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The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and toxicity of combination cisplatin and etoposide chemotherapy in patients with metastatic carcinoma of unknown primary. Patients were treated with cisplatin (100 mg/m2 iv day 1) followed by etoposide (100 mg/m2 iv days 1-3) every 3 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles. Patients with progressive disease after two or four courses could receive FAC (fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide) until progression. Twenty-five patients were entered and were assessable for response and toxicity. Fifteen (60%) patients had adenocarcinomas. Patients received a median of four courses. Toxicity was mainly hematologic including grade III/IV neutropenia. The overall response rate was 32%. There was no complete response, 32% partial responses, 32% stable disease, and 36% disease progression. Median response duration was 4 months (range: 2-5 months). The median overall survival of the 25 patients was 8 months. No objective response could be obtained with FAC, but 33% of patients achieved stabilization of the disease for at least 3 months. This cisplatin-etoposide combination demonstrated some activity against an usually resistant disease.

Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04251052., Competing Interests: Financial Disclosure Joan Walker disclosed money paid to her institution by Merck and disclosed NRG Oncology funding for cancer prevention research and NCI funding for cervical cancer prevention research. Ronny Drapkin reported funding from Repare Therapeutics and Light Horse Therapeutics. Stephanie Blank declares the following (in the last 36 months): Grants or contracts: her institution receives funding for research collaboration with Astra Zeneca, Acrivon, Aravve, Merck, Mersana, GSK, Genentech, Zentalis, and Seattle Genetics; Grant funding to institution: Let Every Woman Know grant funding: P30CA196521, U01CA265739, U01CA189867; Support for attending meetings and/or travel: SGO, ABOG, ACOG, NRG; and Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee, or advocacy group, paid or unpaid: Boards: SGO, Foundation for Women's Cancer, ABOG, SHARE, NOCC, The Chemotherapy Foundation, and HPV Alliance (all are non-profits and are unpaid). Jeanne Carter disclosed funding to her institution by BCRF. Dr. Carter is a consultant on RCT development with Sprout. Dr. Carter declares in the last 36 months, since the initial planning of the work, all support for the present article (eg, funding, provision of study materials, medical writing, article processing charges, etc): Sprout with funding to MSKCC for feasibility study with flibsnserin in breast cancer patients, and she serves on an advisory board to develop an RCT. Consulting fees received from Sprout: Advisory board to develop RCT with breast cancer patients and Flibanserin. Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers, bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events: Speaker breast cancer conference. Tara Castellano declares the following in the last 36 months: Grants or contracts: from Bristol Myers Squib Foundation—Robert A Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Grant made to institution. Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers, bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events: GOG speaking honoraria. Support for attending meetings and/or travel: GOG New investigator travel award to assist in aid to travel to NRG meetings. Participation on a Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory Board Glaxo Smith Kline—Disparities in endometrial cancer AdBoard. Lisa Kachnic declares in the last 36 months, since the initial planning of the work all support for the present manuscript (eg, funding, provision of study materials, medical writing, article processing charges, etc.): NRG Oncology chair cancer prevention with funding to the institution. Support for attending meetings and/or travel: NRG Oncology. Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee, or advocacy group, paid or unpaid: chair of the NCORP cancer control committee of NRG Oncology with funding to her institution. Dr. Kachnic is also an editor for UpToDate and served on the Beta Epsilon Data Safety Board. She discloses receiving grant funding from Varian Inc for two ongoing clinical trials unrelated to this study. Carolyn Muller declares in the last 36 months: Grants or contracts from any entity: All grants/contracts go to the University of New Mexico. She is supported by NCI Minority-Underserved NCORP award, The NCI P30 Cancer Center Support Grant, NCI Route 66 Endometrial Cancer SPORE Award (subcontract, PI Mutch at Washington University in St Louis), Several GOG Foundation Treatment trials (none relevant to this work).) This trial falls under the NCORP award as the mechanism to support. All other grants/contracts are not related to the topic pertained in this article. Abigail S. Zamorano declares in the last 36 months: Grants or contracts from any entity: Exploring the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Disparities in Cervical Cancer Screening Among Hispanic Women using the All of Us Research Hub; Role: PI; Source of Support: Healthy Americas Foundation; 05/2022-02/2023; $10,000. Measuring Distress among Caregivers of Patients with Gynecologic Malignancies Undergoing Chemotherapy Treatment; Role: PI; Source of Support: UT CCTS; 07/2023-06/2024; $30,000. All payments made to the institution. Support for attending meetings and/or travel: GOG-Foundation supported travel for her to the NRG semiannual meetings in payments of $1600/meeting (twice yearly from 2022 to 2024) paid to her. Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee, or advocacy group, paid or unpaid: she serves as a voluntary board member for Judy's Mission, a Houston-based ovarian cancer awareness organization; no payments received. The other authors did not report any potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Despite advances in supportive measures, myeloablative chemotherapy with stem cell rescue remains limited by toxicity and treatment-related mortality. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing the rate of hematopoietic recovery following autologous stem cell transplant in high-risk neuroblastoma., Procedure: We retrospectively studied 54 patients with high-risk neuroblastoma who received a single autologous stem cell transplant between 2006 and 2016. Race, sex, conditioning regimen, chemotherapy delays and bone marrow involvement were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier Log-Rank test while the amount of cells infused, age, and length of hospital stay were analyzed using univariate Cox Proportional Hazards Regression., Results: The conditioning regimen administered was significant (P=0.016) for time to engraftment of neutrophils, with busulfan/melphalan (Bu/Mel) at 16.6 days, and carboplatin/etoposide/melphalan at 12.1 days. A delay of chemotherapy during induction (n=24) was significant (P<0.001) for time to platelet engraftment of >75,000/µL. Female patients had a longer time to engraftment (P=0.029)., Conclusion: Patients receiving Bu/Mel as a conditioning regimen, patients who had a delay in induction chemotherapy and patients of female sex were found to be significant for delayed engraftment of neutrophils, platelets, and hemoglobin, respectively, in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma undergoing autologous stem cell transplant. Knowing these factors may lead to new expectations and possible interventions to decrease the morbidity and mortality of treatment and recovery.

Background: Oral carcinoma and precancers are major public health challenges in India and other developing countries., Objectives: Aim of the study was to assess the associations of demographic characteristics, addictions, chief complaints of mouth/oral and clinical diagnosis by cytology smear and punch biopsy in early detection of oral premalignant and malignant lesions. Methods Study was designed on retrospective data of case files of CDC, CNCI, Kolkata, from patients attended from January 1996 to September 2016. History was taken, histopathology and Pap smear were performed. Descriptive statistical analysis, cross-tabulation and Pearson's Chi-square test were done., Results: Total participants (n = 692); 110 (15.9%) having history of swallowing betel leaf, nut lime, dokta, jarda, catecheu with an average of 11 years. Three hundred twenty-five (46.9%) had multiple addiction (cigarette/bidi/tobacco/all). Ninety-eight (12.1%), 99 (12.2%) and 68 (8.4%) were addicted to cigarette, bidi and chewing tobacco, respectively. Twenty-nine participants were addicted to alcohol; 18 (2.6%) and 11 (1.5%) took country and foreign alcohol correspondingly. Clinicians thoroughly examined lips (4.1%), buccal mucosa (27.3%), gingival (2.8%), tongue (23.1%), hard and soft palate (4.9%), mouth loor (5.2%) and other parts (32.3%); diagnosed participants as normal (22.8%)/benign (23.1%)/premalignant (39.1%)/malignant (14.8%). Smears confirmed 60, 131, 42, 9 and 8 cases as carcinoma, mild, moderate, severe dysplasia and inflammation, respectively. The punch biopsy identified 11 carcinomas, two severe, two moderate and seveeen mild dysplasia's. Chi-square test showed significant association between smear and examination (P = 0.022), diagnosis and examinations of the oral cancer patients (P = 0.0001)., Conclusion: The study provided strong evidence that betel leaf, chewing tobacco, smoking and alcohol are independent risk factors for oral cancer. Cytological smear and biopsy are cost-effective approaches for early detection., (Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Until recently, platinum-based chemotherapy has represented the benchmark for the treatment of extensive disease small-cell lung cancer (ED-SCLC). ED-SCLC patients are often diagnosed with poor performance status (PS ≥2) and/or compromised organ functions. In fact, up to 63% of ED-SCLC has extensive liver involvement at diagnosis, which correlates with a poor prognosis. Whether to treat patients with tumor-related organ failure is still debated and the selection of those who could benefit from chemotherapy is crucial. Moreover, severe liver impairment contraindicates the administration of etoposide. Among 74 consecutive ED-SCLC patients followed at our institution from January 2017 to November 2019, three patients received single-agent carboplatin as a first-line treatment due to liver failure. We provide a brief description of a former heavy smoker 70-year-old man who was diagnosed with ED-SCLC and severe liver involvement leading to liver failure. The patient received a first-line treatment with single-agent carboplatin, obtaining a partial response, clinical benefit and the normalization of laboratory test, which documented the complete recovery of liver function. The intent of our work is to highlight the feasibility of single-agent carboplatin in ED-SCLC patients with tumor-related hepatic failure but preserved Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group PS, suggesting that this therapeutic option should not be discouraged a priori. Indeed, the identification of specific tools guiding physicians in the selection of patients who might benefit from the treatment is remarkably needed; meanwhile, the use of available prognostic score (e.g. Manchester score) might be of great value and should be considered in clinical practice., (Copyright © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)