NEW DRUGS Lapatinib (Tykerb) For Advanced Breast Cancer The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved lapatinib (Tykerb, GlaxoSmithKline), a targeted anticancer treatment, to be used in combination with the cancer drug capecitabine (Xeloda, Roche) for patients with advanced metastatic breast HER2-positive cancer. The combination treatment is indicated for women who have received prior the...

Capecitabine (Xeloda) and irinotecan (CPT-11, Camptosar) both have demonstrated single-agent activity in patients with colorectal cancer. In an analysis of pooled results of two phase III studies, capecitabine provided advantages over intravenous fluorouracil (5-FU) plus leucovorin in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. In another analysis, metastatic colorectal cancer patients who rece...

Advanced cancer in the setting of liver dysfunction poses a dilemma for physicians, as many cancer chemotherapeutic agents undergo hepatic metabolism. Most cytotoxic drugs have a narrow therapeutic index, and the administration of chemotherapy to patients with liver impairment results in complicated safety issues. We present a concise review of cancer chemotherapy dosing in the setting of liver...

BACKGROUND Mapping patient and work flow and cost analysis studies can help determine the most efficient and cost effective way of providing health services while still maintaining the best standards of care. This study used both time and motion methodology and hospital data to assess the contribution of staff time and facility usage to the overall cost of cancer care during patient visits to a...

BACKGROUND To report our prospective experience on the incidence and pattern of oxaliplatin (OXA)-induced peripheral neuropathy (OXA-IPN) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) treated with either FOLFOX-4 or XELoda + OXaliplatin (XELOX). PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred and fifty patients scheduled to be treated with either FOLFOX or XELOX for CRC were prospectively monitored at baseline a...

BACKGROUND Accurate and useful predictors of gastric carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy are lacking at present. We aim to explore the potential prognostic significance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in advanced gastric cancer receiving S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) or oxaliplatin and capecitabine (XELOX) regimen. METHODS We enrolled 91 patients with advanced gastric can...

The study aimed to compare the 2 main types of insurance used by colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in a university hospital in Thailand: universal coverage (UC) and 'Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme' (CSMBS) in terms of hospital expenditure and survival outcomes. CRC cases in stages I-IV who were operated on and had completed their adjuvant therapy in Songklanagarind Hospital from 2004 throu...

Copyright: © 2015 Backer T. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited *Corresponding author: Dr. Talia Becker, Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, the Maurice & Gabriela Goldschleger School of...