Axel Grothey

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..Both studies demonstrated that chemotherapy can be administered intermittently without affecting the overall efficacy of treatment...

..Mechanistic studies in humans will be aided by the development and validation of surrogate clinical end points such as noninvasive assessment of hemodynamics and vascular changes within tumors, using imaging studies...

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..1 months was reported. The association between various pre- and post-treatment factors (including the use of bevacizumab beyond first progression [BBP]) and survival was examined...

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..Thus, the practicing oncologist needs to be aware of the limitations in the definition of surrogate endpoints in the adjuvant setting...

..As these two superior therapies have differing mechanisms of action, we explored whether the improved survival associated with the superior therapy was dependent on tumor response...

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..Definitive conclusions on the sequence and duration of front-line therapy and the most effective strategy to ameliorate toxicity await results of ongoing prospective clinical trials...

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..Data from randomized trials on third-line treatment are needed...

..Nonetheless, anti-VEGF therapy has enhanced the arsenal of anticancer therapies and has provided new insights into the biology of malignancy...

..This review will detail the results of these trials focused on capecitabine-based combinations...

..However, the importance of the availability of all three active cytotoxic agents, FU-LV, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin, on overall survival (OS) has not yet been evaluated...

..This paper presents a critical review of the evidence to support the utility of treatment interruption and reintroduction of oxaliplatin for the long-term management of mCRC...

..If validated, these results could have significant implications for the selection of patients for adjuvant therapy in this disease...

..Efficacy and toxicity of oxaliplatin (Eloxatin; Sanofi-Aventis, Paris, France) combined with irinotecan (IROX) were examined in 383 patients enrolled on the IROX arm of Intergroup Study N9741...

..We previously validated disease-free survival (DFS) after 3-year follow-up as an excellent predictor of 5-year OS results. Here we explore shorter term DFS and OS end points, as well as stage dependency...

..Leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) is the standard adjuvant therapy for resected stage III colon cancer. Adding cetuximab to FOLFOX benefits patients with metastatic wild-type KRAS but not mutated KRAS colon cancer...

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..Validation studies are needed to clarify the discrepancy and to assess the accuracy of these tools for predicting actual patient outcomes...

..Further adjuvant studies are testing the benefit of the addition of biologic therapies to oxaliplatin and irinotecan-based combination chemotherapy...

..We examined MMR status as a predictor of adjuvant therapy benefit in patients with stages II and III colon cancer...

..Limited data are available on the time course of treatment failures (recurrence and/or death), the nature and duration of adjuvant treatment benefit, and long-term recurrence rates in patients with resected stage II and III colon cancer...

..An international phase 3 trial was done to assess the multikinase inhibitor regorafenib in these patients...

..In a nonrandomized, retrospective study, intravenous (IV) calcium/magnesium (Ca/Mg) was associated with reduced oxaliplatin-induced sNT...

..Given a large enough patient pool, the randomized phase II designs provide a more accurate decision for screening agents before phase III testing...

..These advances have increased the overall survival of advanced colorectal cancer patients, which was once 6 months with best supportive care, to over 2 years if all active agents are used in the course of the disease...

..Prospective randomized trials are needed to further clarify the roles of these novel treatment options in the clinician's repertoire for metastatic CRC...

..Additionally, there are numerous other angiogenesis agents targeting VEGF and other proangiogenic systems in clinical development...

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..Additional research is clearly warranted to achieve the goal of 'predictive oncology'...

..A shorter-term end point providing convincing evidence to allow treatment comparisons could significantly speed the translation of advances into practice...

..5 months from treatment initiation. Rexin-G is well tolerated in doses up to 6 x 10(11) CFU in patients with recurrent pancreatic cancer, but there was no evidence of clinical antitumor activity...

..We examined length of stay (LOS), laboratory patterns, medication usage, morbidity, and mortality of patients hospitalized after HAE for metastatic neuroendocrine tumors...

..We examined the frequency, tumor characteristics, and prognostic impact of HER2 protein expression and gene amplification in patients with curatively resected esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC)...

..Clinical trials typically enroll less than 10% of patients with a PS of 2 (PS2); thus, the benefit of systemic chemotherapy in PS2 patients is uncertain...

..Lastly, paclitaxel causes a unique acute pain syndrome which has been hypothesised to be caused by neurologic injury. No drugs, to date, have been proven to prevent this toxicity...

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..This article reviews the evidence on chemotherapeutic regimens in the elderly with colorectal, pancreatic, and gastroesophageal cancers, and discusses a practical approach to provide the best outcomes for older patients...

..This trial served as basis for a randomized multicenter phase II study comparing capecitabine/oxaliplatin and capecitabine/irinotecan as first-line therapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer...

..Consequently, oncology nurses will be assuming a more significant and pivotal role in the efficient education and support of patients during home-based therapy with capecitabine...

..In conclusion, survey-based analysis of treatment algorithms can provide valuable insights into clinical practice in oncology and can disclose deficits in patient care as demonstrated here in colorectal cancer...

..Substantial cost savings without incurring losses to providers may be realized if patients are transferred from the hospital setting to the office-based setting and treated with capecitabine...

..The predictability of neurotoxicity associated with oxaliplatin-based therapy should allow patients and doctors to develop strategies to manage this side effect in view of the individual patient's clinical situation...

..To assess the antiemetic efficacy of an oral suspension of granisetron/dexamethasone in patients receiving chemotherapy and to determine whether quality-of-life parameters influence the risk for postchemotherapy nausea and vomiting (PCNV)...

..Further clinical studies re ongoing and planned to test panitumumab in combination with chemotherapy in first-line therapy of advanced-stage CRC and adjuvant treatment of colon cancer...

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..8.6 months; HR, 0.89; P = 0.1871) prolonged PFS compared with respective placebo arms; however, it did not show statistical significance with the FOLFOX4 regimen. The adverse events were manageable and comparable between treatment arms...

..To compare the use of capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) with infusional fluorouracil (FU)/folinic acid plus oxaliplatin (FUFOX) as first-line therapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC)...

..This article reviews the impact of EGF receptor inhibitors on improving survival in CRC when combined with oxaliplatin-containing regimens...

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..Rituximab was continued for another 6 months with subsequent consolidation radiotherapy. This is the first report of an enduring complete remission (20 months) of a non-CNS lymphomatoid granulomatosis treated with rituximab...

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..However, additional defining and eventually targeting the exact molecular mechanism blocking caspase-9 activation might lead to more selective therapeutic approaches to overcome cisplatin resistance in germ cell cancer...

..Among these, regimens including FU as bolus exhibit a higher rate of toxic deaths than regimens using a continuous infusion of FU, such as epirubicin, cisplatin, and continuous-infusion FU...