Hypercalcemia is associated with a poor prognosis in lymphoma a retrospective monocentric matched-control study and extensive review of published reported cases

Annals of Hematology - The prognostic significance of hypercalcemia in lymphoma has only been studied on small series to date. We conducted a retrospective, monocentric, matched-control study that...     

Medical literature and vena cava filters: so far so weak

STUDY OBJECTIVE: With the development of percutaneous inferior vena cava (IVC) filters, IVC interruption has become a widely used procedure in patients with or at risk for venous thromboembolism. In an attempt at clarifying the indications for filter placement, a systematic literature review was undertaken. DESIGN: Bibliographic search and analysis. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: A systematic MEDLINE search about vena cava filters produced a total of 568 references with abstracts between 1975 and 2000 inclusively. Each reference was analyzed according to predetermined criteria. Nearly two thirds (65.0%) of these publications were retrospective studies or case reports (33.3 and 31.7%, respectively), 12.9% were animal or in vitro studies, 7.4% were prospective studies, 6.7% were reviews, and 8.1% reported on miscellaneous related topics. Among the prospective studies, only 16 studies included > or = 100 patients, only 1 study was a randomized controlled trial (0.02% of 568 references), and heterogeneity among series precluded any relevant comparison. In a similar search about heparin and venous thromboembolism, 47.4% of 531 references were randomized controlled trials. CONCLUSIONS: Until more relevant data become available, literature reviews about vena cava filters will remain narrative, and many if not most indications for filter placement will remain a matter of opinion.     

Severe spontaneous epistaxis: retrospective study in a tertiary ENT centre

European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - To investigate the clinical profile and outcomes of different treatment strategies in patients hospitalized for spontaneous severe epistaxis. This is a...     

Radiotherapy among nonagenarians with anal or rectal carcinoma:should we avoid or adapt treatment?

Dear editor, Radiotherapy is a cornerstone in the management of anal or rectal cancer. Because elderly patients are often excluded from clinical trials, little is known about radi-otherapy's therapeutic index (efficacy/toxicity ratio) in the geriatric population [1]. Still, the ageing of popula-tion imposes the challenge to treat older cancer patients and probably to adjust their treatment [2]. A few studies reported data on radiation-induced toxicities in nonage-narian patients, but data on efficacy are still scarce.