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Purpose: Surgery is the definitive treatment for early colon cancers. Adjuvant therapies are used with the aim of eradicating micrometastases and improving cure rates. Recent studies have proposed that adiponectin might be responsible for obesity-related malignancies. We investigated the prognostic value of this cytokine. Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent surgical removal of stage II or III (TNM staging) primary tumors and were followed for at least three years were included in the study given adequate specimen for immunohistochemical evaluation. Based on these criteria, 53 patients were included. Results: Mean age was 58.3 ± 10.1 years (35-78 years). The mean follow-up time was 41 months (10-96 months). Immunohistochemical evaluation identified 21 patients (39.6%) with cytoplasmic adiponectin present in their specimens. The rates of recurrence were 42.9% (9/21) and 34.4% (11/32) in patients with and without adiponectin expression, respectively. In cases with adiponectin expression, mean disease - free survival was 60.3 ± 9.03 months, and in cases without adiponectin expression, mean disease - free survival was 68.7 ± 6.67 months (P = 0.414). Mean overall survival of patients with adiponectin expression was 65 months compared to 67 months for patients without (P = 0.786). Conclusion: Adiponectin, which is secreted by adipose tissue, may have a role in the development and progression of cancer via its pro-apoptotic and/or anti-proliferative effects. Adiponectin expression in tumor tissues is likely to have a negative effect on disease - free survival in patients with stage II/III colon cancer; however, no statistically significant effect was demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) typically presents in young children, most younger than 5 years, as dysontogenetic neoplasm. It has poor prognosis with three different subtypes: cystic (type I), combined cystic and solid (type II) and solid (type III). Our patient was admitted with dyspnea and was diagnosed at 25 years of age. He had upper right lobectomy and diagnosed as Type II PPB followed by alternating IE/VAC (Ifosfamide, etoposide/vincristine, dactinomycin, cyclophosphamide) polychemotherapy. Immunohistochemical studies showed vimentin positive while cytogenetic studies showed absence of trisomies 8 and 2 abnormalities. Our patient is presently alive and disease- free thirty months after diagnosis. It is not possible to obtain definite knowledge about the prognostic factors and survival rates in adult type PPB. Complete resection is proposed to be one of the important prognostic factors in literature. Longer follow up results in larger patient groups are required for obtaining definitive data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of third-line chemotherapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still unclear. The aim of this phase II study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of vinorelbine in patients with metastatic NSCLC pretreated with platin- and taxane-based chemotherapy. A total of 16 patients with metastatic NSCLC were enrolled. Patients received vinorelbine at a dose of 30 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle, on an outpatient basis. A total of 39 treatment cycles were administered. All patients were assessable for response, toxicity, and survival. No objective responses were documented. Stabile disease was achieved in two (12.5%) patients. The median progression-free survival was 44 days (95% CI 32-57 days) and the estimated median overall survival was 103 days (95% CI 78-129 days). Neutropenia was the main toxicity. This single institution study demonstrated that vinorelbine given at this schedule and dose in patients with refractory NSCLC had limited activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to search the efficacy and toxicity of epirubicin, cisplatin, bolus 5-fluorouracil regimen in hepatobiliary tumors. Twelve patients, (8 with biliary tumors, 4 with hepatocellular carcinoma) were included. All patients were inoperable or metastatic. 5- Fluorouracil 500 mg/m² i.v. bolus (day 1-5), cisplatin 60 mg/m² i.v. (day 1), epirubicin 50 mg/m² i.v. (day 1) chemotherapy was given every 21 days. The patients were evaluated after median 4 cycles. There was partial response in 3 (37.5%), stable disease in 2 (25%) and progression in 3 (37.5%) patients with biliary tumor. One patient showed partial response (25%), 1 had stable disease (25%) and 2 patients had progression (50%) in hepatocellular carcinoma group. Grade 3/4 side effects were thrombocytopenia in 2 patients (17%), neutropenia in 2 patients (17%), emesis in 1 patient (8%) and alopecia in 4 patients (33%). Treatment of hepatobiliary tumors with this regimen was well tolerated. More definite results with further studies including homogeneous groups of patients must be performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although metastatic breast cancer is essentially incurable, patients achieving a complete response may be good candidates for long term survival. Gemcitabine, epirubicin and paclitaxel have different mechanisms of action. Therefore, we conducted this phase II study to assess efficacy and safety of gemcitabine plus epirubicin plus paclitaxel (GET) combination therapy in metastatic breast cancer. The study enrolled 21 women with pathologically confirmed and measurable metastatic breast cancer who were not previously treated with gemcitabine and paclitaxel and prior doxorubicin cumulative dosage was no more than 240 mg/m² and epirubicin cumulative dosage 360 mg/m². Median ECOG performance status was 0. Fifteen patients (71.4%) had visceral metastases and most of them had liver and lung involvement as the predominant site. Treatment schedule was as follows: gemcitabine 1000 mg/m² was administered intravenously in 30 minutes on days 1 and 4 and epirubicin 90 mg/m² was administered intravenously 30 minutes on day 1 following gemcitabine administration and paclitaxel 175 mg/m² was administered intravenously in 3 hours on day 1 starting immediately after epirubicin. Objective response rate was 57.1% with 14.2% CR, and 42.8% PR. Median time to progression and overall survivals were 11 and 19 months respectively. Treatment of five patients was discontinued due to toxicity. Grade 3-4 neutropenia, anemia and thrombocytopenia were observed in 100%, 52.3%, and 42.8% of patients respectively. First and second dose reductions due to myelotoxicity were performed in 66.6% and 42.8% of patients respectively. Only 33.3% of patients received scheduled dose. In our study, the GET regimen has comparable efficacy to anthracycline-alkylator or anthracycline- taxane combination but requires proportionally high dose modifications due to myelotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this retrospective study, we evaluated the activity and toxicity of the combination of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), epirubicin and cisplatin (FEP) in previously untreated patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Sixty-five patients received 5-FU 300 mg/m² on days 1-5, epirubicin 50 mg/m² on day 1 and cisplatin 60 mg/m² on day 1, every 4 weeks. A median of 4 cycles was administered. There were 4 partial responses and 1 complete response (overall response rate 7.6%); 16 patients had stable disease. Median progression-free and overall survival rates were 3 months (95% CI 1.9-4) and 6 months (95% CI 4.2-7), respectively. The principal toxicity was myelosuppression. Grade 3-4 neutropenia occurred in 29.2%, anemia in 18.4%, and thrombocytopenia in 12.3% of patients. Non-hematological toxicity was mild and manageable. We concluded that FEP combination as used at the doses and schedules in this study has inferior activity against metastatic gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aims: This study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of colorectal cancer in Turkey., Materials and Methods: In this multicenter, prospective, and cross-sectional registry study, data for 968 patients with colorectal cancer from 21 centers in 7 geographic regions were analyzed., Results: Diagnosis was colon cancer in 662 (68.4%) and rectum cancer in 306 (31.6%) patients. In total, 60.9% of patients was male; mean age was 58.9±12.6 years. Among patients, 15.0% was drinking alcohol, 17.5% was smoking, 1.5% had familial history of polyposis, 15.0% had diabetes mellitus, 1.0% had inflammatory bowel disease. Fruit and vegetable consumption was low (<3 times/week) in 35.5% and red meat consumption was high (≥3 times/week) in 47.4% of the patients. Median time-to diagnosis was 3.0 months and 4.0 months for patients with colon and rectum cancer, respectively. Mean body mass index was >25 in all group of patients. Distal rectum (61.3%) and sigmoid colon (36.8%) were the most common locations of cancer, for rectum and colon respectively. In total, 85.6% of patients were operated; 25.8% had emergency surgery. Low anterior resection rate was 64.2% in rectum cancer. In majority (89.8%) of the patients with rectum cancer who received preoperative treatment, conventional chemo-radiotherapy regimen was given. pTNM staging at diagnosis showed that stage III and IV patients were in majority (35.9% and 29.7%, respectively)., Conclusion: Colon cancer is more frequent than rectum cancer in Turkey. Colorectal cancer patients are diagnosed at later stages. Most of the cases were operated. Interregional differences for risk factors are worthwhile for evaluation in future trials.