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12019 Background: Weekly paclitaxel dosing schedule has superior response rate and increases time to tumor progression in comparison to three weekly dosing schedule. The toxicity profile of weekly ...

20617 Background: This study was undertaken to assess the feasibility of a single health care personal to perform cancer screening in health camps. It is a comprehensive assessment of attitude toward disease (cancer)&health care personal, by persons attending the health camps. Methods: This is an interview based study conducted at health camps. Persons attending same were assessed to know attitude towards cancer screening&whether positive/ negative attitude is based on social or cultural constraints. They were also assessed to know any differences in the attitude if the health care person belongs to opposite gender. And the results are stratified based on socio economic strata, level of education, religion and caste. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. SPSS 7.1 program was used for the analyses. Results: A total of100 patients were interviewed. Overall willingness to participate in the cancer screening is far less (42%) and the main reason was the social taboo associated with cancer in...

11514 Background: Hormone receptor positive patents historically had a better prognosis than their receptor negative counterparts when other parameters are balanced. However not all the patients expressing Estrogen and progesterone respond well to the hormonal manipulation. Therefore we thought of doing a retrospective analysis of our hospital data to find out the differences in the prognostic factors in therapy responders and non responders. Methods: The study was conducted at tertiary care cancer center from India. Between 2002–2003 a total of 120 breast cancer patients who expressed either Estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) were analyzed. Only patients with metastatic breast cancer were analyzed. The patients were treated with our standard institutional protocol at the beginning according to the stage of the disease. The details and baseline characters were shown in table . Results: The responders tend to be post menopausal, having low grade, node negative tumors, expressed both ER and PR, and had long interval from the date of initial diagnosis. However tumor size and the site of metastasis (visceral vs. non visceral) did not alter the outcome to hormone therapy. Conclusion: patients who are having higher age, lower tumor grade, lower number of nodes, longer disease free interval after adjuvant therapy and expressing both receptors tend to respond to hormone therapy better than those who had the opposite characters. However as thought earlier, presence of visceral metastasis or larger tumors at the time of initial diagnosis dose not preclude response to hormonal manipulation. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

17539 Background: One of the common toxicities observed with small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors are skin rashes, which were proven to predict the response to therapy in cases of lung cancer (Ann. Onc., 2005; 16(5): 780 - 785). However, very few have evaluated the same in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) on treatment with imatinib. Therefore we thought of doing a prospective study to evaluate skin rashes, and compare it with the clinical, hematological, cytogenetic and molecular remission rates in CML patients on Imatinib therapy. Methods: It is a non randomized, prospective study conducted at a tertiary care cancer center with an approximate attendance of 15,000 new cases. The patients were stratified into those who had skin reactions and do not. CTC version 3.0 was used to assess the skin toxicity. Differences in the proportions were calculated with the help of Medcalc Version 7.5. Results: A total of 314 patients with CML were evaluated who were on regular treatment with Imatinib. Hematological response was assessed monthly, cytogenetic analysis (available in 212 patients) at the end of 3rd month and molecular response (available in 136 patients) at the end of 6th months respectively. The response rates in two groups are as follows. *Percentages calculated for the subset of patients in whom results of either cytogenetic or molecular response are available Conclusion: Our findings suggest that skin reactions are not a good marker to predict either response rates or progression free interval in cases of CML. This is further substantiated by the findings that the percent of skin reactions in west are far less compared to our results, who had a better molecular as well as cytogenetic responses. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

20026 Background: Infantile malignancies are peculiar in the way they present with lot of diversity and had poor prognosis compared to other pediatric malignancies. The spectrum of malignancies had a great regional variability owing to the environmental and genetic differences (both aquired, maternal and paternal). Methods: It is a retrospective data analysis conducted at a tertiary care cancer center, Bangalore, India. The institute has an annual attendance of 16,000 new cases with reasonably good follow-up. The contribution of pediatric malignancies is 18%. The details were collected from the case records and percentages were calculated for the variables. Results: Between 2003–2006 we diagnosed 1,798 pediatric tumors. Of them 198 (11%) are infantile malignancies. The commonest diagnosis at our center is leukemia (30% of all infantile malignancies). The main types of leukemia are ALL-80%, AML-13%, and CML-7%. Other hematological malignancies are lymphomas- 2%, myelo proliferative disorders and Langerhan Cell histiocytosis-3% each. The next common diagnosis is benign neoplasms, wrongly diagnosed as malignant at the secondary referral center which contributed 16% of all cases. The reminder 46% is solid malignancies. In the decreasing frequency the incidences are Wilm’s tumor-12%, neuroblastoma-10%, germ cell tumors-8%, retinoblastoma- 6% CNS malignancies and 3% hepatoblastoma -2%. The reminders are other rare malignancies. Conclusion: The contribution of infantile malignancies at our center is relatively higher compared to the west. Similarly Relative contribution of AML to the all hematological malignancies and neurblastoma & CNS tumors to solid malignancies is less compared to the existing literature. Wilm’s tumor and ALL diagnosed more frequently than expected in our population. All these findings together suggest that south Indian population had a different spectrum of infantile malignancies compared to rest of the world and their genetic and environmental risk factors need further exploration. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

20531 Background: There have been major advances in understanding the behavioral pattern, pharmacological intervention, and clinical response of GIST; yet Indian data in this regard is sparse. This study analyses the clinico-pathologic features in 36 patients (21 male, 15 female) of GIST seen at our institution. Methods: GIST was defined as a mesenchymal spindle or epithelioid cell lesion arising in the GI tract with CD117 immuno-reactivity. Retrospective data from January 03 to March 06 was analyzed for age, tumor site, morphology, immuno- reactivity, prognostic factors, response to treatment (by RECIST), and recurrence or metastasis. All patients had surgery; those with residual, recurrent, or metastatic disease got imatinib till tumor progression. Results: GIST presented at a mean age of 48.2 yrs (SD 6.4, range 34–65). The mean tumor size was 13.9 cm (range 2–42). The most common site was the small intestine (ileum 8, jejunum 7, duodenum 4). 24 patients (66.7%) had localized disease at baseline. Of these, 14 had local recurrence after surgery, and were given imatinib. 5 of them are in complete remission, 4 had partial response (PR), 3 patients died, and 2 had stable disease. Most patients with recurrent GIST had a mitotic rate of >10/50hpf. 8 patients developed metastasis, and received imatinib. Of these, 2 got a PR, 3 had progressive disease and died, and 3 had stable disease. 12 patients (33.3%) had metastasis at baseline (to liver and abdominal cavity), and underwent debulking. Of these, 6 patients with stable disease are on treatment with imatinib, 3 died and 3 were lost to follow-up. Conclusions: Average age of presentation was less than in Western reports. The commonest site was the small intestine as opposed to stomach in western literature. Mitotic rate was a better prognostic factor than gross tumor size. GIST with a mixed cell morphology showed aggressive behavior. Imatinib mesylate is useful in the post-operative management of GIST. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

16522 Background: Skin reactions are observed in up to 30–45% of all patients of CML on imatinib therapy. Owing to its low molecular weight it is less likely to be immunologically mediated. Therefore most of them can be managed without discontinuation of therapy. We tried to look into the spectrum of the skin reactions observed in CML patients receiving imatinib, and tried to see any change with the phase of the disease (chronic/accelerated/blast crisis) or difference in the brand of drug they are receiving. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, India. A total of 235 patients were analyzed between Jan 2004 and Dec 2005. Clinical details were noted from the case records. Differences were calculated for the means using SPSS 13.0 for windows. Results: The age, total episodes of reactions, mean time to develop and to heal along with grade of reactions are summarized in the table . A total of 191 patients received the international brand and the total episodes of skin reactions observed were 68 with 4 grade III/IV toxicities. 54 patients received local brand and 17 of them developed skin reactions and 2 of which were grade III/IV. There is no difference in the time taken for resolution of skin reactions (23.8 + 6.7 vs. 25.2 + 7.5) (p = NS). Conclusion: There are no significant differences in skin reactions observed with brand of imatinib used. Patients with accelerated phase and blast crisis developed reactions at little earlier. As most of the patients in the later said conditions had a shorter survival, we could not comment conclusively on the time to heal according to phase of the disease. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

14638 Purpose: Retrospective comparison of treatment out come and cost effective analysis in two chemotherapeutic regimens (BEP vs. VIP) for poor-prognosis metastatic germ cell tumors in India, a resource poor nation. Methods: All male patients with poor risk germ cell tumors were included in the study between 2001–2003. The patients were stratified into two categories depending on the type of the regimens they received. Results: Finally 36 patients were analyzed with median follow up of 21.8 months. Medical 7.5 for windows was used for the analysis. The baseline characters (age, stage, PS, histology and serum markers) were not different in two treatment arms (P > 0.05). The different treatments (BEP vs. VIP) had no statistically significant influence on the outcome. VIP is less cost effective and more toxic compared to BEP. Conclusion: In view of absence of survival advantage and more toxicities as well as cost of therapy it would be appropriate to still treat the patients of high risk germ cell tumors with the conventional BEP rather than VIP in the Indian setting and keeping the later reserved for the relapse. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.