Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0042963 (vomiting)
 31,883 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Preclinical data suggest that folinic acid as well as interferon alpha-2b may enhance the antitumor activity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). In a phase I trial, we recently showed that interferon alpha-2b (IFN), folinic acid and 5-FU can be safely administered with a 4-hour infusion of 5-FU. We therefore initiated a phase II trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of these three drugs. Forty-five evaluable patients with advanced metastatic colorectal cancer, documented progressive disease, and previously unexposed to chemotherapy were treated with sequential IFN 5 MU/d subcutaneously and folinic acid 200 mg/m2/d as bolus on days 1 to 7 followed by 5-FU in a 4-hour infusion at a dose of 500 mg/m2/d, resulting in a total dose of 3,500 mg/m2/course. This schedule was repeated on day 21. A total of 204 courses of therapy were completed. One of 45 patients (2%) achieved a complete response, and 13 of 45 patients (29%) achieved a partial response. An additional 16 patients (36%) had stable disease. The median time to disease progression was seven months (2 to 24 months). Despite the relatively high-dose intensity of 5-FU, toxicity was very mild. Grade 3 or 4 myelosuppression, stomatitis, and nausea/vomiting occurred in only three of 45 patients (7%). Four of 45 patients (9%) suffered from severe (grade 3/4) diarrhea. Neurotoxicity and infections of grade 2 to 4 did not occur. From these data we conclude that modulation of 5-FU with both folinic acid and IFN induces an overall response rate of 31% in disseminated colorectal cancer. Using a 4-hour application schedule of 5-FU, the therapeutic index can be improved even for high-dose intensity and requires further evaluation in combination with other modulators.
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PMID:A phase II trial of interferon alpha-2b with folinic acid and 5-fluorouracil administered by 4-hour infusion in metastatic colorectal carcinoma. 155 76

Based on the report of some activity of combination therapy with dacarbazine (DTIC) and interferon alpha-2a (rIFN alpha-2a) in disseminated melanoma, we conducted a phase II study to determine the feasibility and efficacy in a large series of patients. DTIC was administered in 79 patients at the dose of 800 mg/m2 every 3 weeks and rIFN alpha-2a was given daily at the dose of 9 X 10(6) IU for the first 10 weeks and three times a week thereafter. Among the 75 evaluable patients, 25% achieved an objective response, with 8% complete and 17% partial remissions. The regression occurred within a mean time of 1.9 +/- 1.03 months from starting therapy and the mean duration of response was 8.2 +/- 4.2 months. The major side effects were vomiting, anorexia, fever, fatigue, and myalgia. There was one death related to sepsis after myelosuppression. In the other patients bone marrow and liver toxicities were not remarkable. Our data reveal that a combination regimen of rIFN alpha-2a with a cytotoxic agent has some therapeutic activity in the management of advanced malignant melanoma.
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PMID:Phase II study of interferon alpha-2a and dacarbazine in advanced melanoma. 222 Jun 60

A total of 66 patients with advanced renal cell cancer received a combination of recombinant interferon alpha-2a (18 times 10(6) units subcutaneously 3 times weekly) and vinblastine (0.1 mg. per kg. intravenously every 3 weeks). Four patients were ineligible and 6 were inevaluable for response but evaluable for toxicity. There were no complete and 9 partial responses among the 56 evaluable patients, for a response rate of 16 per cent. Median duration of response was 26 weeks, with a range of 8 to 50 weeks. Responses were observed predominantly in patients with lung and soft tissue metastases. Patients who had undergone nephrectomy did not show a better response rate than those who had not. Almost all patients had a flu-like syndrome, fatigue and anorexia. Other side effects included leukopenia, nausea, vomiting, liver function disturbances and neurotoxicity. Most of the side effects were World Health Organization grade 1 or 2; no grade 4 toxicity was observed. Antibodies against interferon developed in 6 patients during the course of treatment. However, there was no relationship between the appearance of antibodies and disease progression. The combination of recombinant interferon alpha-2a and vinblastine has modest but definite activity in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, although the role of vinblastine is unclear.
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PMID:Phase II study of recombinant interferon alpha-2a and vinblastine in advanced renal cell carcinoma. 274 39

Interferon alpha is a biologic agent with demonstrated anti-tumor activity in a variety of hematologic and solid malignancies. Many patients treated with interferon experience acute toxicity manifested as a flu-like syndrome of fever, chills, myalgias, and malaise. However, fatigue, anorexia, bone marrow suppression, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and confusion may also occur. Cardiotoxicity is a rare complication of interferon therapy that most frequently presents as transient episodes of hypotension and tachycardia, with few significant life-threatening cardiovascular effects reported. A small number of cases of suspected interferon-induced cardiomyopathy, all of which improved after discontinuing interferon, have recently been documented. We report a patient with multiple myeloma who developed severe congestive cardiomyopathy while receiving interferon alpha that did not reverse subsequent to discontinuation of interferon therapy. Although the patient had previously received doxorubicin, the presence on endomyocardial biopsy of a prominent intracellular lipid accumulation within myocytes and only grade 2 anthracycline cardiotoxicity suggested that other or additional factor(s) contributed to the severity of this patient's cardiomyopathy. Etiologies of cardiac dysfunction other than interferon and doxorubicin were excluded. While a direct cause-effect relationship between interferon alpha and irreversible congestive cardiomyopathy cannot be firmly established in this case report, patients who either concurrently or sequentially receive interferon and anthracyclines should be carefully monitored for evidence of cardiac toxicity.
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PMID:Irreversible, severe congestive cardiomyopathy occurring in association with interferon alpha therapy. 771 76

In a non-randomized clinical trial, combined intraperitoneal therapy with recombinant interferon alpha-2b (20-50 MU) and mitoxantrone (20-50 mg) was studied for recurrent ovarian cancer with ascites. Altogether 19 patients were treated. After primary operation, all patients had received intravenous chemotherapy, 16 of which included cisplatin. One patient had complete response, seven patients partial response, four no change and seven progressive disease. The mean duration of the responses was 5+ months (range 1-12), and mean survival time 4.5+ months (range 1-14+). Eight patients had side effects (flu-like symptoms, dyspnea, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and bowel obstruction). It was concluded that the formation of ascites in refractory ovarian cancer can be reduced with intraperitoneal administration of interferon alpha-2b and mitoxantrone, with tolerable side effects.
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PMID:Combined intraperitoneal interferon alpha-2b and mitoxantrone in refractory ovarian cancer. 809 65

In an attempt to evaluate the feasibility of 5-fluorouracil (FU) treatment modulated by (R,S)-leucovorin (LV) and interferon alpha (IFN alpha) in patients with advanced colorectal cancer, we conducted a phase I trial with increasing doses of subcutaneous IFN alpha (3 x 1 x 10(6) U, 3 x 3 x 10(6) U, 3 x 3 x 10(6) U, 3 x 5 x 10(6) U and 3 x 10 x 10(6) U/week) and 500 mg/m2 LV i.v. as a 2-h infusion with 600 mg/m2 FU i.v. as a midpoint injection. Unacceptable side-effects occurred in all 3 patients at the highest dose level of IFN alpha, while toxicity was tolerable at 3 x 5 x 5 x 10(6) U IFN alpha/week. Thus, this dose was defined as the maximal tolerable dose for IFN alpha in combination with FU and LV. In a subsequent phase II study a total of 83 treatment courses (median: 2.8, range: 2-10) were administered to 30 evaluable patients. Side-effects were acceptable with no WHO grade IV toxicities. Grade III toxicities consisted in thrombopenia (2/30), stomatitis (2/30), diarrhoea (3/30) and nausea/vomiting (4/30). After a median observation time of 17 months (range: 8-22 months), no complete remission was observed and 9 patients experienced a partial response lasting for a median of 6.6 months (range: 3-13+ months), for an overall response rate of 30% (95% confidence interval: 15%-49%). These results show that the described regiment of FU doubly modulated by LV and IFN alpha is active in colorectal cancer and can be safely administered in an out patient setting with acceptable toxicity. Thus, this regimen is suitable to be used for further evaluation in clinical trials.
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PMID:Double modulation of 5-fluorouracil by high-dose leucovorin and interferon alpha 2b in advanced colorectal cancer: a phase I and a phase II study of weekly administration. 812 62

Six patients with either acceleration or blast crisis of transformed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) were treated with high-dose interferon alpha in combination with hydroxyurea. All patients responded to the treatment by reversal to stable chronic phase. Two of these patients responded repeatedly during their course of disease. Median time for return to chronic phase was 4 weeks. Adverse side-effects such as nausea, vomiting, hairloss, fever, prolonged cytopenia were not observed.
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PMID:Successful treatment of accelerated and blastic phase of chronic myeloid leukemia with high-dose interferon alpha and hydroxyurea: a novel approach. 857 62

In a Nordic multi-centre trial, 583 previously untreated multiple myeloma patients were randomized to receive melphalan-prednisone or melphalan-prednisone+ interferon alpha-2b at a dose of 5 million units subcutaneously, 3 d/week. A quality-of-life study was integrated into the trial, using the EORTC QLQ C-30 questionnaire supplemented with 11 questions concerning interferon toxicity. The questionnaire was completed prior to treatment and after 1, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months. 90% of the patients participated in the quality-of-life study, and 83% completed all questionnaires submitted to them. During the first year of treatment the patients on interferon reported significantly more fever, chills, dry skin, fatigue, pain, nausea/vomiting and appetite loss than the control patients. There was a moderate reduction of the global quality-of-life score and slight, non-significant, reductions of physical, emotional, cognitive, social and role functioning scores. After the first year there were no statistically significant differences in any toxicity, symptom or quality-of-life score, except for an increased frequency of dizziness in the interferon group. As only 60% of the patients remained on interferon after 24 months, our data probably underestimate the potential toxicity of the drug. Although there was no significant survival benefit for the interferon patients, a 5-6 months prolongation of the response and plateau phase duration was observed. However, by intention-to-treat analysis, there was no late quality-of-life benefit for the interferon patients to compensate for the early impairment. Thus, the clinical significance of the plateau-phase prolongation is uncertain.
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PMID:Effect of interferon on the health-related quality of life of multiple myeloma patients: results of a Nordic randomized trial comparing melphalan-prednisone to melphalan-prednisone + alpha-interferon. The Nordic Myeloma Study Group. 875 93

A prospective phase II trial was carried out to define the activity of a low-dose subcutaneous regimen of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon alpha-2b (IFN-alpha) in combination with intravenous administration of vinblastine (VLB) in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC). Thirty-one patients with advanced RCC who had received no prior biochemotherapy were treated with IL-2 4.5 MU x 2/24 h thrice weekly for 2 weeks, IFN-alpha 3 MU/24 h thrice weekly (alternating days) for 2 consecutive weeks and VLB 4 mg/m2 every 3 weeks. Patients were to have a 1-week rest period after each 2 weeks of therapy with cytokines. Treatment was repeated every 3 weeks. Maximum duration of treatment was 1 year. Treatment was administered on an outpatient basis. There were 4 complete (12.9%) and 8 partial responses (25.8%), with an overall response rate of 38.7%. The median duration of response was 6.5 months. Responses were seen in lung, lymph nodes, bones, liver and other tumor metastases. Toxicity was mild to moderate, consisting of fever, anorexia, malaise and nausea-vomiting in > 80% of patients. Hypotension and transient alopecia occurred in > 20% of patients. Liver enzyme elevation was frequently observed. Treatment-induced eosinophilia occurred in the majority of patients, while in 52% of patients granulocytopenia grade II and grade III did not require dose modification of drugs. Transient inflammation and local induration at the injection sites was observed in the majority of patients. None of the patients experienced major VLB-related toxicity and no toxic deaths occurred. This three-drug combination immunochemotherapy may be a promising regimen with modest toxicity in advanced RCC.
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PMID:An outpatient phase II study of subcutaneous interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha-2b in combination with intravenous vinblastine in metastatic renal cell cancer. 942 69

The effect of interferon on the health-related quality of life in multiple myeloma was assessed in two trials carried out by the Nordic Myeloma Study (Group (NMSG). In both trials, the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire, supplemented with 11 items relating to interferon toxicity, was used. The first was a randomized controlled trial (NMSG 4/90) evaluating the addition of interferon alpha-2b to melphalan and prednisone during induction, maintenance and relapse. During the first 12 months, patients on interferon reported more chills, fever, fatigue, pain, nausea/vomiting, appetite loss and dry skin than the control patients, and a slight reduction of global health and quality of life. From 12 months onward there were no significant differences in any score between the two groups. In a later trial (NMSG 5/94) evaluating the effect of high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell support in patients under 60 years of age with newly diagnosed myeloma, interferon was used as maintenance. During the maintenance phase, symptom and toxicity scores were not significantly different from those in control patients under 60 years of age in the previous trial. Thus, interferon appeared to be well tolerated after high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell support.
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PMID:Health-related quality of life and patients' perceptions in interferon-treated multiple myeloma patients. Nordic Myeloma Study Group. 1114 38


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