Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy and health-related quality of life in postoperative breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy: N-SAS BC 02, a randomized clinical trial

Purpose

To elucidate whether adjuvant taxane monotherapy is a feasible and tolerable for postoperative breast cancer patients, we evaluated the severity of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) and the relative tolerability of regimens by health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment in node-positive breast cancer patients treated with taxane-containing regimens.

Methods

We evaluated CIPN and HRQOL in the first 300 patients enrolled in a larger (1,060 total) multicenter phase III trial randomized to one of four adjuvant regimens: (1) anthracycline–cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel (ACP), (2) AC followed by docetaxel (ACD), (3) paclitaxel alone (PTX), or (4) docetaxel alone (DTX). CIPN was assessed by the Patient Neurotoxicity Questionnaire (PNQ) and the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria, and HRQOL by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). CIPN and HRQOL scores were compared between ACP and ACD vs. PTX and DTX, and ACP and PTX vs. ACD and DTX.

Results

PNQ sensory scores were significantly higher in patients treated with taxane monotherapy compared to treatment with AC followed by taxane (P?=?.003). No significant differences in PNQ sensory scores were observed between the ACP and PTX vs. ACD and DTX regimens (P?=?.669). Regardless of taxane regimen, PNQ severity scores for CIPN appear to be largely reversible within 1?year of adjuvant treatment. No significant difference in FACT-G scores was observed between any regimens during the study treatments.

Conclusions

Patient-reported CIPN was significantly more severe with single-agent adjuvant taxane compared to AC followed by taxane treatment; however, the HRQOL findings support that single-agent taxane treatment is tolerable.     

Strategy for marginally resectable lung cancer

Lung cancer accounts for the largest number of new cases of cancer deaths annually. The treatment of locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC)will continue to be a problem for many years. In particular, the border-zone subset of stage III A(N2)patients, which lies between the generally resectable stage I and II tumors and the unresectable stage III B patients, has been the subject of a wide variety of clinical trials incorporating various combinations of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery.What is the ideal therapy for stage III A(N2)patients ? is a controversial question, and the role of surgery is not clearly defined because of its heterogeneous nature. Most importantly, treatment decisions for these patients should be dictated by the stage of the patients' disease and the patients' performance status, medical comorbidities, and preferences. At our hospital, therefore, all of these patients' data are discussed at our cancer-board conference, incorporating the options of thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists to determine the optimal prospective treatment strategies for the patients. We focused on a treatment strategy for the patients with the so called marginally resectable' lung cancer in this article.     

Flexible Thermoelectric Generator Based on Polycrystalline SiGe Thin Films

Flexible and reliable thermoelectric generators (TEGs) will be essential for future energy harvesting sensors. In this study, we synthesized p- and n-type SiGe layers on a high heat-resistant polyimide film using metal-induced layer exchange (LE) and demonstrated TEG operation. Despite the low process temperature (<500 °C), the polycrystalline SiGe layers showed high power factors of 560 µW m⁻¹ K⁻² for p-type Si_0.4Ge_0.6 and 390 µW m⁻¹ K⁻² for n-type Si_0.85Ge_0.15, owing to self-organized doping in LE. Furthermore, the power factors indicated stable behavior with changing measurement temperature, an advantage of SiGe as an inorganic material. An in-plane π-type TEG based on these SiGe layers showed an output power of 0.45 µW cm⁻² at near room temperature for a 30 K temperature gradient. This achievement will enable the development of environmentally friendly and highly reliable flexible TEGs for operating micro-energy devices in the future Internet of Things.     

Carcinoid tumor of the lung: clinicopathological study of 32 cases.

A retrospective study was conducted on 32 patients who had had bronchial carcinoid tumors between 1965 and 1989. The average age of the patients was 48.5 years, with a male to female ratio of 3.6:1. Of the 32 patients, 28 were diagnosed pathologically to have typical bronchial carcinoid tumors and the other four, atypical bronchial carcinoid tumors. Twenty-two of the 28 typical bronchial carcinoid tumors were classified as stage I, but only one of the four atypical bronchial carcinoid tumors was at stage I. Two typical carcinoid tumor patients and two atypical carcinoid tumor patients were found, pathologically, to have lymph node metastasis. The typical carcinoid tumors showed a more significant endobronchial polypoid growth than the atypical carcinoid tumors (P = 0.0138). The five-year-survival rate was 100% in patients with typical carcinoid tumors and 25% in those with atypical carcinoid tumors. The difference between the five-year-survival rate for the typical carcinoid and atypical carcinoid patients was statistically significant (P = 0.001).     

Superior sulcus lung cancer invading the ribs and brachial plexus successfully resected by modified trap-door thoracotomy after induction chemoradiotherapy

We report on a 49-year-old male patient presented with right superior sulcus lung adenocarcinoma, which had invaded the first and second ribs and brachial plexus. He underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy, which resulted in a partial response. The tumor was resected along with the first and second ribs without difficulty via a modified trapdoor thoracotomy. The brachial plexus was preserved, and the surgical margin was microscopically negative for cancer due to the effect of the neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy which degenerated most of the tumor into scar tissue. We conclude that modified trapdoor thoracotomy is a good approach for resection of superior sulcus lung cancer invasive to the first and second ribs and brachial plexus. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is also necessary to achieve a negative surgical margin.     

Clinico-pathological study of primary malignant chest wall tumors

Clinicopathological studies of primary malignant chest wall tumor on 16 cases operated between 1962 and 1988 were made. Of 9 osteogenic sarcomas, 8 cases were chondrosarcoma and 1 case was Ewing's sarcoma. Of 7 soft part sarcomas, 2 cases were fibrosarcoma, liposarcoma and neurogenic sarcoma respectively, and one case was hemangiosarcoma. Most of the cases had symptoms, such as chest mass and/or chest pain comprehend symptoms for more than one year. The intrathoracic growth of tumor is common, especially in osteogenic sarcoma. The maximum size of tumor was 8.2 cm in a mean diameter. Preoperative histological diagnosis is difficult to make even though various radiologic diagnosis or pathological technique as biopsy or cytology were assessed. And true rate of preoperative diagnosis is limited only 43.8%. Wide resection combined with the tissue distant more than 3 cm length from tumor is recommended and 6 cases underwent combined resection of diaphragm, pericardium or lung. 3 cases underwent chest wall reconstruction using the Marlex mesh and 10 cases were able to direct closure, in 13 cases with ribs resection. The 5 year survival rate of endurable cases was 62.2%, and that of soft tissue sarcoma (68.6%) is better than that of osteogenic sarcoma (41.7%). The recurrent or metastatic rate in high, 7 cases (43.8%), but reoperation was added for 5 cases of local recurrence or for a case of lung metastasis. 5 year survival rate of cases with recurrence or metastases is relatively good, 46.8%, especially excellent in 4 cases with recurred lesions after more than 2 years of tumor free interval.     

Prognostic factors in lung cancer

For 1,886 cases, out of total 1,982 lung cancer cases, which had been admitted to and undergone resection at National Cancer Center Hospital during the period between May, 1962 and December, 1987, excluding cases of multiple primaries and low grade malignancies, prognostic factors have been reviewed and examined. Prognosis does not depend on only one factor, but many complicated factors, however, 5 year survival rate was very good for stage I and stage II cases, for which curative resection could have been performed. There have been difference histologically in prognoses between cases of squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, large cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma, but prognoses of stage I and II cases were good in the group, for which curative resection was possible. Prognostic factors of lung cancer cases can be epitomized by staging of the disease and histological type and it is evident from the review on these cases that early detection, early treatment and indication of curative resection should be pursued as much as possible.