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Background The aim of this study is to address the paucity of epidemiological data regarding the characteristics, treatment patterns and survival outcomes of Chinese glioblastoma patients. Methods This was a population-level study of Hong Kong adult (>18 years) Chinese patients with newly diagnosed histologically confirmed glioblastoma between 2006 and 2019. The age standardized incidence rate (ASIR), patient-, tumor- treatment-related characteristics, overall survival (OS) as well as its predictors were determined. Results One thousand and ten patients with a median follow-up of 10.0 months were reviewed. The ASIR of glioblastoma was 1.0 per 100 000 population with no significant change during the study period. The mean age was 57 + 14 years. The median OS was 10.6 months (IQR: 5.2–18.4). Independent predictors for survival were: Karnofsky performance score >80 (adjusted OR: 0.8; 95% CI: 0.6–0.9), IDH-1 mutant (aOR: 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5–0.9) or MGMT methylated (aOR: 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5–0.8) glioblastomas, gross total resection (aOR: 0.8; 95% CI: 0.5–0.8) and temozolomide chemoradiotherapy (aOR 0.4; 95% CI: 0.3–0.6). Despite the significant increased administration of temozolomide chemoradiotherapy from 39% (127/326) of patients in 2006–2010 to 63% (227/356) in 2015–2019 (P-value < .001), median OS did not improve (2006–2010: 10.3 months vs 2015–2019: 11.8 months) (OR: 1.1; 95% CI: 0.9–1.3). Conclusions The incidence of glioblastoma in the Chinese general population is low. We charted the development of neuro-oncological care of glioblastoma patients in Hong Kong during the temozolomide era. Although there was an increased adoption of temozolomide chemoradiotherapy, a corresponding improvement in survival was not observed.

Key Clinical Message Amiodarone is one of the most commonly used antiarrhythmic drugs. Despite its well‐known side effects, amiodarone is considered to be a relatively safe drug, especially in short‐term usage to prevent life‐threatening ventricular arrhythmias. Our case demonstrates an instance where short‐term usage can yield drug side effect.

This phase III randomized study compared concurrent cisplatin-radiotherapy (CRT) versus radiotherapy (RT) alone in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. A total of 350 patients were randomly assigned to receive external RT alone or concurrently with cisplatin at a dosage of 40 mg/m(2) weekly. The primary endpoint was overall survival, and the median follow-up was 5.5 years. The 5-year overall survival was 58.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 50.9% to 66.2%) for the RT arm and 70.3% (95% CI = 63.4% to 77.3%) for the CRT arm. In Cox regression analysis adjusted for T stage, age, and overall stage, the difference in overall survival was statistically significantly in favor of concurrent CRT (P = .049, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.71 [95% CI = 0.5 to 1.0]). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that there was no difference between overall survival in the arms for T1/T2 stage (P = .74, HR = 0.93 [95% CI = 0.59 to 1.4]), whereas there was a difference between the arms for T3/T4 stage (P = .013, HR = 0.51 [95% CI = 0.3 to 0.88]), favoring the CRT arm. The regimen of weekly concurrent CRT is a promising standard treatment strategy for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of recurrence, various prognostic factors, and the role of radioiodine in the treatment of patients with follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC). METHODS The clinical outcomes of 215 patients with FTC who were treated at a single institution were analyzed retrospectively. The mean follow-up was 10.8 years. RESULTS The actuarial rates of cause specific survival (CSS), locoregional (LR) control, and freedom from distant metastasis (DM) at 10 years were 81%, 83%, and 72.3%, respectively. The independent prognostic factors for survival were metastasis at presentation (relative risk [RR], 47.7), radioiodine (RAI) treatment (RR, 0.25), extrathyroidal extension (RR, 3.8), and the postoperative absence of macroscopic disease in the neck region (RR, 0.06). In patients who were treated with RAI, both the LR failure rate (RR, 0.24) and the mortality rate (RR, 0.25) were reduced to about 25%. Subgroup analysis revealed that RAI improved the survival of patients with DM at presentation (RR, 0.17) and improved the LR control rate in patients who had no DM at presentation (RR, 0.13). For patients who underwent total thyroidectomy with negative resection margins, RAI significantly reduced the rate of LR recurrence (RR, 0.05). Patients with the minimally invasive type of FTC had a good prognosis. The 10-year rates for CSS, LR control, and freedom from DM were 97.6%, 100%, and 90.6%, respectively. The prognosis of patients with frankly invasive FTC was much poorer. The 10-year rates for CSS, LR control, and freedom from DM were 66.7%, 100%, and 45%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS RAI is an effective treatment for patients with FTC. It was associated with improved survival rates and fewer recurrences. Cancer 2002;95:488–98. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10683

BACKGROUND A current recommendation for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is conventional fractionated radiotherapy with concurrent cisplatin plus adjuvant cisplatin and fluorouracil (PF). In this randomized trial, the authors evaluated the potential therapeutic benefit from changing to an induction-concurrent chemotherapy sequence, replacing fluorouracil with oral capecitabine, and/or using accelerated rather than conventional radiotherapy fractionation. METHODS Patients with stage III through IVB, nonkeratinizing NPC were randomly allocated to 1 of 6 treatment arms. The protocol was amended in 2009 to permit confining randomization to the conventional fractionation arms. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival. Secondary endpoints included overall survival and safety. RESULTS In total, 803 patients were accrued, and 706 patients were randomly allocated to all 6 treatment arms. Comparisons of induction PF versus adjuvant PF did not indicate a significant improvement. Unadjusted comparisons of induction cisplatin and capecitabine (PX) versus adjuvant PF indicated a favorable trend in progression-free survival for the conventional fractionation arm (P = .045); analyses that were adjusted for other significant factors and fractionation reflected a significant reduction in the hazards of disease progression (hazard ratio [HR], 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.36-0.80) and death (HR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.25-0.70). Unadjusted comparisons of induction sequences versus adjuvant sequences did not reach statistical significance, but adjusted comparisons indicated favorable improvements by induction sequence. Comparisons of induction PX versus induction PF revealed fewer toxicities (neutropenia and electrolyte disturbance), unadjusted comparisons of efficacy were statistically insignificant, but adjusted analyses indicated that induction PX had a lower hazard of death (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.34-0.97). Changing the fractionation from conventional to accelerated did not achieve any benefit but incurred higher toxicities (acute mucositis and dehydration). CONCLUSIONS Preliminary results indicate that the benefit of changing to an induction-concurrent sequence remains uncertain; replacing fluorouracil with oral capecitabine warrants further validation in view of its convenience, favorable toxicity profile, and favorable trends in efficacy; and accelerated fractionation is not recommended for patients with locoregionally advanced NPC who receive chemoradiotherapy. Cancer 2015;121:1328–1338. © 2014 American Cancer Society.

Let $X$ be a compact connected strongly pseudoconvex $CR$ manifold of real dimension 2n-1 in $\mathbb{C}^{N}$. It has been an interesting question to find an intrinsic smoothness criteria for the complex Plateau problem. For $n\ge 3$ and $N=n+1$, Yau found a necessary and sufficient condition for the interior regularity of the Harvey-Lawson solution to the complex Plateau problem by means of Kohn-Rossi cohomology groups on $X$ in 1981. For n=2 and $N\ge n+1$, the problem has been open for over 30 years. In this paper we introduce a new CR invariant $g^{(1,1)}(X)$ of $X$. The vanishing of this invariant will give the interior regularity of the Harvey-Lawson solution up to normalization. In case $n=2$ and N=3, the vanishing of this invariant is enough to give the interior regularity., Journal of Differential Geometry (To appear)

BACKGROUND It is known that patients with papillary microcarcinoma (PMC) of the thyroid gland have a very favorable prognosis. The rising incidence of PMC among papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) necessitates the identification of prognostic factors and the formulation of treatment protocols. METHODS The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of 203 patients with PMC who were diagnosed on or before 1999 and were treated at the Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong. RESULTS The cause specific survival, locoregional (LR) failure free survival, and distant metastases failure free survival rates at 10 years were 100%, 92.1%, and 97.1%, respectively. Five patients had lung metastases; 2 patients died of their metastases 12.9 years and 14.8 years after diagnosis, and 3 patients achieved clinical remission after radioiodine (RAI) treatment. Twelve patients had LR recurrences. Patients with LR recurrence were highly salvageable with a combination of surgery, RAI treatment, and external radiotherapy; all but one (who refused treatment) were alive without disease at last follow-up. Multivariate analyses did not reveal any independent prognostic factor for survival. The risk of cervical lymph node (LN) recurrence increased 6.2-fold (P = 0.01) and 5.6-fold (P = 0.02) when LN metastases and multifocal disease were present at diagnosis. RAI ablation reduced the LN recurrence rate to 0.27 (P = 0.04). The presence of LN metastasis increased the rate of distant metastasis 11.2-fold (P = 0.03). Age was not a significant factor in predicting disease recurrence or survival. Subdivision by tumor sizes ≤ 5 mm and > 5 mm did not affect the outcome, but no patient with tumors ≤ 5 mm had mortality related to PMC. CONCLUSIONS Despite the overall excellent prognosis for patients with PMC, PMC was associated with a 1.0% disease-related mortality rate, a 5.0% LN recurrence rate, and a 2.5% distant metastasis rate. Therefore, the treatment of patients with PMC should be no different from the treatment of patients with conventional PTC: i.e., complete surgery with consideration for RAI and/or external radiation therapy if poor prognostic factors are present. Cancer 2003;98:31–40. © 2003 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.11442