Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0677930 (primary tumor)
 20,210 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The development of a metastasis is dependent on an interplay between host factors and intrinsic characteristics of malignant tumor cells. The process of metastasis is highly selective, and the metastatic lesion represents the end point of many destructive events that only a few cells can survive. Neoplasms, which are predominantly heterogeneous, contain a variety of subpopulations of cells with differing metastatic potential. Furthermore, metastatic cell variants have been shown to preexist in murine neoplasms of old and recent origin. The possible existence of highly metastatic variant cells within a primary tumor suggests that we no longer should consider a neoplasm to be a uniform entity. Efforts to design effective therapeutic agents and procedures against malignant tumors should be directed toward the few but fatal metastatic subpopulations of cells.
Cancer Res 1978 Sep
PMID:Tumor heterogeneity and the biology of cancer invasion and metastasis. 35 78

Patients with metastatic renal cell cancer have an overall 5-year survival rate of only 28% to 40% in spite of aggressive surgical treatment. A prospective randomized study conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group used methyl--CCNU (meCCNU), vinblastine, and meCCNU-medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) to treat 165 patients with advanced renal cancer. The antitumor activity of the single-agent and/or combination therapy is analyzed. Patients were classified (as to grade of anaplasia of tumor; age; performance status; primary site of metastatic disease; and previous treatment with a progestational agent) and randomly assigned to various treatment protocols as described. Crossover randomization to one of alternate single-agent or combination regimens was carried out after failure with initial therapy. 2 meCCNU regimens were associated with severe hematologic toxicity, vinblastine regimens with neurotoxicity. All regimens except the vinblastine-MPA resulted in substantial vomiting. Response rate is low (11%) with each regimen. There were no statistically significant differences in treatment variables or factors among the various regimens. Patients capable of normal activity had a significantly higher response rate and longer survival period than nonambulatory or poor performance status patients. A relatively long symptom-free interval from primary tumor to metastatic disease was also associated with better survival rate. More than 50% of patients exhibited disease progression with 3 months of initiating the regimens.
Cancer Treat Rep 1978 Jul
PMID:Phase II study of vinblastine, methyl-CCNU, and medroxyprogesterone in advanced renal cell cancer. 35 71

In animal tumor systems, all three major treatment modalities, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, may increase the incidence of metastases in the presence of circulating viable tumor cells. In breast cancer patients, selected studies can be found which report an increased incidence of metastases after surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy, but these effects appear to exert little influence on overall survival. Caution is advised in using systemic therapy prior to effective primary tumor cytoreductive treatment. Clinical trials in advanced local disease should be done to test this concern. Minimal surgery, loco-regional radiotherapy, and effective adjuvant systemic therapy may result in the improved survival of patients with breast cancer with minimal functional or cosmetic impairment.
Cancer Treat Rep 1978 Sep
PMID:Effect of primary treatment modality on the metastatic pattern of mammary carcinoma. 35 82

50 patients with primary breast cancer were studied to determine the CEA and HCG contents in their tumor cells before any treatment was initiated. Tumor cells were obtained by needle biopsy and each tumor cell population was stained by immunofluorescence. In 21 of the 50 patients, CEA containing cells were found in a frequency ranging from 5 to 80% of the tumor cell population. The results were confirmed by radioimmunoassay of tumor extracts. No apparent relation was seen to cytologic type or grade of differentiation. HCG was detected by IF in 4 tumors with an apocrine cytologic cell type. The level of CEA in plasma was determined before treatment and followed for 2-6 months in 72 patients. CEA was the only measured serum parameter that correlated initially with size and extent of the localized tumor. It was too low to be of use for monitoring primary disease, but should be of value in early detection of metastasis. Posttreatment a low or decreased plasma CEA was seen more often in patients who had had curative treatment than in those given palliative radiation. No raised serum HCG levels were found. Raised serum liver enzymes did not predict the extent of the primary tumor but may be an indication of distant spread. Tumor CEA content and CEA plasma concentration were correlated, although not very strongly. This means that CEA, although present in the tumor, is not always released in measurable amounts.
Cancer 1978 Oct
PMID:Carcinoembryonic antigen and other tumor markers in tissue and serum or plasma of patients with primary mammary carcinoma. 36 Dec 13

Two measures are urgently needed to improve curative therapy results in cancer treatment. 1. Improvements in the early recognition of specific types of tumor and in appropriate modes of preventitive treatment.--2. The introduction of a metastasis prophylaxis before each diagnostic and therapeutic operation for cancer; several possibilities are proposed. The stagnation of cancer therapy results can only be overcome by an alteration in the current concept of treatment, which in cases of early cancer is as yet directed exclusively at the primary tumor.
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PMID:[25 years of curative cancer-therapy stagnation--a change in a sight?]. 36 31

One hundred and thirty-four patients (118 males and 16 females) with epidermoid carcinoma of the head and neck were studied. After treatment of the primary lesion, they were randomized into two groups: 69 received levamisole, 150 mg/day orally for 3 consecutive days every other week, and 65 received placebo. Immune status was also evaluated. Positive reactions to dinitrochlorobenzene increased significantly after primary tumor therapy in both levamisole- and placebo-treated patients. There were no significant differences in immune responses between the two groups, except in recall antigen reactivity, which was decreased in both groups overall recurrence and death rates at 36 months did not differ between the two groups of patients. However, stage I and II patients treated with levamisole had a significantly higher incidence of recurrence than the placebo-treated patients (P less than 0.02), while there was some evidence that levamisole-treated stage IV patients did better. It is concluded that the overall outcome in patients with squamous cell carcinoma controlled locally by surgery or radiation was not favorably affected by levamisole in the dose and schedule used in this protocol.
Cancer Treat Rep 1979 Jun
PMID:Levamisole in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. 38 Aug 4

Twelve cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and acute myeloblastic leukemia or one of its variants are reported. An additional 33 cases from the literature are reviewed. The mean interval between the diagnosis of lymphoma and acute leukemia is 5.2 years. In 5 patients the two diseases occurred simultaneously or within 6 months of each other. All but 10 of the 45 patients received radiation therapy for their lymphoma. Nine patients had either total nodal or total body irradiation or both. Eight patients received chemotherapy alone. No patient was untreated. Survival after the diagnosis of acute leukemia ranged from 3 days to 14 months, with a median of 3 months. Four patients achieved complete hematological remission following antileukemic therapy. Acute leukemia is estimated to occur in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in New York State with a 37-fold increased frequency over the expected number. Although acute leukemia may occur in a higher than expected frequency in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma because of an increased risk of a second neoplasm in patients with a primary tumor, it seems more likely that the acute leukemia may be related to the radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy administered to treat the lymphoma. Late death from leukemia after chemotherapeutic or radiotherapeutic remission of advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is preferable to morbidity and/or early death from untreated or inadequately treated lymphoma.
Cancer 1979 Sep
PMID:Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and acute myeloblastic leukemia: a report of 12 cases and review of the literature. 38 66

One hundred and fifty patients with advanced cancer participated in a controlled double-blind study to evaluate the effects of high-dose vitamin C on symptoms and survival. Patients were divided randomly into a group that received vitamin C (10 g per day) and one that received a comparably flavored lactose placebo. Sixty evaluable patients received vitamin C and 63 received a placebo. Both groups were similar in age, sex, site of primary tumor, performance score, tumor grade and previous chemotherapy. The two groups showed no appreciable difference in changes in symptoms, performance status, appetite or weight. The median survival for all patients was about seven weeks, and the survival curves essentially overlapped. In this selected group of patients, we were unable to show a therapeutic benefit of high-dose vitamin C treatment.
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PMID:Failure of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial. 38 41

Because systemic spread occurs early in the growth of many malignancies, control of occult micrometastases must be an integral part of cancer treatment. For this reason, surgery and radiation therapy alone may fail to achieve a cure despite eradication of the primary tumor. Chemotherapy is potent and systemic in its effects but kills tumor cells by first-order kinetics so the last cancer cell may not be eliminated. An agent is needed that can selectively attack and destroy small numbers of tumor cells on a systemic basis without a significant increase in toxicity. Experimental observations indicate that immunotherapy could fill this role. Immunotherapy has been tested as an adjuvant to surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, and is clearly beneficial for selected cancer patients. There are many unresolved questions regarding the underlying mechanisms as well as the practical application of adjuvant immunotherapy, but the initial investigations indicate that it could play a vital part in the treatment of cancer. There is evidence that stimulation of host resistance can result in control of systemic micrometastases.
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PMID:Adjuvant immunotherapy. 39 64

When three diazoacetyl-glycine derivatives, N-diazoacetyl-glycine amide (DGA), N-diazoacetyl-glycine hydrazide (DGI), and N-diazoacetyl-glycine ethyl ester (DGE), were tested against Lewis lung carcinoma in C57BL mice, DGA reduced sharply the number and weight of pulmonary metastases; the effects of DGI and DGE were less pronounced. The growth of the primary tumor was reduced slightly by DGA, but the greater effect was produced by DGI. The absence of correlation between the reduction of the growth of the primary implant and the number of lung secondary tumors for the tested compounds indicated that DGA possesses antimetastatic properties.
J Natl Cancer Inst 1977 Apr
PMID:Antimetastatic effects of N-diazoacetyl-glycine derivatives in C57BL mice. 40 95


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