Background Cancer patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) receiving anticoagulant treatment have an increased bleeding risk. Objectives We performed a prespecified secondary analysis of the randomized, open-label, Phase III CATCH trial (NCT01130025) to assess the rate and sites of and the risk factors for clinically relevant bleeding (CRB). Patients/Methods Patients with active cancer and acute, symptomatic VTE received either tinzaparin 175 IU kg once daily or warfarin (target International Normalized Ratio [INR] of 2.0-3.0) for 6 months. Fisher's exact test was used to screen prespecified clinical risk factors; those identified as being significantly associated with an increased risk of CRB then underwent competing risk regression analysis of time to first CRB. Results Among 900 randomized patients, 138 (15.3%) had 180 CRB events. CRB occurred in 60 patients (81 events) in the tinzaparin group and in 78 patients (99 events) in the warfarin group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45-0.89). Common bleeding sites were gastrointestinal (36.7%; n = 66), genitourinary (22.8%; n = 41), and nasal (10.0%; n = 18). In multivariate analysis, the risk of CRB increased with age > 75 years (HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.14-2.94) and intracranial malignancy (HR 1.97, 95% CI 1.07-3.62). In the warfarin group, 40.4% of CRB events occurred in patients with with an INR of < 3.0. A lower time in therapeutic range was associated with a higher risk of CRB. Conclusions CRB is a frequent complication in cancer patients with VTE during anticoagulant treatment, and is associated with age > 75 years and intracranial malignancy.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality with the median age of incidence being 69 years in males and 67 years in females. Radiochemotherapy (RT-CHT) is indicated in locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and limited-stage small-cell lung cancer; however, a significant under-representation of the elderly has been observed in patient recruitment in cancer treatment trials. In the last decades of the 20th Century, studies showed that elderly patients achieved the best quality-adjusted survival with radiotherapy alone, but recent trials have found that fit elderly patients benefit from concurrent RT-CHT, although with more short-term toxicity. Age alone should not exclude fit patients and deprive them of the standard treatment. Using tools, such as comprehensive geriatric assessment, a patient's tolerance to therapy can be assessed and monitoring can be performed. This review will focus on RT-CHT treatment in elderly patients with nonoperable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer and limited-stage small-cell lung cancer exclusively.
Osteonecrosis is a disease characterized by the death of marrow and bone tissues. All bones may be affected, most commonly those of the hip, knee, shoulder, ankle as well as the small bones of the hands and feet. When the disease involves a weight-bearing joint there is a significant risk that subarticular fracture may develop leading to disabling arthrosis and requiring, therefore, arthroplasty surgery. Osteonecrosis typically affects patients in their third, fourth and fifth decades of life and is associated with many factors including other diseases and co-morbidities. Multifocal osteonecrosis is defined according to the involvement of at least three separated anatomic sites. We describe the case of a young man with osteonecrosis of the shoulder and hip joints which required total arthroplasty. Among biochemical investigations, an increase in the plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) levels associated with mild hyperhomocysteinemia was present. Another finding was the HLA B27, without signs of spondyloarthropathies. In patients with osteonecrosis, especially if multifocal, a careful medical history, a complete physical examination and some biochemical investigations, particularly those related to thrombophilia and hypofibrinolysis, should be performed
For patients with early (stage I/II) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) surgery is considered as the standard treatment of choice, although recent data on additional chemotherapy (CHT) showed that it may be beneficial in this setting. There is, however, a subset of patients that never undergo surgery. These patients are considered technically operable, but medically inoperable, due to existing comorbidities. In addition, frequently elderly patients with early NSCLC are denied surgery due to expected peri- and/or postoperative complications. Finally, in recent years there has been an increase in the incidence of patients refusing surgery. For all these patients, radiation therapy (RT) was traditionally considered as the standard treatment option. Data accumulated over the last 5 decades showed that RT alone can produce median survival times of up to > 30 months and 5-year survival of up to 30%. When cancer-unrelated deaths were taken into account, cause-specific survival rates were usually higher for some 10-15%. Accumulated experience seems to suggest that doses of at least 65 Gy with standard fractionation or its equivalent when altered fractionation is used are necessary for control of the disease. Smaller tumors seem to have favorable prognosis, while the issue of elective nodal RT continues to be controversial. Patterns of failure have clearly identified local failure as the predominant one. Although a number of potential pretreatment patient- and tumor-related prognostic factors have been examined, none has been shown to clearly influenced survival. Toxicity was usually low.
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