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Biomedical subjects

C Holcroft

Publications and source records attributed to C Holcroft.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Ten-year follow-up study of premenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer: an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the long-term survival of premenopausal women with previously untreated first recurrence or metastases of breast cancer entered on Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) study 2177 (EST 2177), which completed accrual in June 1983. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred forty-seven premenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer were entered onto the study. Eighty-nine patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and ER-unknown disease were randomized to receive cyclophosphamide (CTX), doxorubicin (ADR), and fluorouracil (FU) (CAF) or surgical oophorectomy plus CAF (O+CAF). Fifty-eight patients with known ER-negative disease were treated with CAF. Survival time was measured from the time of study entry. Randomization was stratified by performance status (PS), dominant metastatic site, and ER status. RESULTS: One hundred thirty patients were eligible. The median survival time of randomized patients was 35 months (90% confidence interval, 28.9 to 54.3), with 28% alive at 5 years. The overall median survival duration, including ER-negative patients, was 30 months. There was no significant difference in survival time between the randomized treatments (median, 42 months for O+CAF and 30 months for CAF). In models of survival time, age > or = 45 years and last menstruation within 1 month were associated with significantly longer survival (P < .004 for each). There were also three significant interactions with treatment (even after correction for multiple comparisons): age (P = .00009; O+CAF associated with longer survival in patients < 45 years, CAF associated with longer survival in patients > 45 years), PS (P = .002; O+CAF associated with consistently better survival in PS O patients), and disease-free interval (DFI). CONCLUSION: Long-term follow-up data of premenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer show a longer than expected median survival time at 2.5 years overall and close to 5 years for patients treated with O+CAF who were ER-positive or had a good PS.

Adult↗

Journal writing as a complementary therapy for reactive depression: a rehabilitation teaching program.

Brief, recurrent, reactive, or situational depression is a common and costly comorbidity that affects chronically ill patients and their family members. This article describes a program that teaches those individuals how to monitor and cope with symptoms of depression by writing daily in a journal. Twenty patients and family members attended teaching sessions at which videotaped scenes of other patients managing symptoms of depression were shown. After viewing the six scenes, participants wrote about their reactions to each scene and listed the emotions they had experienced that were similar to those shown in the tape. They were then asked to record daily for 4 months their emotions and reactions to situations and to also daily self-rate their levels of energy. They were also provided with a list of recommended activities in which to engage when they were depressed. Two psychiatric nurses evaluated the writings and concluded that the program was influential in helping patients and families overcome many emotionally draining reactions to adverse circumstances.

Adjustment Disorders↗