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Copyright of Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences is the property of Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: We aimed to identify whether abdominal fat distribution could affect the outcome in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients treated with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) or not. A total of 42 MBC patients treated with first line hormonal therapy were enrolled in this study. Factors associated with overall survival in the univariate analysis were age, c-erb-B2 expression intensity (+++ versus others by immunohistochemistry), and WHR, whereas only WHR retained significance in the multivariate analysis. Median overall survival figures were 472 days versus unreached for patients with a WHR of <0.92 and ≥0.92 (Log rank statistic=9.76, P =0.002). Similarly, the corresponding progression free survival figures for patients with a WHR of <0.92 and ≥0.92 were 423 versus 1004 days (Log rank statistic=6.37, P =0.012). This study suggests that WHR may serve as a potential predictive marker in MBC patients treated with AIs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: In the practice of oncology, effective communication between physician and patient is very important. Although many studies have indicated that a large majority of physicians, especially from Western countries, tell the truth about diagnosis and prognosis, little is known about attitudes of physicians in Turkey toward truth-telling. Objective: In this study, we tried to determine the truth-telling practice of physicians and explore potential related factors with a self-reported questionnaire. Design: Using a questionnaire, 131 cancer specialists were interviewed during the 15th National Oncology Meeting in April 2003. Results: The percentage of physicians who never, rarely, generally, and always prefer truthtelling about a cancer diagnosis were 9%, 39%, 45%, and 7%, respectively. In univariate logistic regression analysis for the truth-telling practice, significant variables included "do not tell" requests from family, experiences from medical training and clinical practice, and medical specialty. In the multivariate analysis, "do not tell" requests from relatives and medical training factors retained their significance. Conclusion: Professional training in breaking bad news is important and is associated with the self-reported truth-telling practices of physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the activity of third-line chemotherapy for non small lung cancer (NSCLC). This retrospective study included patients who had failed after a second-line chemotherapy. A total of 16 patients treated with third line chemotherapy were evaluated. Only one patient had a partial response (6.2%), with an additional 4 patients (24.8%) with disease stabilisation. The median time to progression was 46 days and the median overall survival time was 132 days after the onset of third-line therapy. The overall survival (OAS) after the third-line chemotherapy was linked with the presence of objective response achieved by the first-line treatment (p=0.009). Likewise, the progression free survival (PFS) was related with the presence of clinical benefit (complete + partial response + stable disease) after the first-line chemotherapy (p=0.044). However, other factors evaluated as potential predictors of PFS, or OAS were not found to be of significance. As a conclusion; highly selected patients, who have objective response to the first-line therapy may be offered a third-line chemotherapy regimen, provided that they have a good performance status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an ongoing debate on staging in breast cancer. In this study, we evaluated the metastasis detection rate with baseline staging of breast cancer after operation. One hundred consecutive breast cancer patients were evaluated with liver ultrasonography, chest X-ray and bone scans. All patients were followed at least for 6 months. More than one third of our patients belong to the high risk group (axillary involvement >3). In 3 patients (3%) metastasis were detected. Two of them (5,8%) were in the group with pT4, N2 or N1 (N >3), one of them (2,7%) was in the group with pT2-3N0-1 (N ≤3). There was no metastasis in patients with pT1N0-1 (N ≤3). To detect one case of occult metastasis 2000 ∈ were spent. As a result, routine staging does not have a major impact on individual adjuvant treatment planning. We recommend routine staging only for patients with pT4 or N1, (N >3) or N2 disease, and we do not recommend staging for patients with pT1N0-1, (N ≤3) positive nodes. Decision about staging of the patients with pT2-3N0-1, (N ≤3) diseases should be individualized according to patients' and doctors' preferences and economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]