multiple myeloma (mm) characterized by proliferation of plasma cells in bone marrow and production of monoclonal immunoglobulin's. recently, arsenic trioxide (ato), has been considered for treatment refractory mm. we assessed the safety and efficacy of ato for patients with refractory mm. a phase 2, study of arsenic trioxide was conducted in 12 mm patients, whose refractory to two standard ther...

This paper illustrates how Phase I estimators in statistical process control (SPC) can affect the performance of Phase II control charts. The deleterious impact of poor Phase I estimators on the performance of Phase II control charts is illustrated in the context of profile monitoring. Two types of Phase I estimators are discussed. One approach uses functional cluster analysis to initially dist...

Accruing patients in a timely manner represents a significant challenge to early phase cancer clinical trials. The NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program analyzed 19 months of corrective action plans (CAP) received for slow-accruing phase I and II trials to identify slow accrual reasons, evaluate whether proposed corrective actions matched these reasons, and assess the CAP impact on trial accrua...

BACKGROUND Enterovirus and herpes simplex viruses are common causes of lymphocytic meningitis. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of the use molecular testing for Enteroviruses and Herpes simplex viruses I and II in all suspected cases of viral meningitis. METHODS From November 18, 2008 to November 17, 2009 (phase II, intervention), all patients admitted with suspected viral ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Most large, randomized phase III efficacy trials of therapeutic agents in ischemic stroke have failed to find treatment benefit. We determined whether some phase III studies could have been avoided if preceded by smaller single-arm phase II studies to evaluate the futility of proceeding to phase III. METHODS To provide examples of the application of phase II methodology...

a novel, simple, sensitive and effective method has been developed for preconcentration of hg(ii) on nano-fe3o4-dop-ed solid-phase extraction adsorbent. in this paper, dioctyl phthalate (dop) was used to encapsulate nano-fe3o4 and produce a nano-fe3o4-dop sorbent based new sorbent was prepared. this was treated with ethylenediamine (ed) in another solvent-free procedure for the formation of a n...

This study was performed to obtain a comprehensive overview of the benefits and risks of second-line irinotecan monotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer. The literature was systematically reviewed to identify phase II and phase III trials that investigated the effect of second-line monotherapy with irinotecan. Thirty studies were included in this review: 25 phase II studies including 32 sampl...