The Results Observation on Adjuvant Chemotherapy with Microwave Hyperthermia and Stereotactic Radiotherapy in Retreated Elderly Patients with Advanced (III/IV Stage) Lung Cancer

Objective: To evaluate the significance of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy (Gamma-knife) in the elderly patients with retreated advance lung cancer. Methods 83 patients (age 50 to 81 years) with retreating advanced (III/IV stage) lung cancer were divided into three groups according to patients received treating by different methods. The cases were treated by synchronous chemo-radiotherapy (A group), sequentially chemo-radiotherapy (B group) and continuous systematized chemotherapy alone (C group). The systemic 3-dimensional orientation apparatus was used in radiotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen in combined radiotherapy was given by common first line regimen on lung cancer. The regimen of chemotherapy combated with whole body hyperthermia by using micro-wave on abodeman about 2 or 3 line was used in C group only. Results: The overall responses rates (RR) of A, B and C groups were 17.1%, 11.5% and 31.8%, but it was non-significance difference (P > 0.05). Overall responses rates (RR) of III and IV stage groups were 18.2% and 20.0%. The average overall survival time (OS) and median survival time (MST) of the patients treated by chemotherapy (C group) were highest about 14.2 and 9.3 months (respectively at A group 6.7 and 6.0 months. P < 0.01), in which B group was longer than A group (P < 0.05), and 95.5% CI value was not overlap. The total survival time of postoperative patients was longer in the various groups by different treated than that in non-operations. Conclusion: The rates (RR) of III and IV stage groups were non-significance difference. The higher of ORR, OS and MST in a few patients of re-treated advanced lung cancer was presented in case with treated by continuous system chemotherapy. There were survival superiority in initial postoperative patients groups by different treated. It is a profitable and effect treatment that the pure reasonable systemic chemotherapy was used for elderly case with advanced retreated lung cancer.

Role of taxanes in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers and is characterized by a poor prognosis. Single agent gemcitabine, despite its limited activity and modest impact on disease outcome, is considered as the standard therapy in pancreatic cancer. Most of the combination regimens used in the treatment of this disease, also including the targeted agents, did not improve the outcome of patients. Also, taxanes have been tested as single agent and in combination chemotherapy, both in first line and as salvage chemotherapy, as another possible option for treating pancreatic cancer. The inclusion of taxanes in combination with gemcitabine as upfront therapy obtained promising results. Accordingly, taxanes, and above all, new generation taxanes, appear to be suitable candidates for further testing to assess their role against pancreatic cancer in various clinical settings.

Combined treatment of non-small cell lung cancer using radiotherapy and immunotherapy: challenges and updates

The efficacy of immunotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)remains unsatisfactory,as the majority of patients either do not experience an objective response or acquire secondary resistance.As a result,several methods to enhance the systemic efficacy of immunotherapy have been investigated,including a large area of active research by combining immunotherapy with radiation therapy(RT).Given the rapidly burgeoning concept of combining immunotherapy and RT for increasing therapeutic benefit,we review the progress in this field thus far and explore further avenues for enhancing this combination.This review commences with a discussion of the only two existing randomized trials(and a pooled analysis)showing that the addition of RT to immunotherapy improves the abscopal response rate,progression-free survival,and overall survival in metastatic NSCLC patients.We then discussed factors and biomarkers that may be associated with a proportionally greater benefit to additional RT,such as low programmed cell death protein ligand 1(PD-L1)status,tumor mutational burden(TMB),and patient’s immune function.Next,the implementation of RT to overcome immunotherapy resistance is discussed,including a mechanistic discussion and methods with which these mechanisms could be exploited.Lastly,the emerging role of low-dose RT is discussed,which may help to overcome inhibitory signals in the tumor stroma that limit T-cell infiltration.Taken together,given the current state of this rapidly expanding realm,these futuristic strategies may be reflected upon to further enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy for a wider group of patients.