Biomedical subjects

R Disci

Publications and source records attributed to R Disci.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

The effect of venlafaxine on ongoing and experimentally induced pain in neuropathic pain patients: a double blind, placebo controlled study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of this randomized double blind placebo controlled study was to investigate the effectiveness and the safety of venlafaxine XR 75 and 150 mg on ongoing pain and on quantitative sensory tests in 60 patients with neuropathic pain for 8 weeks. METHODS: Evaluation parameters consisted of ongoing pain intensity (VAS), patient satisfaction, side effects, global efficacy and tolerance. Quantitative sensory measurements taken from the affected area before and after the drug treatment included pin-prick hyperalgesia, allodynia, detection and pain thresholds to electrical and heat stimuli, temporal summation of repetitive electrical and heat stimuli. RESULTS: A total of 55 patients completed the study. VAS scores decreased significantly compared to the baseline measurements in all groups. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding pain intensity and escape medication. The areas of allodynia and pin-prick hyperalgesia decreased significantly in venlafaxine groups compared to the placebo. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding the detection thresholds (electrical and heat). The pain threshold and the summation threshold to electrical stimuli and the summation threshold to heat stimuli increased significantly following treatment in both venlafaxine groups. In addition, the degree of the temporal summation to electrical and heat stimuli decreased significantly following treatment in both venlafaxine groups compared to the placebo. CONCLUSION: The study showed significant effect of venlafaxine in the manifestations of hyperalgesia and temporal summation, but not on the ongoing pain intensity. Furthermore, the quantitative sensory tests provided complementing information to the clinical measures.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Multiple primary neoplasms at a single institution: differences between synchronous and metachronous neoplasms.

During the 10-year period (1987-1996) of our study, 26,255 patients with cancer were admitted to our clinic and, of these, 271 (1%) patients had multiple primary malignant tumors. Ninety-two (34%) patients had synchronous tumors (synchronous group), and 179 (66%) patients had metachronous tumors (metachronous group). The mean age at first diagnosis was higher in the former group. The ratio of men to women was 1.36 in the synchronous group and 0.74 in the metachronous group (p = 0.018). Smokers and drinkers were more common in the synchronous group. Breast cancer and lung cancer were most prevalent, and associations between head/neck and lung cancer and between breast and breast cancer were the most frequent associations in both the synchronous and the metachronous group. The frequency of aerodigestive tumors was higher and that of mesenchymal tumors was lower in the synchronous group than in the metachronous group. Localization in the medial region and in the head/neck was more frequent in the synchronous group than in the case of metachronous secondary tumors.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2000

Angiogenesis and p53 protein expression in breast cancer: prognostic roles and interrelationships.

The authors have analyzed, on the one hand, the prognostic impact of microvessel density (MVD) and p53 protein expression in patients with breast cancer, and on the other hand, the correlation between the microvascular pattern and the p53 protein expression. Tumors from 120 patients whose paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were available were analyzed using the immunohistochemical method. MVD and p53 protein expression were correlated with histologic grade and tumor size, respectively. The patients with highly vascularized tumor (high MVD) had decreased overall survival (p = 0.04), whereas overexpressed p53 patients did not. In multivariate analysis, axillary lymph node status (p = 0.007), tumor size (p = 0.01), and MVD (p = 0.02) showed important prognostic influence on overall survival. When the simultaneous influence of MVD and p53 protein expression on survival were analyzed, no interrelationship was detected. The results demonstrate the prognostic impact of MVD on overall survival in breast cancer and no association between MVD and p53 protein expression.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed2000

Crossover clinical study comparing the pharmacokinetics of etoposide (75 mg) administered as 25-mg capsules three times a day versus once a day.

Some investigators have postulated that a constant low blood level might be the ideal mode of treatment, while others have seen no reason to divide up the daily dose. To our knowledge, this study is the first to include crossover of subjects to eradicate individual differences. Our aim was to compare the pharmacokinetic effects of administering etoposide three times a day vs. once a day as 25 mg capsules. Two groups of four patients each received 75 mg/day oral etoposide for 2 days either as 75 mg once daily, or as 25 mg three times daily for 2 days. On days 8 and 9, the treatments were switched between groups. On the one-dose schedule, Cpeek (peak plasma concentration) was greater than 2 micrograms/ml in five patients and greater than 3 micrograms/ml in three patients, while in none of the patients on the three-dose schedule did the peak exceed 2 micrograms/ml. No significant difference was found in terms of Cmean (calculated by dividing the area under the curve by the observed time) between the two treatments. Variability of blood concentrations of etoposide over a 24 h period was high on the one-dose schedule (median 95%, range 54-148%) but it was lower on the three-dose schedule (median 39%, range 28%-55%). No significant differences were found between the two different dosing schedules in terms of the median duration of etoposide blood levels above 0.5 microgram/ml and above 1.0 microgram/ml. These results suggest that detailed clinical toxicity and efficacy data are needed to clarify the possible benefits of the fractionated administration of oral etoposide.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Combined effects of epirubicin and tamoxifen on the cell-cycle phases in estrogen-receptor-negative Ehrlich ascites tumor cells.

Laboratory and clinical data suggest some interactions between cytotoxic agents and tamoxifen. The mechanisms of these interactions differ in estrogen-receptor-negative cell lines. The ability of tamoxifen to modify the effects of epirubicin on the cell-cycle phases of estrogen-receptor-negative Ehrlich's carcinoma ascitic cells (EATC) was studied in mice. The results showed that combination of tamoxifen with epirubicin decreased the thymidine labelling index more effectively than did either drug alone. Adding tamoxifen to epirubicin treatment induced both an early S-phase and G2-M-phase arrest and a later G0-G1-phase arrest in EATC. An increase of S0 cells in the quiescent fraction could play a role in these changes, and some of these quiescent cells may not be viable, causing them to die later. In conclusion, the data suggest that continuous exposure to tamoxifen might modify the effects of epirubicin via cell-cycle perturbations.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Intraperitoneal cisplatin--mitoxantrone in ovarian cancer patients with minimal residual disease.

A phase II trial was conducted to further explore the potential of salvage intraperitoneal (IP) cisplatin-based therapy in patients with residual ovarian cancer. Twenty-five patients were treated with a regimen of cisplatin (75 mg/m2) and mitoxantrone (15 mg/m2) delivered IP every three weeks for a maximum of six cycles. Ten patients achieved a pathologically complete response (pCR) and six were clinically stable without evidence of disease. After a median follow-up of 18 months, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 16 months (95% confidence interval-CI-3-29%). The actuarial PFS at 24 months was 36% (95% CI 13-59). Overall eight out of 25 patients (32%) had an IP relapse and thus were considered as local treatment failures. The major toxic side effects were nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and renal toxicity. Future trials exploring IP delivery of these drugs should attempt to optimize drug dose and schedule and subset analysis of clinical studies should help in identifying patients who are particularly sensitive to this therapeutic approach.

Adult↗