A double-blind comparative study to estimate the effects of tiapride when compared to placebo was conducted in 29 patients with pain from cancer. Each patient acted for his own control. Excellent or good results were obtained in 14 cases with tiapride against 6 with placebo, and moderate or no results in 15 patients on tiapride and 23 on placebo. There is a highly significant statistical difference in favour of tiapride for efficacy, but no significant difference was noted between tolerance of tiapride and placebo.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Anticancerous chemotherapy trial with duborimycin. Analysis of 151 cases].

Duborimycin is a new antimitotic agent approaching danorubicin and adriamycin in activity which has been tried on 151 patients suffering from cancer of different types, is an advanced local/regional stage and/or metastatic disease. It was administered intravenously every fortnight in a mean unit dose of 400 mg, and the duration of the treatment ranged from 2 to 52 weeks. Objective improvement was registered in 56 patients of the 135 cases in whcih the results were assessed (around 41.4% of cases). In 4 cases the regression of tumour volume was greater than 50% (one of these cases was in melanoma, the other a sarcoma) and in 2 cases regression was complete (a squamous cell carcinoma and an embryonal testicular tumour). The subjective effects were appreciable in 53 of the 115 cases which could be studied (46%) and above all in the refractory pain of bony secondaries from breast cancer (a favourable response in 78% of cases). Manifestations of intolerance/toxicity were of a minor nature on the haematologic side, that cardiologic ones relatively frequent (18% of treated cases) and occasionally serious (2 cases of asystole). Great care is therefore necessary in supervision of the treatment. However, the first results obtained by this line of approach, notably in chemo-resistant forms of tumour such as melanoma and sarcomas, utilizing the very strict criteria in one analysis encourage further study of duborimycin in cases of this sort (preferably in association and in accordance with protocols of comparative trials) so that its place in cancer chemotherapy may be more precisely defined.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Chemotherapy of soft tissues sarcomas. Summary of a decade and current trends].

The results of palliative chemotherapy applied to 123 patients with disseminated soft tissue sarcomas are reviewed with the recent literature data. With the exception of embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas of children, which are considered separately, the response of these tumors to chemotherapy is poor but not negligible. The association of several active drugs should permit substantial progress, especially in the initial stage of local treatment, when the number of disseminated cells is still reduced. A follow-up of controlled clinical studies must specify the modalities of multidisciplinary treatment in an effort to reduce regional recurrence or metastasis.

Adolescent↗