Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an indicator of thrombocyte volume and tendency to thrombosis can be mentioned in case of MPV elevation. Cancers are one of the important groups of thrombotic diseases. ...In the present study, MPV value was scrutinized in patients with cancer that developed thrombosis. Totally 43 patients followed in Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, in who thromboembolus has been developed, were prospectively recruited in the study. Thrombocyte, MPV, and platicrit (PCT) values were recorded at the time of cancer diagnosis and thrombosis development. Frequency analysis, crosstabs, and paired samples t test were used. Analyses showed that MPV values at the time of thrombosis development were significantly low as compared to those at the time of cancer diagnosis (P = .041). Thrombocyte count and PCT values were also low but not significant. The result of the present study is likely to show that thrombocytes have ignorable effect on thrombosis development in patients with cancer.
The risk of thromboemboli is increased in patients with cancer, and this is precipitated by the chemotherapeutic agents. Bevacizumab is an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor monoclonal antibody ...and has an importance in the treatment of metastatic colon cancer. The association between bevacizumab, which is demonstrated to increase the risk of thromboemboli, and mean platelet volume (MPV), which is a marker of thrombocyte function, has been investigated within study. A total of 74 patients with metastatic colon cancer were included in the study and the levels of platelets (PLTs), MPV, and platecrit (PCT) values were recorded in SPSS 16.0 program both at baseline and at the >third month. There were significant decreases in 3 parameters (PLT, MPV, and PCT) during the treatment period with bevacizumab (P = .009, P = .001, and P = .000, respectively). Unlike cases with thrombosis, there is a significant decrease in MPV in combination treatments with bevacizumab.
Capecitabine plus lapatinib combination is an effective chemotherapy regimen in patients with advanced breast cancer. Neurological adverse effects secondary to this regimen were reported rarely in ...literature. A woman with breast cancer presented with complaints of slurred speech while using the capecitabine and lapatinib combination. Her major complaint was slurred speech. No other radiologic or laboratory disorders were detected in the patient. Slurred speech improved one week after the capecitabine and lapatinib combination was discontinued without any further intervention.
Sunitinib which is used in the treatment of kidney cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor is a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Although ...sunitinib is associated with some side effects, it is generally well tolerated. In the present case, the diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumor was four years ago. The patient had multiple liver metastases at the time of diagnosis. Sunitinib was initiated with a dose of 50 mg daily for four weeks and two weeks off, because of resistance of imatinib. The patient was admitted to the hospital with purpuric rash on her arms and body in the eighth week of treatment. No other disorders or drugs which may cause purpuric rash were detected in the patient. Purpuric rash disappeared two weeks after sunitinib discontinuation without any further intervention.
Several studies have shown that solar light affects the prognosis of breast cancer. This effect is mostly associated with vitamin D. In-vitro studies showed that vitamin D analogs change the receptor ...expression in breast cancer cell lines. In our study, we studied the effect of solar light on prognostic factors of breast cancer. Patients with breast cancer from two different regions of Turkey were included in the study. These regions have different seasonal features and solar light exposures. Nine hundred and eighty-six patients were from the Akdeniz University Medical Faculty of Antalya region, and 463 patients were from the Kayseri Education and Research Hospital of Kayseri region. The Antalya region has warm climate and more solar light exposure. The Kayseri region has relatively colder climate and less solar light exposure. When histological features are considered, the estrogen and progesterone receptor expressions were higher in the Kayseri group, and a significant difference was observed for the progesterone receptor (P = 0.013). No significant difference was observed for the estrogen receptor but a significant trend was observed (P = 0.056). No significant difference was observed in CerbB2 expression between groups. There were significant differences for histological and nuclear grade (P < 0.001 and P = 0.002). The ratio of histological grade 3 was higher in the Kayseri group and the ratio of nuclear grade 1 was higher in the Antalya group. Our study showed that, due to seasonal differences, solar light exposure leads to significant changes in prognostic factors for breast cancer. This result may be interpreted as the reflection of in-vitro findings in a clinical setting and may be accepted as one of the first such reports in the literature.
Therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (t-MN) account for approximately 10% to 20% of all cases of AML (acute myeloid leukemia), MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome) and MDS/MPN (myelodysplastic ...syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasms), MDS, and MDS/MPN. In our study, we evaluated peripheral blood smear samples and hemogram values in breast cancer patients who were receiving adjuvant anthracycline regimens and were in remission.
A total of 78 patients receiving anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy treatment from Kayseri Research and Training Hospital and Mersin State Hospital were enrolled in the study. Their adjuvant treatments had been completed at least 18 months prior to the study.
Two patients complained of anemia (2.2%) (Hb<11 mg/dl), leukopenia was observed in seven patients (7.7%) (leukocytes<4000/ mm(3)), and thrombocytopenia was observed in four patients (4.4%) (PLT<150.000/mm(3)). In the blood smear samples, the following were observed: ovalomacrocytes (14%), macrocytes (37%), acanthocytes (1%), stomatocytes (12%), teardrops (12%), nucleated erythrocytes (1%), basophilic stippling (14%), and Howell-Jolly bodies (1%). Additionally, hypo-granulation (38%), Pelger-Huet abnormalities (26%), hypersegmentation (20%), immature granulocytes (8%), and blasts (6%) were observed. We also confirmed the presence of giant platelets (50%) and platelet hypogranulation (19%).
According to the peripheral blood smear assessments in our study, we suggest that breast cancer patients should be evaluated for MDS in the early stages, starting from month 18, even if the automated blood counts are normal.
Of patients with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), around one third are locally advanced at the time of diagnosis. Because only a proprotion of stage III patients can be cured by surgery, in order ...to improve the outcomes, sequential or concurrent chemoradiation, or concurrent chemoradiation with induction or consolidation is offered to the patients with locally advanced NSCLC. Today, PET combined with computerized tomography (PET-CT) is accepted as the most sensitive technique for detecting mediastinal lymph node and extracranial metastases from NSCLC. We aimed to compare PET-CT and conventional staging procedures for decisions regarding curative treatment of locally advanced NSCLC.
A total of 168 consecutive patients were included from Acibadem Kayseri Hospital, Acibadem Adana Hospital and Kayseri Research and Training Hospital in this study.
While the median PFS was 13.0 ± 1.9 months in the PET-CT group, it was only 6.0 ± 0.9 in the others (p<0.001). The median OS values were 20.5 ± 15.6 and 11.5 ± 1.5 months, respectively (p<0.001).
As a result, we found that staging with PET CT has better results in terms of survival staging. This superiority leads to survival advantage in patients with locally advanced NSCLC.
The prognosis of primary glioblastoma (GBM) is poor. Approximately 2/3 of primary brain tumor diagnoses are GBM, of which 95% are primary lesions. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether more ...sunlight exposure has an effect on survival of patients with primary GBM.
A total of 111 patients with primary GBM were enrolled from Kayseri in inner Anatolia which has a cold climate (n: 40) and Mersin in Mediterranean region with a warm climate and more sunlight exposure (n: 71). The patients with primary GBM were divided into two groups as Kayseri and Mersin and compared for progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
The PFS values were 7.0 and 4.7 months for Kayseri and Mersin groups, respectively (p=0.10) and the respective OS values were 13.3 and 9.4 months (p=0.13). We did not found any significant difference regarding age, sex, comorbidity, smoking, surgery, resurgery, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and palliative chemotherapy between the groups.
We found that more sunlight exposure had no impact on prognosis of patients with primary GBM, adding inconsistency to the literature about the relationship between sunlight and GBM.
Mesothelioma is a rare neoplasm arising from mesothelial surfaces with the malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) as the most common form. Secondline chemotherapy in MPM is still controversial and in ...this study we evaluated whether it is superior to best supportive care.
A total of 51 patients with MPM from Acibadem Kayseri Hospital, Kayseri Training and Research Hospital and Erciyes University were analyzed retrospectively. The patients treated with secondline chemotherapies (SLCT) were compared with those treated with best supportive care (BSC) for overall survival.
The median overall survival (OS) for firstline chemotherapy?SLCT and firstline chemotherapy?BSC groups were 20.3 and 14.7 months respectively (p=0.079). After firstline chemotherapy the median OS for SLCT and BSC were 5.9 and 4.7 months (p=0.355).
Although there was a trend for improvement in overall survival in patients treated with secondline chemotherapy, the difference was not statistically significant. Our results do not support the proposal that secondline chemotherapy could be effective in patients with MPM.
In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of second-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy regimens on overall survival (OS) in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients receiving ...first-line pemetrexed-based regimens. A total of 73 patients with MPM from Akdeniz University, Acibadem Kayseri Hospital, Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, and Erciyes University were analyzed and evaluated retrospectively as two groups: second-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy and no second-line chemotherapy. The median OS of patients who received second-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy was 11.3 (5.1–17.5) months, while it was 9.9 (2.1–17.7) months in the patients who did not receive chemotherapy in the second-line setting (
p
= 0.056). When we evaluated the survival rate at the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 36th month, the OS rate of the 36th month was significantly higher in patients who received gemcitabine-based second-line chemotherapy (
p
= 0.041). When evaluating the OS from diagnosis to death, the median OS values were 20.8 (17.5–24.1) months for first-line pemetrexed-based regimens then second-line gemcitabine alone and 13.1 (9.0–17.1) months supportive care after first-line pemetrexed-based regimens (
p
= 0.005). According to our results, we may consider gemcitabine-based regimens as second-line chemotherapy after treatment with pemetrexed plus platinum in patients with MPM.
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