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Biomedical subjects

D Warr

Publications and source records attributed to D Warr.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Combination chemotherapy with doxorubicin, dacarbazine, and ifosfamide in advanced adult soft tissue sarcoma. Canadian Sarcoma Group--National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group.

Forty-three adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma entered a pilot study of combination chemotherapy comprising 50 mg of doxorubicin/m2 by intravenous bolus, 850 mg of dacarbazine/m2 by 1-hour infusion, and 5 g of ifosfamide/m2 by 24-hour infusion with mesna uroprotection. The overall response rate in 40 assessable patients was 25% with two complete remissions. Twenty-four episodes of infection occurred in 148 courses (16%). These infections were usually associated with neutropenia (granulocyte count less than 0.5 X 10(9)/L), which occurred in 70% of the courses. These results do not differ from those elicited by each agent alone, and may reflect inadequacies of dose intensity or scheduling, or evaluation in a study population with adverse prognostic factors.

Adolescent↗

Influence of measurement error on assessment of response to anticancer chemotherapy: proposal for new criteria of tumor response.

The decision to use a given type of chemotherapy to treat cancer patients is often based on the prior demonstration that a proportion of similar patients has "responded" in a clinical trial. Most responses are recorded as a partial shrinkage of tumor, defined usually as a greater than 50% shrinkage of the sum of cross-sectional areas of index lesions for at least one month. The errors in categorization of response have been estimated by comparing measurements of several physicians on real or simulated malignant lesions. False categorization of partial response based on a comparison of two measurements of the same lesion was 1.3% and 12.6% for large and small simulated nodules, respectively, 13.1% for malignant neck nodes, and 0.8% for metastatic lung nodules. Partial response for hepatic lesions has been defined by a 50% or 30% decrease in liver span below the costal margin; these definitions led to a false categorization of partial response of 8.5% and 18.4%, respectively. Larger errors are evident when using the current definition of disease progression that requires only a 25% increase in area. False categorization of response is increased by comparing any of serial measurements with the initial lesions, as is usually done clinically. Many published trials have used criteria for response that are subject to large errors; an uncritical interpretation of their results may lead to inappropriate treatment of patients. Based on the results, new criteria for evaluating tumor response are proposed.

Analysis of Variance↗

On pain of death.

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Analgesia↗

Look twice.

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Nursing↗

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of group psychological therapy on survival in women with metastatic breast cancer.

In order to test the effect of a psychological intervention on survival from cancer, 66 women with metastatic breast cancer, all receiving standard medical care, were randomly assigned into two groups; one group (n = 30) attended the psychological intervention, consisting of 35 weekly, 2 h sessions of supportive plus cognitive behavioral therapy; the control group (n = 36) received only a home study cognitive behavioral package. No significant difference was found in survival post-randomization between the groups as assessed by a log rank test 5 years after the commencement of the study. As expected, several prognostic factors were significant predictors of survival: metastatic site, hormonal receptor status, and chemotherapy prior to randomization. While many personal and demographic variables did not influence survival, there was a significant effect of self-reported exercise (possibly due to better health). A small subgroup of intervention subjects who attended outside support groups also survived significantly longer than those who did not. The strengths and limitations of the present study are discussed, and the results contrasted with those of a well known study by Spiegel et al. (Spiegel, D., Bloom, J.R., Kraemer, H.C. and Gottheil, E. (1989) Lancet ii, 888-891). We propose that a different experimental design (correlative) may be needed to show any effect of self-help behaviors and psychological attributes in a small minority of patients.

Adult↗