Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019158 (hepatitis)
 30,205 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

If liver metastases are diffuse and spread out in the two lobes of the liver, the question remains as to which treatment should be given. Experimental studies showed that when a tumor grows, its vascular pattern becomes mainly arterial. However, if the tumor is still increasing, its center becomes progressively necrotic. After hepatic artery ligation the blood flow of the liver metastases decreases by 90% in the tumor but depriving the arterial circulation of the tumor is not sufficient to achieve a complete cure since the portal blood supply always saves a rim of neoplastic cells around the necrotic area. On the other hand, local infusion of chemotherapy for liver metastases by the arterial route showed a response rate varying between 34 and 70% and the median survival varying between 8 and 17 months. When FUdR chemotherapy was administered using a totally implantable drug infusion pump no improvement in the survival was observed and moreover a high level of toxicity was described including hepatitis and biliary sclerosis. A combined therapy seems a rational approach to treat tumor cells in surviving to the arterial ligation by perfusing the liver with cytotoxic drugs via the portal vein. Taylor's study was very promising but a randomized phase III clinical trial led by the gastrointestinal cancer group of the EORTC with the aim to evaluate the effectiveness of hepatic artery ligation and portal infusion of 5-FU did not show any difference in the survival of the treated patients when compared with patients treated by hepatic artery ligation alone. 77 patients were registered. Data are now available for 55 patients, respectively 30 and 25 patients in the treated group and in the control group. In both groups the median time to progression was 6 months and the median survival time was 12 months. 20% of the patients treated by hepatic artery ligation and portal chemotherapy had a response, one of them with a complete response, 5 with partial response and 14 patients without significant change in the size of their metastases. On the contrary, in the group treated by hepatic artery ligation alone, only one patient had a partial response with 13 patients having no change in the size of their metastases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Hepatic artery ligation or embolization and locoregional chemotherapy of liver metastases from colorectal cancer. 313 73

The precision of CA 19-9 RIA kit was evaluated by recovery, reproducibility and dilution test with very satisfactory results. The CA 19-9 value in sera from 52 healthy individuals and from 224 patients with gastric intestinal cancer and other benign disease, showed an increased positive rate in several cases of gastric intestinal cancer. For example, the positive rate in pancreatic cancer, bile duct cancer, colo-rectal cancer, gastric cancer, esophagus cancer, primary biliary cirrhosis diabetes mellitus, liver cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis was 60%, 75%, 55.6%, 45.6%, 20%, 28.6%, 22.7%, 13.7% and 1.7% respectively. By contrast, values from patients with acute hepatitis, fulminant hepatitis, fatty liver, gastric duodenal ulcer, pancreatitis, and primary liver cancer were within the normal range. In this study, CA 19-9 RIA were found to be significant as an adjunct in the management of patients with gastrointestinal cancer, especially pancreatic cancer, and bile duct cancer.
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PMID:[Serum determination of CA 19-9 in patients with digestive cancers and its diagnostic evaluation]. 658 10

Vascular endothelial growth factor plays an important role in neovascularization both in normal tissues and most tumors. It has been extensively investigated recently in various hepatic diseases such as primary and secondary hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis and even benign tumors in liver. Vascular endothelial growth factor has been verified to be closely involved in the development and metastases of hepatocellular carcinoma and correlated to the high risk of hepatic metastases and a poor prognosis in gastrointestinal cancer. Using antibodies to vascular endothelial growth factor or other drugs to suppress its expression has also been successfully tried to restrain hepatocellular carcinoma cells and metastases in vitro and in animal models. The protein of vascular endothelial growth factor has an inclination to increase in acute and chronic hepatitis and tends to decrease in cirrhosis both in tissue expression and circulating levels. This circulating level is closely related to the Child-Pugh classification in cirrhotic liver. However, there are indeed some disagreements concerning vascular endothelial growth factor and liver disease, for example, opinions on the positive rates of vascular endothelial growth factor in protein and mRNA level are far from reaching a general consensus. Further study should be performed in the future in antitumor research and its significance in the process of liver cirrhosis.
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PMID:Vascular endothelial growth factors and liver diseases. 1149 Aug 20

The purpose of this review is to summarize the evidence of hepatitis C reactivation in cancer patients in the era of targeted therapies. Targeted therapies are novel therapeutics frequently used in cancer patients. During treatment with targeted therapies, viral replication is one of the major problems that can occur. The PubMed database, ASCO, and ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium abstracts were searched up until September 15, 2013 using the following search keywords: "targeted therapies, rituximab, alemtuzumab, brentuximab, hepatitis, hepatitis C reactivation, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, imatinib, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, everolimus, anti-HER therapies, trastuzumab, pertuzumab, lapatinib, anti-epidermal growth factor receptor therapies, cetuximab, panitumumab, and ipilimumab". Papers considered relevant for the aim of this review were selected by the authors. The data about rituximab-induced hepatic flare in hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive patients is controversial. However, there is the possibility of life-threatening hepatic flare that can develop after HCV ribonucleic acid (HCV-RNA) viral load increases. Routine follow-up of liver function tests should be advised. Especially in high-risk patients, such as those with baseline chronic active hepatitis and cirrhosis, and where there are plans to administer rituximab concomitantly with corticosteroids, it is advised to have close follow-up of HCV viral load. The data is insufficient to make accurate statements about the association of alemtuzumab therapy and HCV reactivation. However, alemtuzumab may cause deep immunosuppression. Due to this, it is better to follow up with liver function tests and HCV RNA levels during alemtuzumab therapy. Brentuximab has effects on antibody dependent cellular toxicity and may decrease humoral immunity. Thus, we believe that during brentuximab treatment of HCV infected patients, clinicians may encounter hepatitis C reactivation. There have been no reported cases of hepatitis C reactivation with imatinib therapy. However, there are many reports of hepatitis B reactivation with imatinib treatment. Based on the evidence of hepatitis B reactivation with imatinib and the effects of imatinib on immune system functions, we suggest that imatinib therapy might be a risk factor for HCV reactivation. Anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 therapies are not associated with hepatic flare in HCV infected patients. Post-transplant studies reported that mTOR was safely administered to patients with active hepatitis C without causing hepatic flare. Cetuximab and panitumumab have not been associated with HCV reactivation. Two cases of HCV infected melanoma were safely treated with ipilimumab without any HCV reactivation or hepatic flare. Targeted therapies are a new and emerging area of oncology treatment modalities. While treating HCV infected cancer patients, clinicians should be mindful of the immunosuppressive properties of targeted therapies. Further randomized trials are needed to establish algorithms for this issue.
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PMID:Hepatitis C virus reactivation in cancer patients in the era of targeted therapies. 2494 64