Syed A Hussain

..The use of cytotoxic drugs such as gemcitabine and taxanes synchronous with radiation remains experimental today but may be incorporated into refined treatment protocols in coming years...

..This study shows that over-expression of BCL2 in patients receiving synchronous chemoradiotherapy is an independent indicator of poor survival in muscle invasive TCC of the bladder...

..Future studies should stratify patients according to the number of risk factors they have to avoid imbalance in treatment groups and patients should be carefully selected...

..94). There was a trend towards longer survival for tumour expressing CA IX strongly. This is likely to be a reflection of the significantly higher rate of strong CA IX expression in non-invasive cancers influencing these survival data...

..A national phase III trial BC2001 (www.bc2001.org.uk) exploring the effects of synchronous chemoradiotherapy with this regimen is currently recruiting...

..The overall median survival was 16 months (range 10.1-26.6 months). G plus C every 3 weeks is active and well tolerated in an outpatient setting, even in patients receiving prior platinum-based regimens and with poor renal reserve...

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..In other disease sites, synchronous chemoradiotherapy has been associated with increased local control and improved survival, as compared with radiotherapy alone...

..These include strategies to overcome endocrine resistance and methods to target deregulated endocrine and growth factor signaling pathways using gene and immunotherapy approaches...

..Current understanding of the role of genetic and epigenetic factors in the etiology of germ cell tumors and the biochemical mechanisms underlying chemotherapy sensitivity and resistance is discussed in detail in this review...

..This review discusses the evidence for various chemotherapy regimens in the adjuvant and metastatic settings, and examines the current evidence for the timing of radiotherapy in the adjuvant setting...

..There is a need for better biomarkers to both detect bladder cancer and distinguish muscle-invasive (stage T2+) from non-invasive (stage Ta/T1) disease. We assess whether MALDI-TOF-MS of the urine peptidome can achieve this...

..The challenge remains to design clinical trials to optimally evaluate these agents and allow feedback to the laboratory for their ongoing development...

..This article documents the concerns that linger over the efficacy and morbidity of cisplatin-based chemotherapy and describes a national trial investigating a potentially less morbid 5FU and mitomycin alternative...

..A better understanding of the molecular biology of cancer may also aid in guiding the most appropriate use of existing therapies, such as conventional chemotherapy...

..At present there are a number of interesting therapeutic agents with potential activity in HCC. The challenge now is the design of clinical trials to optimally evaluate these agents...

..It is imperative to study the role of these mechanisms in prospective clinical trials in a quest to find predictive markers that can help to tailor treatments, keeping in view the molecular heterogeneity...

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..The choice of different platinum, and total dose of etoposide and bleomycin and their impact on the clinical outcome in context of various trials is discussed in detail in this review...

..There was a steep decline in renal function in months preceding the diagnosis of BKVN, and reduction in calcineurin inhibitor dose, but not overall immunosuppression, correlated with stabilization of renal function...