the head and neck who were treated at Severance Hospital. Materials and Methods: 159 patients with stage I and II non-Hodgkin's lymphoma localized to the head and neck were treated at our hospital from January, 1979 to December, 1992. Of these patients, 114 patients whose primary sites were Waldeyer's ring or nodal region, and received prescribed radiation dose and/or more than 2 cycles of chemotherapy. were selected to analyze the outcomes according to the treatment methods ( radiotherapy alone, chemotherapy alone. and combined treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy ). Results: Five year overall actuarial survival of the patients whose Primary site was Waldeyer's ring was $62.5\%.$ and that of the Patients whose primary site was nodal region was $53.8\%$ There was no statistically significant difference between survivals of both groups. Initial response rate to radiotherapy. chemotherapy, and combined treatment was $92\%,\;83\%,\;94\%$ respectively, and 5 year relapse free survival was $49.9\%,\;52.4\%,\;58.5\%$ respectively ( statistically not significant ). In the patients with stage I. 3 year relapse free survival of chemotherapy alone group was $75\%$ and superior to other treatment groups. In the Patients with stage II, combined treatment group revealed the best result with $60.1\%$ of 3 year relapse free survival. The effect of sequential schedule of each treatment method in the Patients who were treated by combined modality was analyzed and the sequence of primary chemotherapy + radiotherapy + maintenance chemotherapy showed the best result ( 3 year relapse free survival was $79.1\%).$ There was no significant survival difference between BACOP regimen and CHOP regimen. Response to treatment was only one significant (p(0.005) prognostic factor on univariate analysis and age and mass size was marginally significant ( p(0.1). On multivariate analysis, age (p=0.026) and mass size (p=0.013) were significant prognostic factor for the relapse free survival. Conclusion: In summary, the patients who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the head and neck with stage I and mass size smaller than 10 cm, can be treated by chemotherapy alone, but remainder should be treated by combined treatment method and the best combination schedule was the sequence of initial chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and maintenance chemotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.1225-1233
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• 2015

This study aims to clarify the psychosocial reactions of female patients with gynecological cancer undergoing chemotherapy and in the process of suffering from alopecia and to examine their nursing support. The target group comprised female patients who had received two or more cycles of chemotherapy, were suffering from alopecia, and were aged 30-65. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, conducted from the time the patients were informed by their doctors that they might experience alopecia due to chemotherapy to the time they actually experienced alopecia and until they were able to accept the change. Inductive qualitative analysis was employed to close in on the subjective experiences of the cancer patients. The results showed the existence of six phases in the psychosocial reactions in the process of alopecia: phase one was the reaction after the doctor's explanation; phase two was the reaction when the hair starts to fall out; phase three was the reaction when the hair starts to intensely fall out; phase four was the reaction when the hair has completely fallen out; phase five was the reaction to behavior for coping with alopecia; and phase six was the reaction to change in interpersonal human relationships. The results also made it clear that there are five types of reaction patterns as follows: 1) treatment priority interpersonal relationship maintenance type; 2) alopecia agitated interpersonal relationship maintenance type; 3) alopecia agitated interpersonal relationship reduction type; 4) alopecia denial interpersonal relationship reduction type; and 5) alopecia denial treatment interruption type. It is important to find out which of the five types the patients belong to early during treatment and provide support so that nursing intervention that suits each individual can be practiced. The purpose of this study is to make clear the process in which patients receiving chemotherapy come to accept alopecia and to examine evidence-based nursing care on patients with strong mental distress from alopecia.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.121-127
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• 2012

Purpose: Improved survival of patients with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has drawn attention to the potential for late consequences of previous treatments among survivors, including metabolic syndrome. In this study, we evaluated changes in 3 parameters, namely, random blood glucose, body mass index (BMI), and Z score for BMI (Z-BMI), in children with ALL during chemotherapy and after completion of treatment. Methods: Patients newly diagnosed with ALL from January, 2005 to December, 2008 at Saint Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, who completed treatment with chemotherapy only were included (n=107). Random glucose, BMI, and Z-BMI were recorded at 5 intervals: at diagnosis, before maintenance treatment, at completion of maintenance treatment, and 6 and 12 months after completion of maintenance treatment. Similar analyses were conducted on 2 subcohorts based on ALL risk groups. Results: For random glucose, a paired comparison showed significantly lower levels at 12 months post-treatment compared to those at initial diagnosis ($P$ <0.001) and before maintenance ($P$ <0.001). The Z-BMI score was significantly higher before maintenance than at diagnosis ($P$ <0.001), but decreased significantly at the end of treatment ($P$ <0.001) and remained low at 6 months ($P$ <0.001) and 12 months ($P$ <0.001) post-treatment. Similar results were obtained upon analysis of risk group-based subcohorts. Conclusion: For a cohort of ALL patients treated without allogeneic transplantation or cranial irradiation, decrease in random glucose and Z-BMI after completion of chemotherapy does not indicate future glucose intolerance or obesity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.1863-1867
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• 2012

Background: Maintenance chemotherapy is one strategy pursued in recent years with intent to break through the chemotherapy plateau for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, given the toxicity, platinum-based combinations are rarely given for this purpose. We carried out the present prospective study of triplet platinum-based combination sequential chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC to investigate if patients could tolerate and benefit from such intensive treatment. Methods: From Dec 2003 to Dec 2007, 190 stage IIIB and IV NSCLC patients in Sun yat-sen University sequentially received the 3 platinum-based combination (TP-NP-GP) treatment (T: paclitaxol175$mg/m^2$ d1; N: vinorelbine25$mg/m^2$ d1 and 8; G: gemcitabine1$g/m^2$ d1 and 8; P: cisplatin20$mg/m^2$ d1-5; repeated every 3 weeks). Patients were followed up to at least 3 years to obtain survival data. Treatment toxicities and the quality of life (QOL) were assessed during the whole treatment. Results: There were 187 patients evaluable. The TP, NP and GP response rates with sequential use were 42.8% (80/187), 41.1% (65/158) and 28.8% (21/73) respectively. Median survival time was 18.2 months and the 1, 2 and 3 year overall survival (OS) rates were 78.7%, 38.5% and 21.3%. Patients receiving > 6 cycles of chemotherapy had significantly longer OS and TTP (MST 25.3 vs. 14.5 months, TTP 15.1 vs. 9.1 months). The QOL on the whole for the patients was improved after chemotherapy. Conclusions: The sequential chemotherapy strategy with triplet platinum-based combination regimens can improve the survival outcome and the quality of life of advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.198-204
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• 2020

거대세포바이러스병은 혈액종양 질환을 가진 환자군에서는 주로 조혈모세포이식을 받은 환자에게서 발현하는 것으로 보고되고 있으나, 드물게 조혈모세포이식을 받지 않고 항암 치료 중에 발현하는 경우가 있다. 저자들은 발열과 시력 저하를 주소로 입원한 7세 남자에게서 백혈병 유지 치료 중 발현한 거대세포바이러스 망막염을 진단하여 보고하는 바이다. 초기에 거대세포바이러스 항원혈증검사 수치가 51 positive cells/200,000 leukocytes로 높게 보고되었으나 조혈모세포이식을 받은 병력이 없어 항바이러스 치료를 시행하지 않았다가 3주 후 항원혈증검사 수치가 170 positive cells/200,000 leukocytes로 증가하여 시행한 안과 검진에서 양안의 망막 침범 소견과 과립형 병변이 확인되어 거대세포바이러스 망막염으로 진단되었다. 총 4주간의 정맥 내 ganciclovir 치료와 6회의 유리체강 내 ganciclovir 주입술을 시행한 후 경구 valganciclovir 치료를 1달간 더 시행하였다. 치료 시작 1달 후 거대세포바이러스 항원혈증검사가 음성이 되었고 안저검사에서 호전소견을 보였다. 본 증례와 같이 거대세포바이러스병에 이환되기 쉬운 고위험군 환자들에 대한 선별 검사와 적절한 치료방침에 대한 논의가 필요하겠다.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.181-186
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• 2006

목 적 : ALL 치료 중의 혈액학적 변화는 예후인자로써 뿐만 아니라 항암제의 용량을 결정짓는 중요한 변수이다. ALL의 유지요법 기간 중에 투여되는 vincristine의 용량은 저용량으로 혈소판수를 증가시키기에는 충분하다. ALL의 유지요법 기간 중에 vincristine 투여에 따른 혈소판의 변화를 알아보기 위하여 연구를 시행하였다. 방 법 : 가천의과대학교 길병원 소아과에서 고위험군 ALL로 진단받고 CCG-1882에 기초한 항암치료를 모두 마친 11명의 환아를 대상으로 유지요법 기간을 처음 6개월간의 초기, 마지막 6개월간의 후기로 나누어, vincristine 투여(0.05 mg/kg) 전과 투여 1, 2, 3주 후의 혈소판수를 비교 분석하였다. Vincristine 투여 전의 혈소판수를 100%로 하여 투여 후의 혈소판수를 percent로 환산하여 비교 분석하였으며, 투여 전에 비해 20% 이상 혈소판수가 증가한 경우를 의미 있는 증가로 하여 총례 및 각 개인별로 혈소판수를 비교 분석하였다. 결 과 : 유지요법 기간별로 혈소판수를 비교한 결과 유지요법 후기로 갈수록 전체 혈소판수는 증가하였으나 통계학적으로 의미 있는 차이는 없었다. 초기와 후기 모두 vincristine 투여 1주후 혈소판수는 최고가 되었다. 초기 6개월 유지요법 기간 중 vincristine 투여 전에 비해 투여 1, 2주 후에 통계학적으로 의미 있게 혈소판수가 증가하였으며 3주 후에는 투여 전 수준으로 되었다. Vincristine 투여 전에 비해 투여 1주 후에 혈소판수가 20% 이상 증가한 경우가 전체 11명 중 10명(90.9%)으로 통계학적으로 의미 있게 많았다. 후기 6개월 유지요법 기간 중 vincristine 투여 전에 비해 투여 1주 후에 통계학적으로 의미 있게 혈소판수가 증가하였으며 2주 후에는 투여 전과 비교해 통계학적으로 의미 있는 차이는 없었다. 후기에도 vincristine 투여 전에 비해 투여 후 혈소판수가 20% 이상 증가한 경우가 전체 11명 중 10명(90.9%)으로 통계학적으로 의미 있게 많았다. 결 론 : ALL의 유지요법에 사용되는 저용량의 vincristine은 투여 1주 후에 혈소판수를 최고로 증가시키며, 2-3주 후에 혈소판수는 투여 전 수준으로 돌아간다. 그러나 혈소판수의 증가는 혈전증을 일으킬 정도는 되지 않으며, vincristine에 의해 혈소판의 기능저하로 ALL의 항암요법의 유지요법 중 혈액 응고가 발생할 위험성은 낮아 보인다.