Summary There are few large‐scale reports of primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL). This study clinically and pathologically reviewed 171 patients with PTL and 24 553 patients with Hashimoto’s disease at Ito Hospital between January 1990 and December 2004, to investigate the clinical features and the treatment outcomes of PTL. The median age of the patients with PTL was 67 years (range, 27–90 years). The pathological diagnosis of PTL patients included diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (n = 74), DLBCL with mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma (n = 13), MALT lymphoma (n = 80) and others (n = 4). Of the 167 patients with B‐cell lymphoma, treatment included combined modality therapy (CMT) (n = 95), radiation therapy (RT) alone (n = 60) and chemotherapy alone (n = 6). Information on treatment was not available in six patients. Information on treatment response was available in 154 patients; 149 patients (97%) responded to treatment. According to the institutional treatment strategy of Ito Hospital, 45 of 54 patients with stage IE disease received RT alone, and 87 of 113 stage IIE patients received CMT. The 5‐year overall survival rate was 85% (95% confidence interval, 79–91%). This study demonstrated that PTL showed good response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy and had a favourable prognosis.

Bortezomib is a novel proteasome inhibi

BackgroundPatients increasingly turn to the Internet for information on medical conditions, including clinical news and treatment options. In recent years, an online patient community has arisen alongside the rapidly expanding world of social media, or “Web 2.0.” Twitter provides real-time dissemination of news, information, personal accounts and other details via a highly interactive form of social media, and has become an important online tool for patients. This medium is now considered to play an important role in the modern social community of online, “wired” cancer patients.ResultsFifty-one highly influential “power accounts” belonging to cancer patients were extracted from a dataset of 731 Twitter accounts with cancer terminology in their profiles. In accordance with previously established methodology, “power accounts” were defined as those Twitter accounts with 500 or more followers. We extracted data on the cancer patient (female) with the most followers to study the specific relationships that existed between the user and her followers, and found that the majority of the examined tweets focused on greetings, treatment discussions, and other instances of psychological support. These findings went against our hypothesis that cancer patients’ tweets would be centered on the dissemination of medical information and similar “newsy” details.ConclusionsAt present, there exists a rapidly evolving network of cancer patients engaged in information exchange via Twitter. This network is valuable in the sharing of psychological support among the cancer community.

This study showed that ATD cause hematopoietic changes, which are occasionally severe and potentially fatal. The pathogenesis of agranulocytosis and pancytopenia might overlap, and additional studies are warranted to clarify this and to establish an optimal treatment strategy.

BackgroundTwitter is an interactive, real-time media that could prove useful in health care. Tweets from cancer patients could offer insight into the needs of cancer patients.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to understand cancer patients’ social media usage and gain insight into patient needs.MethodsA search was conducted of every publicly available user profile on Twitter in Japan for references to the following: breast cancer, leukemia, colon cancer, rectal cancer, colorectal cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. We then used an application programming interface and a data mining method to conduct a detailed analysis of the tweets from cancer patients.ResultsTwitter user profiles included references to breast cancer (n=313), leukemia (n=158), uterine or cervical cancer (n=134), lung cancer (n=87), colon cancer (n=64), and stomach cancer (n=44). A co-occurrence network is seen for all of these cancers, and each cancer has a unique network conformation. Keywords included words about diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments for almost all cancers. Words related to social activities were extracted for breast cancer. Words related to vaccination and support from public insurance were extracted for uterine or cervical cancer.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that cancer patients share information about their underlying disease, including diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments, via Twitter. This information could prove useful to health care providers.