Phase II study of etoposide (VP-16) in patients with thyroid cancer with no prior chemotherapy: an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Study (E1385)

This study of etoposide in thyroid cancer was designed to determine the activity and toxicity of etoposide in a variety of inoperable, thyroid hormone insensitive, and radio-iodine resistant primary cancers of the thyroid. The patients were required to have an ECOG performance status of at least 3 and no previous exposure to chemotherapy. The etoposide was given at a dose of 140 mg/m² daily for 3 days and every 3 weeks until progression. The study was closed after 18 months because of poor accrual. There were no responses seen among the 10 patients accrued. The toxicity was primarily hematologic. There was no evidence of activity of etoposide in thyroid carcinoma, although this study lacked significant power because of the poor accrual.     

Accuracy at radiography and probing for the diagnosis of proximal caries

In 63 teenagers the proximal surfaces of premolars to be extracted for orthodontic reasons and the adjacent surfaces of neighboring teeth, 598 surfaces in all, were examined radiographically and by probing. Direct inspection after extraction revealed that 51% of the surfaces had incipient carious lesions and 5% lesions with cavities. Of the surfaces with cavities 82.1% were correctly diagnosed radiographically if any radiolucency, regardless of its extent, was used as a diagnostic criterion. However, this yielded a false positive rate of 19.6%. If only radioluccncies extending at least into the inner third of the enamel were called positive the true positive rate was 36.7% and the associated false positive rate 1.6%. At a 5% cavity frequency the predictive positive values were 17% and 53%, respectively. Probing yielded a true positive rate of about 29% and a false positive rate of 1.1% with a predictive positive value of 50-57%. All radiolucencies extending into the dentin were associated with cavities. When the most liberal radiographic criterion was used 37.5% of all carious lesions, whether associated with a cavity or not, were detected and 3.8% of sound surfaces were falsely called carious. The corresponding predictive positive value at the actual rate of incipient lesions and lesions with cavities was 92.6%.