In premenopausal patients with ER-absent tumors, early initiation of systemic chemotherapy after primary surgery might improve outcome. Further confirmatory studies are required before any widespread modification of current clinical practice. In premenopausal patients with tumors expressing some ER, gains from early initiation are unlikely to be clinically significant.

BACKGROUND The aim of the current randomized Phase II study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of capecitabine combined with irinotecan as first‐line treatment in metastatic colorectal carcinoma (CRC). METHODS A total of 140 patients received capecitabine at a dose of 1250 mg/m2 twice daily on Days 2–15 and irinotecan at a dose of either 300 mg/m2 on Day 1 (Arm A) or 150 mg/m2 on Days 1 and 8 (Arm B) every 3 weeks. During the course of the study, enrollment was continued using lower doses of capecitabine (1000 mg/m2 twice daily) and irinotecan (Arm A: 240 mg/m2; Arm B: 120 mg/m2) to improve the safety profile of the combinations. RESULTS Efficacy was evaluable in 134 patients (68 in Arm A, 66 in Arm B). Objective responses were observed in 46% of the patients (8% complete response [CR]), including 47% in Arm A (9% CR; 38% partial response [PR]) and 44% in Arm B (8% CR; 36% PR). The median progression‐free survival was 8.3 months in Arm A and 7.6 months in Arm B. Among the first 52 patients treated with the higher doses, the most frequent Grade 3–4 adverse event was diarrhea (27%). The lower doses adopted in the subsequent 88 patients led to better diarrhea control, particularly in Arm A, and significant reductions in the incidence of all‐grade hand‐foot syndrome and abdominal pain. CONCLUSIONS The capecitabine and irinotecan combination was a highly active first‐line therapy in metastatic CRC. An acceptable safety profile was observed after dose reduction, particularly when irinotecan was administered on 1 day. Cancer 2004;100:279–87. © 2003 American Cancer Society.

Background. A Phase II confirmatory multicenter trial was performed to evaluate a combination of epirubicin, cisplatin, and continuous infusion 5‐fluorouracil (ECF) in treating patients with advanced gastric cancer. Methods. Fifty‐three patients with locally advanced (n = 7) or metastatic (n = 46) gastric cancer received a dose of epirubicin (50 mg/m2) and cisplatin (60 mg/m2) intravenously every 21 days for eight cycles with 5‐fluorouracil (200 mg/m2/day) by intravenous continuous infusion for 21 consecutive weeks, administered through a central line using an external pump. Results. Eight complete responses and 22 partial responses (response rate = 56%, 95% confidence interval ± 13) were achieved. Twelve patients had stable disease. The median duration of response was 10 months (range, 3‐21 months), and the median survival for all the patients was 9+ months (range, 2‐28 months). Overall toxicity, which was primarily hematologic, was mild with only three patients requiring hospitalization for neutropenic fever. No death due to toxicity occurred. Conclusions. This study found that the ECF regimen is substantially active in treating patients with advanced gastric cancer and has a favorable pattern of toxicity. This schedule clearly deserves randomized comparative trials for palliation of metastatic disease and for adjuvant purposes. Cancer 1995:76:1694‐9.

GEM in combination with celecoxib showed low toxicity, good clinical benefit rate and good disease control. Further clinical investigation is warranted.

A flat energy dispersion of electrons at the Fermi level of a material leads to instabilities in the electronic system and can drive phase transitions. Here we introduce a method to induce a flat band in two-dimensional (2D) materials. We show that the flat band can be achieved by sandwiching the 2D material by two cesium (Cs) layers. We apply this method to monolayer graphene and investigate the flat band by a combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiment and the calculation. Our work highlights that charge transfer, zone folding of graphene bands and the covalent bonding between C and Cs atoms are at the origin of the flat energy 1 arXiv:1903.09038v2 [cond-mat.mes-hall] 30 May 2019 band formation. The presented approach is an alternative route for obtaining flat band materials to twisting bilayer graphene which yields thermodynamically stable flat band materials in large areas.