Intensive chemotherapy can achieve DFS for a high proportion of patients with OS. Although it is a powerful predictor of DFS, histologic response to preoperative chemotherapy cannot be assessed at diagnosis. We have not shown an ability to salvage patients with an unfavorable response. We need to increase the proportion of patients with a favorable response, identify the patients who will have an unfavorable response, and develop novel treatments to salvage poor responders.

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Forty-one percent of surviving patients and 50% of all patients were treated successfully with chemotherapy only without irradiation. Chemotherapy-only regimens for CNS GCT, although encouraging, should continue to be used only in the setting of formal clinical trials.

Between 1975 and 1990, 104 male patients with a total of 106 breast cancers were treated at Memorial Hospital or the Ochsner Clinic and their records reviewed. The patients were followed for a median of 67 months (range, 0.5 to 14.4 years). Analysis of the frequency distribution by stage showed that 16 (17%) patients were stage 0 and 26 (27%) patients were stage I. The median duration of symptoms before diagnosis was 18 weeks (mean, 5 weeks; range, 1 to 156 weeks). Modified radical mastectomy was undertaken in 71 (67%) patients. The actuarial 5-year relapse-free survival for the entire group was 68% and the actuarial 5-year overall survival was 85%. Relapse-free survival at 5 years for axillary node-negative patients was 87% and for node-positive patients was 30% (p less than 0.001). Overall survival figures for the same subsets showed a 5-year survival of 100% for the node-negative subset and 60% for the node-positive subset. On multivariate analysis, the most powerful predictor of outcome in men was the status of the axillary lymph nodes, and the only prognostic factor that added significantly to this predictive power was the duration of symptoms. Patients who sought treatment less than 6 months after the onset of symptoms experienced a significant survival advantage when compared with patients whose symptoms were present for more than 6 months (p = 0.03). The profile of the stages at diagnosis, the treatment approach, and the survival rates approximate those reported in series of female breast cancers, and overall, the two diseases are remarkably similar.

The progression-free survival rate was better after a complete resection and in older patients. Progression-free survival rate was the same after lobectomy or more extensive thyroid procedures, but comparison was confounded by the increased use of total or subtotal thyroidectomy in patients with advanced disease. The risk of permanent hypocalcemia increased when total or subtotal thyroidectomy was done. Thyroid lobectomy alone may be appropriate for patients with small localized lesions while total or subtotal thyroidectomy should be considered for more extensive tumors.

The results suggest that posttherapy PSA declines can be used as a surrogate end point to evaluate new agents in hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The criteria for response need prospective validation in phase III trials.

Interferon alfa-2a had minimal antitumor activity in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma and long-term survival was achieved in a small proportion of patients. The need for continued investigation and the identification of more effective therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma is evident from the poor overall survival rate observed in these 159 patients. The investigation of new agents and of interferon alfa-2a in combination with other agents remains a priority.

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