The effect of coffee on blood lipids and blood pressure. Results from a Norwegian cross-sectional study, men and women, 40-42 years

The association between boiled and filter coffee consumption and levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure was studied, including 14168 men and 14859 women. A total of 94% drank coffee, 55% of the men and 48% of the women drank more than 4 cups per day. The type of coffee consumed varied between the counties, from 11 to 49% boiled and 49 to 87% filter coffee. Serum cholesterol increased linearly with increasing coffee consumption, and most strongly for boiled coffee. Controlling for other variables gave, for boiled coffee, an 8% increase for men and 10% for women. For filter coffee drinkers the coffee dose-cholesterol association remained significant only for women. Triglycerides showed a negative association with coffee, significant after adjustment for other variables. This effect was stronger for filter than for boiled coffee in both sexes. For men and women drinking 1 cup of coffee or more, a significant negative association between both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and number of cups of filter coffee was found. The influence of high consumption of different coffee-types on death rate from coronary heart disease is discussed.     

High-dose epirubicin in chemotherapy refractory non-seminomatous germ cell cancer: a phase II study. EORTC Genito-Urinary Tract Cancer Co-operative Group. EORTC Early Clinical Trials Group.

Eighteen patients with progressive disseminated, platinum-resistant germ cell tumors were treated with epirubicin 135 mg/m2, every 3 weeks. One patient had stable disease, 17 developed progression. Myelosuppression was dose-limiting. One patient died of neutropenic septicemia. High-dose epirubicin is not active against platinum-resistant germ cell cancer.     

Recombinant interferon alfa-2a with or without vinblastine in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: results of a European multi-center phase III study.

A total of 178 patients with metastatic renal cell cancer were randomized to receive interferon alfa-2a (rIFN alfa-2a) or interferon alfa-2a+vinblastine (VLB). IFN alfa-2a was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 18 MIU 3 times a week and VLB was given intravenously at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg once every 3 weeks. The response rate was 11% for patients on monotherapy and 24% for those on combination treatment. The 5-year survival for 145 eligible patients was 9%, independently from the treatment arm. The performance status was significantly related to long-term prognosis, and 13% of the patients with performance status 0 were alive at 5 years, as compared to 6% and 0% for patients with a WHO grade of 1 and 2, respectively. The most frequent adverse events in both treatment arms were flu-like symptoms (95%), fatigue (70%) and gastrointestinal disturbances (68%). Leukopenia was observed more frequently with combination treatment (53%) than with IFN alfa-2a alone (30%). In conclusion, rIFN alfa-2a monotherapy at this dose and schedule has modest antitumor activity in metastatic renal cell cancer. The combination of rIFN alfa-2a+VLB results in a doubling of the response rate, but this does not translate into prolonged survival. Toxicity (except leukopenia) and tolerance were similar in both treatment arms.     

Patterns of primary care and survival in 336 consecutive unselected Norwegian patients with bladder cancer.

The outcome of 336 unselected patients diagnosed as having bladder cancer in 1985 in a southern health region of Norway was studied. Two hundred and forty patients had superficial bladder cancer (Tis, Ta and T1). Seventy-four had T2-3 and 17 had T4 bladder tumours at the time of diagnosis (the T-category was unknown in five cases). In 46 of 248 evaluable cases (19%) 12 or more months had elapsed between the onset of symptoms and the histological confirmation of the diagnosis. The information received from the initial routine histology report was inadequate in 51 of 240 (21%) of the patients with superficial bladder cancer. Among the 91 patients with muscle-infiltrating tumours the primary treatment varied considerably, and only 15 patients underwent total cystectomy as the initial treatment. Only 46 in whom muscle-infiltrating tumours were diagnosed initially were referred to the regional uro-oncological unit during the course of the disease. The cancer-corrected, four-year survival was 86% and 42% for superficial and muscle infiltrating bladder cancer, respectively. The comparable figures for crude survival were 64% and 34%, respectively. The lack of optimal standard treatment of muscle-infiltrating bladder cancer warrants the introduction of clinical trials to assess both curative and palliative regimens as well as to study prognostic factors such as proliferation and immunohistochemical parameters by uro-oncological units. Scandinavian Cancer Registries should consider the optional recording of the T category on the case record forms for newly diagnosed cases of bladder cancer.