Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027651 (tumor)
 685,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Primary cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma is rare and its extension to the mitral valve even rarer. We report a case of left atrial rhabdomyosarcoma involving the mitral valve. The patient was a 62-year-old man who complained of recurrent pre-syncopal episodes, dyspnoea often sudden in onset, asthenia and major weight loss (10 kg in one month). 2-D echocardiography revealed a 4.9 cm2 wide mass attached to the atrial side of the anterior mitral leaflet and to the adjacent inferior interatrial septum, where it seemed to have origin. CT scan and scintigraphy revealed bone, kidney and spleen metastases. The patient underwent emergency cardiac surgery because of increasing pre-syncopal and dyspnoeic episodes due to obstruction by the intracardiac mass. At surgery a tumor was found infiltrating the left atrial wall, the interatrial septum, the mitral anulus and the anterior mitral leaflet up to its tip. Invasion of mitral anulus did not allow mitral valve replacement, so that an excision of the intracardiac mass was performed as extensively as possible. Histology revealed a rhabdomyosarcoma. A post-operative chemotherapy cycle had to be stopped due to onset of atrial fibrillation and dyspnoea. 2-D echo monitoring revealed rapid new growth of the tumor across the basal portion of mitral valve leaflet to the atrioventricular orifice. After several episodes of increasing dyspnoea, the patient had a pulmonary oedema and died.
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PMID:[Primary cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma involving the mitral valve]. 129 26

In a pilot single blind study, beta-carotene (BC) supplementation produced, in ARC patients under current treatment, apparent recovery from asthenia, fever, nocturnal sweating, diarrhoea, loss in weight, and led as a result to an improvement in general health and working efficiency, but not to an improvement in multiple district lympho-adenopathies. Nevertheless, BC appeared to prevent progress to AIDS and, in addition, to lower the effective dosage of AZT used in one case of ARC developed into AIDS, producing a recovery from opportunistic infections and an inhibition of Kaposi sarcoma diffusion, in line with a two-fold rise in CD4 counts.
Med Oncol Tumor Pharmacother 1992
PMID:Short communication: possible activity of beta-carotene in patients with the AIDS related complex. A pilot study. 136 29

A case is described of an HIV+ man who was successfully treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, but who later developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 3 years later when his immune system became suppressed. The patient was 22 years old when he presented with fever, asthenia, weight loss, and cervical lymphadenopathy. With Hodgkin's lymphoma he also had positive serology for HIV and hepatitis B. He was treated with alternate courses of MOPP and ABVD chemotherapy. In 1990 he again appeared with high fever, progressive cervical, axillary and inguinal lymphadenopathy, with hilar and mediastinal lymph node enlargement on x-ray. CD4 lymphocytes were 577/cubic mm, and the CD4/CD8 ratio was 0.57 (normal 1.8). His cervical lymph node biopsy was classified as non-B non-T large-cell anaplastic lymphoma which was EBV-positive. A Western Blot was positive for small amounts of p24 and p18 antigens. The man was treated with MACOP-B chemotherapy, with some results, but died of sepsis 6 weeks later. The relationships between Hodgkins and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the timing of the neoplasm in the course of HIV infection, and the possible re-activation of hepatitis virus were discussed.
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PMID:Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after prolonged remission of Hodgkin's disease in an HIV-infected patient. 166 42

The new anticancer agent lonidamine has been recently revisited for the treatment of various solid tumors, due to its peculiar and unusual mechanism of action (ie, interference with energy metabolism of tumor cells, morphologically displayed by the appearance of "condensed mitochondria"). First generation trials have in fact demonstrated therapeutic activity and an unusual toxicity profile. Lonidamine is devoid of conventional side effects induced by antiproliferative agents (ie, myelosuppression, stomatitis, cystitis, alopecia, renal, hepatic, and cardiac toxicity). No serious or life-threatening adverse reactions have been recorded even over long term treatment periods. Given as a single agent (in daily doses ranging between 300 and 900 mg) lonidamine induces the following side effects: myalgia, testicular pain, asthenia, ototoxicity, nausea and vomiting, gastric pain, and drowsiness. Hyperesthesia and photophobia have also been reported. In combination with radiotherapy (in oral daily doses ranging between 300 and 450 mg) lonidamine was well tolerated, without any reported evidence of additional toxicity. When associated with cytotoxic agents no enhanced toxicity was observed. In particular, myelosuppression and other conventional nonhematological adverse reactions were never greater than would be expected with chemotherapy alone. The same applies to toxicity and tolerance of lonidamine when used concurrently with hypertermia. The data collected from large series of cancer patients treated with this new agent show that lonidamine is a safe drug whether used alone or in combination with other effective anticancer treatments. The reported therapeutic efficacy and the peculiar toxic profile make lonidamine an interesting new drug for future clinical trials.
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PMID:Toxicity and clinical tolerance of lonidamine. 203 Nov 92

We report the case of a 13-yr-old patient with retarded growth and a 2-yr background of asthenia, anorexia, and fever, whose laboratory data revealed anemia, thrombocytosis, an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ferropenia, hyperglobulinemia, hyperfibrinogenemia, and presence of a lupus-like circulating anticoagulant. Clinical studies revealed a tumor-like overgrowth in the gastric wall, and surgery confirmed its subserosal localization in the gastric fundus. After total removal of the mass, the systemic manifestations disappeared. The pathological study revealed the existence of the hyaline-vascular variety of Castleman's disease. Having reviewed the medical literature, we have not found a single unquestionable case of gastric Castleman's disease, although three other cases have been described as gastric pseudolymphoma which, when analyzed, could correspond to typical cases of Castleman's disease. Likewise, this is the second case associated with a circulating anticoagulant of lupoid characteristics. We conclude that Castleman's disease should be included in the differential diagnosis of gastric lesions of lymphoid nature and in the series of processes associated with lupus anticoagulant.
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PMID:Gastric Castleman's disease with a lupus-like circulating anticoagulant. 249 41

An early diagnosis in asymptomatic patients and a prompt treatment lead to an improved survival rate in patients with carcinoma of the colon. Patients with a short symptomatic history of colon cancer do not have a better prognosis than patients with a long history. Between 1978 and 1984 a consecutive series of 571 patients with colorectal cancer were admitted to the First Department of Surgery of the University of Rome. All patients were classified into five groups according to the duration of specific intestinal symptoms. In Group 1 (51 cases) asymptomatic patients were included, or patients with no specific symptoms such as asthenia, anemia, occult fecal blood. In Group 2 there were 129 patients with intestinal symptoms of less than 3 months' duration before treatment. In Group 3 there were 192 patients with symptoms of between 4 and 6 months' duration; 151 patients with symptoms of between 6 and 12 months were included in Group 4, and finally 48 patients who presented with symptoms of more than 1 year were included in Group 5. No relationship was noted between tumor site and duration of symptoms. Similarly, no relationship was noted between the duration of intestinal symptoms and stage and tumor differentiation. On the other hand, asymptomatic patients showed a higher incidence of T1N0M0 stage tumor and a lower percentage of undifferentiated neoplasms. The resectability rate was 79% and it was significantly related to the absence of intestinal symptoms. Follow-up data were available in 454 patients (80%). The overall survival rate was 52.4%. In Group 1 through Group 5 the 5-year survival rate was: 83.7%, 50%, 50%, 46.3%, 46.9%. The results of our study indicate that patients admitted in asymptomatic phase presented less-advanced stage tumors and, thus, best survival rate. On the other hand, from our data the duration of intestinal symptoms is not related to the stage and prognosis of tumors.
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PMID:Relationship of symptom duration and survival in patients with colorectal carcinoma. 255 43

Sixty-four consecutive patients with advanced breast cancer were included in a study designed to determine the prevalence of asthenia and its association with other clinical features. The Asthenia Score (AS, the average of four tests designed by our group to assess asthenia) was 59 +/- 9 for patients versus 88 +/- 7 for a group of 68 normal controls (p less than 0.001). Twenty-six patients (41%) scored below the tenth percentile of normal controls and were considered asthenics. AS was correlated with depression and the general severity index of the SCL-90 R test. No association was found between AS and nutritional status, lean body mass, tumor mass, anemia, or type of treatment. We conclude that asthenia is a frequent symptom in patients with advanced breast cancer, which, in our series, showed independent correlations only with psychological distress.
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PMID:Association between asthenia and nutritional status, lean body mass, anemia, psychological status, and tumor mass in patients with advanced breast cancer. 278 36

To investigate the feasibility and antitumoral effect of ketoconazole in the treatment of disseminated prostatic cancer, 22 patients with stage D2 disease were treated with 400 mg. ketoconazole orally every 8 hours. Of the 17 patients evaluable for antitumoral effect an initial tumor response of 88 per cent was observed (1 complete and 8 partial responses, and 6 with stable disease) with a mean duration of 15.8 months (range 5 to more than 30 months). Treatment-related side effects were encountered in 21 patients and consisted of asthenia, gastrointestinal complaints, skin reactions and cardiovascular complications. They were judged to be mild in 8 patients, moderate in 5 and severe in 8. Treatment had to be discontinued because of side effects in 7 patients (32 per cent). During treatment with ketoconazole serum testosterone levels decreased rapidly and attained nearly castrate levels at the end of week 3. However, after 1 month a steady increase was noted and the testosterone levels reached low normal ranges after 5 months. No hormonal or biochemical indications of adrenocortical insufficiency were noted. High dose ketoconazole is effective in the treatment of disseminated prostatic cancer. Its use is limited by the side effects and the inability to maintain castrate levels of testosterone.
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PMID:Ketoconazole therapy for advanced prostatic cancer: feasibility and treatment results. 295 8

Cancer cachexia is a complex syndrome that includes host tissue wasting, anorexia, asthenia, and abnormal host intermediary metabolism. It is present in approximately 50% of cancer patients during treatment and nearly 100% of treated cancer patients at death. Cachexia has a detrimental impact on cancer therapy. The central problem of cancer cachexia is that energy balance is not maintained, and the host has a relative hypophagia which results in host tissue wasting. The tumor by its nature and obligate growth can continue to consume glucose, amino acids, and lipids at the expense of the host. This produces abnormal host intermediary metabolism including elevated glucose production and recycling, decreased muscle protein synthesis, and increased muscle and fat breakdown. The exact mechanisms of cancer cachexia have been only partially elucidated. The identification of signal molecules like cachectin which mediate these changes may be on the horizon. Nutritional support can reverse some of the derangements seen with cachexia, and there is evidence that functional lean body mass or body cell mass can be restored in some (but not all) patients. However, nutritional support has not yet improved response to chemotherapy or radiation therapy, nor has it improved host tolerance of chemotherapy. It has improved operative mortality and morbidity in cachectic cancer patients undergoing major surgical procedures. Optimum host nutritional support appears to be dependent on high insulin concentrations in both humans and rats. Insulin and exercise may be methods to preserve host lean tissue and feed the host rather than the tumor. Future studies depend on better definition of tumor-bearing host metabolism, altering the relationship between neoplasm and host to preferentially feed the host, and making the neoplasm more susceptible to effective treatment.
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PMID:Cancer cachexia. 312 81

From January 1978 to May 1983, 41 patients with primary high-grade osteogenic osteosarcoma of a limb were treated with a combination of intensive chemotherapy and prophylactic lung irradiation (PLI) intercalated between the first two cycles of chemotherapy. The primary tumor was treated according to its size and location by amputation, resection, high-dose radiotherapy, and salvage amputation for a tumor progressing under radiotherapy. Two weeks after surgery or simultaneously with radiotherapy, a three-drug regimen (cycle A) consisting of mitomycin C on day 1, vincristine followed by a 6-hour infusion of methotrexate on day 2 was given. Folinic acid rescue was started 6 hours after the end of the methotrexate infusion. A PLI of 20 G was given from day 10 to 22. On day 28, a four-drug regimen (cycle B) combining doxorubicin on day 1, vincristine on day 2 and dacarbazine with cyclophosphamide on days 3 to 6 was administered. Thereafter, five additional cycles of A and B were administered provided that the absolute number of polymorphonuclear cells and platelets had recovered. When these values were not attained, treatment was delayed until recovery. After a mean follow-up of 60.6 months, 16 patients have developed distant metastases, associated in four cases with local recurrence. Sixteen patients have died: 15 with metastases, one with no evidence of disease (toxic death). The overall survival of the entire group is 66% and the continuously disease-free survival 58% at 5 years. Alopecia, nausea, vomiting, asthenia, anorexia, and infraclinical and reversible impairment of lung ventilatory function were universal. A noticeable hematologic toxicity also was seen. One toxic death occurred after a pulmonary infection. Two patients developed cardiomyopathy. A multiparametic analysis of prognostic factors shows the very significant influence of age on treatment outcome. The continuous disease-free survival among the 17 patients younger than 15 years is 41% compared to 79% in older patients. The prognostic influence of age was independent of other factors. The delay (for more than two cycles) of methotrexate administration was the second independent prognostic factor. These results raise the question of using different protocols of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients younger or older than 15 years in order to optimize the curability/toxicity ratio.
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PMID:Age and dose of chemotherapy as major prognostic factors in a trial of adjuvant therapy of osteosarcoma combining two alternating drug combinations and early prophylactic lung irradiation. French Bone Tumor Study Group. 312 57


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