BACKGROUND Quality‐of‐life (QoL) issues have become increasingly important as the number of newly diagnosed patients with cancer increases and survival improves. In 1983, Coates et al. reported a survey of patient perceptions of the side effects of cancer chemotherapy and showed the importance of including patient feedback for the accurate assessment of QoL (Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1983;19:203–208.). The authors carried out a similar survey in 100 patients with cancer with the objectives of 1) investigating the changes in patient perceptions that have occurred and 2) evaluating the impact of new treatments on the profile of chemotherapy side effects among patients receiving anticancer drugs. METHODS One hundred patients attending the outpatient Medical Oncology Department of the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital Group were surveyed between August 1998 and February 2000 by trained interviewers who were blinded to the patients' treatment. Patients identified all side effects associated with their treatment using a set of 45 cards that named physical side effects (Group A) and a set of 27 cards that named nonphysical side effects (Group B), and the patients ranked these side effects according to severity. The top 5 cards from each group were then combined, and the resulting 10 cards were rated again by severity, regardless of group. Results were analyzed for the entire cohort and for demographic, social, and clinical subgroups. RESULTS The participants included 65 women and 35 men; the most common malignancies were breast carcinoma (40 patients), gastrointestinal carcinoma (19 patients), lung carcinoma (7 patients), and ovarian carcinoma (9 patients). Patients rated affects my family or partner as the most severe side effect, alopecia was second, and fatigue was the third most severe. Effects on work or home responsibilities, effects on social activities, and loss of interest in sex were ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. The results contrasted with those of Coates et al., in which affects my family or partner was ranked 10th, and fatigue was ranked 8th. CONCLUSIONS Patient perceptions of the side effects of cancer chemotherapy have changed markedly. In the current study, fatigue and psychosocial QoL concerns predominated, compared with emesis, nausea, and negative reactions to the treatment visit in the original survey. The current findings are consistent with the progress that has been made in reducing certain chemotherapy‐associated toxicities. Fatigue, however, although it often is related to anemia and is treatable with recombinant human erythropoietin, remains a major concern. The emotional, social, and sexual consequences of cancer treatment present continuing challenges in efforts to optimize QoL and to develop effective supportive care. Cancer 2002;95:155–63. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10630

These preliminary data suggest that high doses of biotin might have an impact on disability and progression in progressive MS. Two double-blind placebo-controlled trials are on going.

Faecal microbiota transplantation Neomycin a b s t r a c t Objectives: Intestinal carriage with extended spectrum b-lactamase Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) can persist for months. We aimed to evaluate whether oral antibiotics followed by faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can eradicate intestinal carriage with ESBL-E/CPE. Methods: Randomized, open-label, superiority trial in four tertiary-care centres (Geneva (G), Paris (P), Utrecht (U), Tel Aviv (T)). Non-immunocompromised adult patients were randomized 1: 1 to either no intervention (control) or a 5-day course of oral antibiotics (colistin sulphate 2 Â 10 6 IU 4Â/day; neomycin sulphate 500 mg 4Â/day) followed by frozen FMT obtained from unrelated healthy donors. The primary outcome was detectable intestinal carriage of ESBL-E/CPE by stool culture 35e48 days after randomization (V4). ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02472600. The trial was funded by the European Commission (FP7). Results: Thirty-nine patients (G ¼ 14; P ¼ 16; U ¼ 7; T ¼ 2) colonized by ESBL-E (n ¼ 36) and/or CPE (n ¼ 11) were enrolled between February 2016 and June 2017. In the intention-to-treat analysis 9/22 (41%) patients assigned to the intervention arm were negative for ESBL-E/CPE at V4 (1/22 not receiving the intervention imputed as positive) whereas in the control arm 5/17 (29%) patients were negative (one lost to follow up imputed as negative) resulting in an OR for decolonization success of 1.7 (95% CI 0.4 e6.4). Study drugs were well tolerated overall but three patients in the intervention group prematurely stopped the study antibiotics because of diarrhoea (all received FMT).

In this first comparative study, anticoagulation with LMWHs after mechanical heart valve replacement appears feasible, provides adequate biological anticoagulation, and compares favorably with UH anticoagulation. Randomized studies are now needed to further evaluate this new therapeutic approach.