International Consensus Conference on High-Dose Therapy with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas: report of the jury.
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Publications and source records attributed to T Philip.
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CONTEXT: The "Standards, Options and Recommendations" (SOR) project, started in 1993, is a collaboration between the Federation of the French Cancer Centres (FNCLCC), the 20 French Cancer Centres and specialists from French Public Universities, General Hospitals and Private Clinics. For pediatric issues, this project is a collaboration between the FNCLCC and the French Society of Pediatric Oncology (SFOP). The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and outcome for cancer patients. The methodology is based on literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts, with feedback from specialists in cancer care delivery. OBJECTIVES: To develop clinical practice guidelines according to the definitions of Standards, Options and Recommendations for the clinical care of osteosarcoma in children and adult. METHODS: Data have been identified by literature search using Medline (1985-december 1998) and the expert groups personal reference lists. The main criteria considered were incidence, risk factors, prognostic factors and efficacy of treatment. Once the guidelines were defined, the document was submitted for review to 27 national and international independent reviewers, and to the medical committees of the 20 French Cancer Centres and, in particular, the 4 which have particular expertise in pediatric cancer management. RESULTS: The main recommendations for osteosarcoma management are that: 1) the clinical diagnosis is based on appropriate clinical and radiological findings; 2) the final diagnosis is pathological and the biopsy should be performed by the surgeon who will subsequently perform the definitive surgery; 3) surgical biopsy must be of adequate size and performed by an experienced surgeon; 4) the therapeutic strategy for osteosarcoma is based on surgery with neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy given in experienced centres. Inclusion of high dose methotrexate is recommended for children, and the dose of methotrexate must be adapted for adults. Inclusion of children in SFOP protocols and adults in EORTC and FNCLCC clinical trials is recommended; 5) treatment of metastatic osteosarcoma is based on chemotherapy and surgery to lung metastases which may be curative. Amputation is rarely appropriate. Inclusion of children in SFOP and of adult in EORTC and FNCLCC clinical trials for metastatic osteosarcoma is recommended; 6) at the present time, there are no clear data on which to base guidelines for timing and duration of follow-up studies in this condition.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma consists of a group of disorders which is increasing for the last decades. In the USA, since the early 1970s, the incidence rate has increased by almost 60% and ranges from 3 to 4% per year, which is faster than for the majority of cancers. Important advances in our knowledge of histopathology together with new diagnostic tools, as well as the improvement of the registered data and ageing of the population, only partially explain this increase. Two viruses have been identified as possible etiologic agents for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: the Epstein-Barr virus and HTLV-I. More recently, HHV8 and the hepatitis C virus have been incriminated in the occurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Congenital and acquired immunodeficiencies (due to immunosuppressive therapy and viral disease such as Aids) might also represent predisposing factors. However, the epidemic HIV infection is the most strongly correlated with the increasing incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the United States. Finally, epidemiologic studies indicate that environmental factors may play an important role in the etiology of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, specially toxic chemicals used in farming.
The objectives of the present study were to investigate the prognostic value of the International Prognostic Index (IPI) at relapse in the 215 patients with intermediate- or high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) included in the PARMA trial. The IPI at relapse was available in 204 (95%) of these patients. Response rates to 2 courses of DHAP were 77%, 54%, 55%, and 42% in patients with an IPI of 0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively (P <.02), whereas complete response (CR) rates were 33%, 29%, 20%, and 0% in the same groups of patients (P <.03). With a median follow-up period of 79 months, overall survival (OS) at 5 years was 46%, 25%, 25%, and 11% in these four groups (P <.001). One hundred nine patients responding to 2 courses of DHAP were randomized to receive either BEAC (carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, cyclophosphamide and mesna) followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) or 4 additional courses of DHAP: IPI at relapse was found highly correlated to OS in patients treated in the DHAP arm (5-year OS: 48%, 21%, 33%, and 0% for IPI 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively; P =.006), but not in the BEAC arm (5-year OS: 51%, 47%, 50%, and 50% for IPI 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively; P =.90). OS was significantly superior in the BEAC arm as compared with the DHAP arm in patients with an IPI >0 (P <.05), but not in patients with an IPI of 0. In conclusion, these results show that IPI correlates to response and overall survival in patients with aggressive NHL in relapse and enables us to identify patients with a significantly different outcome among those treated with conventional chemotherapy alone.
BACKGROUND: Recombinant human interleukin-2 (aldesleukin) and recombinant human interferon alfa can induce notable tumor regression in a limited number of patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. We conducted a multicenter, randomized trial to determine the effect of each cytokine independently and in combination, and to identify patients who are best suited for this treatment. METHODS: Four hundred twenty-five patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma were randomly assigned to receive either a continuous intravenous infusion of interleukin-2, subcutaneous injections of interferon alfa-2a, or both. The main outcome measure was the response rate; secondary outcomes were the rates of event-free and overall survival. Predictive factors for response and rapid progression were identified by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Response rates were 6.5 percent, 7.5 percent, and 18.6 percent (P<0.01) for the groups receiving interleukin-2, interferon alfa-2a, and interleukin-2 plus interferon alfa-2a, respectively. At one year, the event-free survival rates were 15 percent, 12 percent, and 20 percent, respectively (P=0.01). There was no significant difference in overall survival among the three groups. Toxic effects of therapy were more common in patients receiving interleukin-2 than in those receiving interferon alfa-2a. Response to treatment was associated with having metastasis to a single organ and with receiving the combined treatment. The probability of rapid progression of disease was at least 70 percent for patients with at least two metastatic sites, liver metastases, and a period of less than one year between the diagnosis of the primary tumor and the appearance of metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Cytokines are active in a few patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. The higher response rate and longer event-free survival obtained with a combination of cytokines must be balanced against the toxicity of such treatment.
BACKGROUND: Platinum derivatives are, among others (cyclophosphamide, etoposide, doxorubicin), the most active drugs in neuroblastomas. As the combination of carboplatin (CBDCA) with cisplatinum (CDDP) was proven effective in some carcinomas, we proposed it as a second-line therapy in neuroblastoma. PROCEDURE: Nineteen children with neuroblastoma and primary refractory disease (seven cases) or relapse either untreated (eight cases) or resistant to second-line therapy (four cases), were treated with cisplatinum and carboplatinum (CACIS) combination. All but one patient had previously received CDDP (median 400: 200 to 1,200 mg/m2) and 15 out of 19 had also received CBDCA (median 1,600:800 to 5,000 mg/m2). Twelve had previously received intensification with megatherapy. The CACIS regimen included CBDCA (100 mg/m2/day as a 1-hour infusion, for 4 days) and simultaneous CDDP (25 mg/m2/day as a 3-hour infusion, for 4 days). RESULTS: Eight out of 19 patients (42%) achieved a partial response with a duration of response of 3 to 12 months (median 6). No patient achieved a complete response. The toxicity was mainly hematological, though one patient died after two courses of an interstitial pneumonia of unknown origin. Only one patient developed alopecia. The renal toxicity was low. CONCLUSIONS: The CACIS regimen is an effective combination of platinum derivatives. It may be proposed as second line protocol, especially for children with neuroblastoma who relapse after megatherapy.
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Administration of combination chemotherapy to children with metastatic neuroblastoma induces profound myelosuppression resulting in chemotherapy treatment delays and febrile neutropenic episodes. The objective of this randomised multicentre study was to assess the incidence, duration and severity of neutropenia when filgrastim is added to induction chemotherapy administered to patients with metastatic neuroblastoma. In this study, 59 patients with metastatic neuroblastoma were randomised to receive chemotherapy (control group, n = 28) or chemotherapy plus filgrastim (filgrastim group, n = 31). Chemotherapy consisted of four cycles of cyclophosphamide, vincristine and doxorubicin (CADO) alternating at 21-day intervals with cisplatin and etoposide (CDDP-VP16). Filgrastim was administered subcutaneously at a dose of 5 micrograms/kg/day from day 7 for up to 14 days. The incidence of neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count [ANC] < 0.5 x 10(9)/l) in the filgrastim group was not reduced after the first CADO course. However, significant reductions were observed after courses 2, 3 and 4. The duration of neutropenia and of intravenous antibiotic use were significantly reduced in the filgrastim group over the whole study period (9 days versus 26 days, P < 0.001; 12 days versus 20 days, P = 0.04, respectively). However, the duration of hospitalisation and the incidence of febrile neutropenia were not significantly reduced. Compliance to treatment was good and the ability to administer chemotherapy without treatment delays was significantly better in the filgrastim group (P < 0.05). Event-free survival was greater in the filgrastim than in the control group (2.4 years versus 1.3 years; P = 0.072). Filgrastim is a beneficial adjunct to combination induction chemotherapy used in the treatment of metastatic neuroblastoma.
Between January 1986 and May 1996, 870,313 children were tested in European neuroblastoma (NB) screening programmes. Among these children, 82 cases of NB (age range 4-24 months, median 11 months) were detected by screening. 83% of the patients had localised NB and 17% were diagnosed with generalised NB (stage 4, 10%; stage 4s, 7%). Unfavourable biological markers (MYCN amplification, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) 1p36, DNA di/tetraploidy) were observed in 14% of 76 biologically examined cases. The median follow-up time of all the patients was 21.5 months (range 1-101 months). To date, 69 patients are in complete remission (CR) and 2 patients have died due to therapy (stage 4, 1 patient; stage 3, 1 patient with unfavourable markers). Apart from screened patients, 16 other patients with NB were found who had previously had a normal screening test, i.e. 'false negative' patients (age range 10-41 months, median 31.5 months). The median interval between screening and diagnosis was 24.5 months (range 6-35 months). 11 of the 'false negative' patients suffered from generalised NB (stage 4) and 5 had localised NB at diagnosis. Unfavourable biological markers were observed in 7/12 patients. 5 patients have died, 2 achieved partial remission and 9 CR. 9 of the 11 patients with unfavourable biological markers diagnosed due to NB screening are currently in CR. It is very likely that, among the patients without unfavourable biological markers, we detected tumours which may have regressed spontaneously. These children may have undergone 'unnecessary,' but unavoidable, diagnostic procedures and therapy. To reduce the number of 'false negative' patients, a later screening could be helpful and should be evaluated.
Between 1985 and 1996, 18 patients with diffuse centrocytic lymphoma (DCL), including nine patients with an established histological and phenotypic diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), received 19 courses of high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Five patients received HDCT as consolidation treatment after first-line standard chemotherapy, and 14 after a relapse or progression, including one patient in early relapse after the first transplant. Six patients (33%) were in complete response (CR) prior to HDCT and 12 (67%) were in partial response: 10 (83%) of these 12 patients achieved CR at day 60 following HDCT. With a median follow-up of 30 months after HDCT, the 2-year overall and progression-free survivals of the whole series are 91 and 75%, respectively. The 2-year progression-free survivals are 74 and 75%, respectively, in the MCL and DCL subgroups.
Sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy (SHML, Rosai-Dorfman disease), is a well-defined histioproliferative disorder. The extranodal type of the disease is not uncommon, but CNS involvement is extraordinary. Moreover, the isolated extranodal intracranial manifestation of the disease is extremely rare. Only a few cases of the latter form have been reported. We present a case of meningioma-like intracranial lesion, which after total resection, pathologically and immunohistochemically proved to be an isolated form of the Rosai-Dorfman disease. No concurrent nodal involvement was found, even after a detailed postoperative diagnostic work-up.Two years follow-up disclosed full recovery from the CNS symptoms, while no other SHML signs were noted. The extranodal form of the Rosai-Dorfman Disease, nowadays has been enlisted in the differential diagnosis of the space occupying intracranial and skull base lesions. However, a number of questions, dealing with the preoperative diagnosis, the surgical strategies, as well as the natural history, the prognosis of the disease, and the possible need for adjunctive therapy, remain obscured. Additional reports are useful to better understand this rare type of disease and may lead to the establishment of a more profitable management.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of time to relapse in 188 adult patients with intermediate- or high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) included on the Parma trial at the time of their first relapse. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The median follow-up of these patients is 102 months after registration onto the Parma study. Time to relapse was calculated from initial diagnosis, and a cutoff of 12 months was used to separate 77 patients defined as early relapse from 111 patients defined as late relapse. RESULTS: Patients with early and late relapses had significantly different overall response rates to salvage therapy with two courses of dexamethasone, high-dose cytarabine, and cisplatin (DHAP; 40% v 69%; P=.00007) and different 8-year survival rates (13% v 29%; P=.00001). Features at relapse with a negative prognostic value in univariate analysis were higher than normal lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, tumor size greater than 5 cm, Ann Arbor stages III to IV, and Karnofsky score less than 80%. Therefore, multivariate analyses were performed. Time to relapse (P=.001) and LDH levels at relapse (P=.003) had independent prognostic value, whereas tumor size did not reach statistical significance in the logistic model that predicted overall response after two courses of DHAP. The study of prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) confirmed the prognostic value of time to relapse (P < .0001 for OS and P=.005 for PFS) independent of response or treatment after two courses of DHAP. CONCLUSION: Time to relapse may be used to stratify patients at time of first relapse of intermediate to high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
PURPOSE: The three-drug combination of melphalan (M), etoposide (E), and carboplatin (C) followed by autologous stem-cell (ASC) rescue has been evaluated prospectively by the French Society of Pediatric Oncology (SFOP) in pediatric high-risk recurrent (HRR) Wilms' tumor (WT) patients with chemotherapy-responsive disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From October 1988 to October 1994, 29 patients with HRR WT were treated in nine SFOP centers. Two additional patients with stage IV anaplastic WT were consolidated in first complete response (CR) with the same regimen and have been studied separately. The regimen consisted of M 180 mg/m2 for 1 day, E 200 mg/m2/d for 5 days, and C at a daily targeted area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) of 4 mg x min/mL for 5 days. ASCs were reinfused 48 hours after M. RESULTS: Twelve of 28 assessable patients with HRR WT are still in continuous CR at a median of 48.5 months (range, 36 to 96) after consolidation. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method at 3 years were 50%+/-17% and 60%+/-18%, respectively. Sixteen patients relapsed at a median of 8.5 months (range, 3 to 53) after consolidation. Toxicity data are available in 31 grafted patients. Grade III and IV toxicities included hematologic side effects (n=31), hemorrhage (n=8), mucositis (n=24), diarrhea (n=12), renal disorders (n=8), and pneumonitis (n=3). CONCLUSION: The adverse prognostic factors (APF) used to select patients for this dose-intensive chemotherapy define children with very-poor-risk recurrent WT. Despite high treatment-related toxicity, about half of these patients remain disease-free at 3 years. Patient outcome is statistically better when high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) is performed as early as the second CR or partial response (PR). Novel therapeutic approaches with innovative preparative regimens are warranted for the remaining high-risk patients.
PURPOSE: The European Bone Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Solid Tumor Registry (STR) contains detailed information on children with advanced neuroblastoma who, after standard-dose induction chemotherapy and surgery, received myeloablative megatherapy (MGT) followed by stem-cell transplantation (SCT). This data base was analyzed to identify factors that predict event-free survival (EFS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eligibility criteria were stage IV neuroblastoma, age over 1 year at diagnosis, and no relapse before MGT/SCT. Between February 1978 and July 1992, 549 patients were registered by 36 European transplant centers. The median age at diagnosis was 36 months (range, 13 to 216 months) and the male-female ratio was 1:45. Before MGT, 157 patients were in complete remission (CR), 156 in very good partial remission (VGPR), and 208 in partial remission (PR), whereas 24 had had only a minor response (MR). One hundred ten of 546 patients had undergone two successive MGT procedures. The median observation time was 60 months (range, 12 to 187 months). RESULTS: Actuarial EFS is 26% at 5 years. Multivariate analysis by the Cox proportional hazards regression model included 529 patients with complete data sets. After adjustment for treatment duration before MGT and double MGT procedures, two adverse, independent risk factors that influenced EFS were identified: (1) persisting skeletal lesions before MGT as defined by technetium (99TC) scans and/or meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) scans (P = .004) and (2) persisting bone marrow involvement before MGT (P = .03). CONCLUSION: After induction treatment, persisting skeletal disease as defined above and persisting bone marrow involvement may be predictive of a particularly poor outcome. Physicians may consider this an additional important tool to decide the patient's management.
Clinical practice guidelines have been defined as "systematically developed statements to assist practitioners and patients in their decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances". Their objectives are to improve the quality of health care and to optimise the use of limited health care resources. However reduction of unnecessary costs of delivered health care is proceed most often in an implicit way by identifying inappropriate health care strategies. The increase of health care costs needs to look at this issue in a more explicit way and to consider costs in the guideline development process. The key objective of our study is to analyse the methodological aspects of dealing with cost issues in the guideline development process. The integration of cost issues is in fact limited by two major problems: first, the lack of economic evaluation for many strategies in the scientific literature and second, the lack of generalizability of the published results to temporally and/or geographically different settings. These difficulties are likely to result in the need for local cost evaluation (for a given setting), and though to make the guideline development process much more complex. Further methodological research is important to define the role of economic evaluation in clinical practice guidelines and to enable the integration of cost issues into the guideline development process. They should go closely together with international standardisation of the methodology for designing, conducting and reporting economic evaluation.
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CONTEXT: The "Standards, Options and Recommendations" (SOR) project, started in 1993, is a collaboration between the Federation of the French Cancer Centres (FNCLCC), the 20 French Cancer Centres and specialists from French Public Universities, General Hospitals and Private Clinics. For pediatric issues, this project is a collaboration between the FNCLCC and the French Society of Pediatric Oncology (SFOP). The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and outcomes for cancer patients. The methodology is based on literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts, with feedback from specialists in cancer care delivery. OBJECTIVES: To develop a clinical practice guideline according to the definitions of Standards, Options and Recommendations for the clinical care of rhabdomyosarcoma and other soft tissue sarcoma in children and adolescents. METHODS: Data have been identified by literature search using Medline (1985-may 1997) and experts group personal references lists. The main criteria considered were incidence, risk factors, prognostic factors and efficacy of cancer treatment. Once the guideline was defined, the document was submitted for review to 14 national and international independent reviewers, and to the medical committees of the 20 French Cancer Centres and, in particular the 4 which have expertise in pediatric cancer management, for agreement. RESULTS: The main recommendations for rhabdomyosarcoma management are: 1/ diagnosis is based on appropriate clinical and radiological findings; 2/ pathological and immunohistochemical studies are essential to confirm the diagnosis; 3/ surgery must be performed by an experienced surgeon. Surgery and radiotherapy must be as conservative as possible; 4/ therapeutic strategies for rhabdomyosarcoma depend on location and extends and are based on chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. Inclusion of patients in SFOP, SIOP and IRS clinical trials is recommended; 5/ treatment of metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma is based on intensive chemotherapy, and surgery with or without radiotherapy; 6/ the management of non-rhabdomyosarcoma is based on the likelihood of sensitivity to chemotherapy; 7/ at the present time, there are no clear data on which to base guidelines for timing and duration of follow-up studies in these conditions.