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e18199 Background: Head & Neck cancer is a major problem in India and developing countries related to use of tobacco. Locally advanced oral cavity cancers form a majority of cancers of this region. Common method of treatment of this region is to use concomitant radiation with chemotherapy and/or biotherapy. One of the side effects of regional treatment is loss of taste or dysfunction of taste. This although common has not been properly evaluated or reported. Its impact although conceivable is not used in dietary modifications or tailoring treatment. Methods: Taste discrimination was assessed using high medium and low concentration of sweet salty sour and bitter tasting solution. Cross-sectional observational study was designed to describe the prevalence of taste dysfunction in a group of Head & Neck cancer survivors with oral cancers. Survivors were required to be disease free for at least 3 months symptomatically and imaging wise. Only patients found fit on cognitive assessments as well as capable of comprehending language were asked to fill a simple seven question graded chart. Results: Non parametric approach was done for taste score. Descriptive statistics were used for taste scores and self-reported taste changes. 90 patients were included. Age group 49y – 80y. 58 patients were above the age of 65y. 1/3rd of the patients were females. All patients were locally advanced patient and the commonest site was oral cavity and oro-pharynx – 80%. Participants performed poorly on the taste test. The commonest disturbance in taste was in sweet and sour. 20% of patients had bitter and metallic taste in mouth. 1/3rd of patients had no taste. Patients with maintained taste did not lose weight. Long term taste dysfunction persisted in about 30% of patients. Conclusions: Head & Neck cancer survivors have taste dysfunctions. Taste recognition is demonstrated at low and high concentrations as well as persistent bitter and metallic phantom taste. It may persist for long periods of time. Recognizing this problem is important so the clinicians can help survivor scope with the problem.

302 Background: Paclitaxel protein-bound particles nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine is rapidly becoming the standard of care for patients with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (mPCa). Preclinical and clinical studies of beta-blockers and NSAIDs show a benefit of these drugs in pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the co-administration of the beta blocker propranolol (P) and the selective COX-2 inhibitor etodolac (E) on survival of patients with mPCa receiving GemNab as standard of care. PE is presumed to target the adrenergic and prostaglandin stress systems activated in cancer that induce changes in tumor microenvironment, immune system, and HPA axis leading to tumor promotion and immune tolerance. Data on the use of nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine (GemNab) with a beta blocker and NSAID in the clinical setting is lacking. Methods: Patients with mPCa were eligible for this randomized investigator initiated trial. Patients received PE daily for one week prior to starting GemNab. PE was administered in a chronodosed regimen to maximize the therapeutic benefit and minimize side effects. The primary endpoint was survival. Twenty-three patients were randomized to either GemNab or GemNab after one week of propranolol and etodolac (PEGemNab). The median age was 62.8 years; 68.2% male. Pain at time of diagnosis as reported in 80% of the patients in the GemNab arm and in 76.9% of the PEGemNab arm and jaundice was observed in 40% and 23% of the GemNab and PEGemNab arms, respectively. Results: Progression free survival was 7.2 and 11.8 months in the GemNab and PEGemNab arms, respectively. Overall survival was 10.5 months for the GemNab arm and 15.9 months for the PEGemNab arm. The treatment was well-tolerated with no unexpected adverse events. Conclusions: Administration of PE one week prior to Paclitaxel protein-bound particles with gemcitabine significantly increased progression free and overall survival. No unexpected adverse reactions were seen. Additional data on cytokine and cancer markers will be presented.

e15148 Background: Increasing evidence from preclinical studies and retrospective studies suggests that adrenergic and prostaglandin signaling are important in control of tumorigenesis. Data presen...

1069 Background: PICN is a novel, solvent- and protein-free, 100-110 nm particle formulation of paclitaxel stabilized with polymer and lipids using Nanotecton Technology. We compared the safety and...

4090 Background: The second most common cause of cancer death worldwide is gastric cancer (GC) and it is often diagnosed at a late stage. The REGATE international disease registry was designed to d...

e20587 Background: We evaluated the safety and efficacy of a single fixed 6 mg dose of pegfilgrastim (a pegylated version of filgrastim) per cycle of chemotherapy, compared with daily administration of filgrastim, in the provision of neutrophil support. Methods: Patients with carcinoma of breast, less than 65 yrs with ECOG performance status 0 or 1 treated at our institution were randomized to receive either a single 6 mg subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of pegfilgrastim or daily 5 mg/kg s.c. injections of filgrastim, after adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and docetaxel (60 mg/m, 600 mg/m2 and 75 mg/m2, respectively)q3 wk. Duration of grade 4 neutropenia (DSN), incidence of febrile neutropenia (FN), grade 4 neutropenia (SN), IV anti-infective use (IV), hospitalization and adverse events like bony pain (BP), anemia & thrombocytopenias were assessed as safety endpoints. Results: 71 patients were analyzed from Aug 2007 to Dec 2008. The median age in pegfilgrastim group is 58 years and filgrastim is 57 years respectively. Results are shown ( Table ). The mean duration of grade 4 neutropenia (DSN) in cycle 1 was 2.0 and 1.7 days for the pegfilgrastim and filgrastim groups, respectively. Results for all efficacy end points in cycles 2–6 were consistent with the results from cycle 1. A trend towards a lower incidence of febrile neutropenia was noted across all cycles with pegfilgrastim compared with filgrastim (10.7% versus 18.6%, respectively). Conclusions: A single fixed dose of pegfilgrastim administered once per cycle of chemotherapy was comparable to multiple daily injections of filgrastim. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

17077 Background: The cancer load in India is enormous and majority of the cases present in an advanced stage. There is no valid translation of 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in Kannada, which is a simple but indispensable tool in the comprehensive cancer care (both for metastatic and in adjuvant settings). Therefore we thought of developing and validating the GHQ-12 Questionnaire into Kannada language. Methods: The study was conducted at kidwai memorial institute of Oncology, Bangalore, a tertiary cancer center with an annual attendance of 16,000 new cases. We have chosen educated patients who can speak and write both English and Kannada. We used ’forward-backward’ translation procedure into Kannada. We used scores from 0–3 for the Questionnaire. Total score for both languages was calculated. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Validity was performed using convergent validity. Finally, the factor structure of the questionnaire was extracted by performing principal component analysis using oblique factor solution. Results: A total of 118 patients with various malignancies were entered into the study. The mean age was 36.8 ± 12.1 years. The mean GHQ score was 21.6 ± 9.1 for the English and 22.6 ± 8.1 for Kannada. Reliability analysis showed satisfactory result (Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.79). The principal component analysis with oblique rotation solution showed that the GHQ-12 was a measure of psychological morbidity with four -factor structure that jointly accounted for 48 % of the variance. Conclusions: The Kannada version of the GHQ-12 is a reliable and valid instrument with a good structural characteristic. It can be used for measuring psychological well being at our institute for those patients who can read and write only Kannada. No significant financial relationships to disclose.