The objectives of this review are to compare the effectiveness and safety of radiochemotherapy (RTCT) with radiotherapy (RT) alone in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC).

The risk of cardiovascular toxicities is a serious concern with the increased application of angiogenesis inhibitors in current cancer therapy. Arterial thromboembolic events (ATE) were associated with bevacizumab, an antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor. To determine the risk of ATE including cardiac ischemia and stroke, a systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed.

Pharmacological therapy has been considered as the first-line treatment for patients with uncomplicated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tamsulosin compared with a placebo for treating BPH.

The Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Meta-Analysis Group (MetaGIST) project aims to additionally explore the data of the two large, randomized, cooperative-group studies comparing two doses of imatinib (400 mg daily v twice daily) in 1,640 patients with advanced GIST.

One tenth of the lethal dose to 10% of mice is one of the conventional parameters used to derive a safe starting dose in phase I trials of cytotoxic agents. There is no consensus on which preclinical models and parameters should define the starting dose for molecularly targeted agents.

Recent data on drug-eluting stents have shown improved clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, the relative efficacy and safety of sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) remains controversial. Therefore, a meta-analysis of randomized trials was performed to compare SES with PES exclusively in patients with diabetes. The published research was scanned by formal searches of electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) from January 2001 to April 2009. All randomized trials involving head-to-head comparison of SES versus PES in patients with diabetes were examined for analysis. A total of 5 randomized trials were included in the present meta-analysis, involving 1,173 patients (594 in the SES group, 579 in the PES group). SES were significantly more effective in the reduction of target lesion revascularization (5.1% vs 11.4%, odds ratio [OR] 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.26 to 0.64, p <0.001) and angiographic binary (> or =50%) restenosis (5.6% vs 16.4%, OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.48, p <0.001) compared to PES. In contrast, the differences between SES and PES were not statistically significant with respect to cardiac death (2.2% vs 2.9%, OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.34 to 1.47, p = 0.35), myocardial infarction (1.5% vs 2.6%, OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.31, p = 0.19), and stent thrombosis (0.6% vs 1.2%, OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.84, p = 0.35). In conclusion, SES are superior to PES in reducing the incidences of restenosis and target lesion revascularization in patients with diabetes, with nonsignificant differences in terms of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and stent thrombosis.

Surgery of primary tumour is the backbone of colorectal cancer treatment (CRC). But in stage III cancer, metastatic or local relapse is often observed (50%). So, adjuvant treatment is always considered in this setting. The best treatment duration of hypothetic disease is not easy to define. Adjuvant chemotherapy for CRC actually lasts 6 months. The choice of optimal duration is based upon old studies using 5-fluorouracil (5FU). During the last ten years, results of major randomized controlled studies (RCTs) comparing different durations of treatments and different schedules in adjuvant setting were published. Several studies compared a 6-month chemotherapy with a longer treatment. Conversely, a single study by Chau et al compared a 6 month chemotherapy with continuous treatment lasting 3 months. But the optimal duration of these chemotherapies could be challenged. Even though the optimal duration of chemotherapy in CRC is a major issue, it has never been answered adequately.

Indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in particular follicular lymphoma (FL), is characterized by multiple remissions and relapses. Several studies have used interferon-alpha (IFN) to control this disease, both as induction and as maintenance therapy. It is not yet clear whether IFN can be associated with a survival benefit although it may prolong progression-free survival.

Several randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of analgesics in postoperative pain after traumatic or orthopaedic surgery (TOS) have been published, but no studies have assessed the quality of these reports. We aimed to examine the quality of reporting RCTs on analgesics for postoperative pain after TOS.

Recent data suggest that fractures might affect quality of life and survival in early breast cancer patients. Bisphosphonates are effective in treatment and prevention of cancer treatment-induced bone loss, but their value in the prevention of fractures is still investigational. Our aim was to evaluate the fracture rate in breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant bisphosphonates compared with those receiving no treatment or placebo.

There is no effective systemic therapy for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) except liver transplantation. Sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor, has been shown to significantly increase overall survival (OS) in a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase III trial of patients with HCC (SHARP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sorafenib for advanced HCC by carrying out a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compared sorafenib-based therapy with other agent-based therapy. Randomized controlled trials comparing sorafenib or combined chemotherapy with placebo or combined chemotherapy in advanced HCC between 2000 and 2008 were identified and the data were extracted from reports. Outcomes analyzed were objective response rate, time to progression (TTP), OS, and toxicity. The summary hazard ratios (HRs), odds ratios, and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for mortality, objective response rate, and toxicity were estimated. All statistical tests were two-sided. Three trials including 924 patients were identified. Sorafenib-based chemotherapy was also associated with a 79% prolongation of TPP (HR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.49-0.69, P<0.001), and a 37.3% increase in OS (HR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.55-0.78, P<0.001). Despite significant increases in the frequencies of hand-foot syndrome and diarrhea in patients receiving sorafenib-containing chemotherapy, no significant difference in other toxic events was observed. This meta-analysis suggests that sorafenib-based chemotherapy is superior to placebo-based chemotherapy in terms of TPP and OS without increase in severe toxic effects.

Epoetin-beta is used to treat patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy to alleviate the symptoms of anaemia, reduce the risk of blood transfusions and improve quality of life (QoL).

In this pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic meta-analysis, we investigated relationships between clinical endpoints and sunitinib exposure in patients with advanced solid tumors, including patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Clinical trials have investigated phytotherapy (PT) in the treatment of cervical cancer. This study aimed to assess the quality and data of current available trials, to compare the efficacy and safety of conventional therapies (CT) including surgical therapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy with that of CT plus PT (CT-PT), and to identify herbs used commonly in clinical trials.

The purpose of this study was to systematically compare the efficacy and safety of chronomodulated chemotherapy with conventional chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Individual-based studies that investigated the relation between dietary alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) intake and prostate cancer risk have shown inconsistent results. We carried out a meta-analysis of prospective studies to examine this association. We systematically searched studies published up to December 2008. Log relative risks (RRs) were weighted by the inverse of their variances to obtain a pooled estimate with its 95% confidence interval (CI). We identified five prospective studies that met our inclusion criteria and reported risk estimates by categories of ALA intake. Comparing the highest to the lowest ALA intake category, the pooled RR was 0.97 (95% CI:0.86-1.10) but the association was heterogeneous. Using the reported numbers of cases and non-cases in each category of ALA intake, we found that subjects who consumed more than 1.5 g/day of ALA compared with subjects who consumed less than 1.5 g/day had a significant decreased risk of prostate cancer: RR = 0.95 (95% CI:0.91-0.99). Divergences in results could partly be explained by differences in sample sizes and adjustment but they also highlight limits in dietary ALA assessment in such prospective studies. Our findings support a weak protective association between dietary ALA intake and prostate cancer risk but further research is needed to conclude on this question.

To evaluate systematically the efficacy and safety of anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody added to a chemotherapeutic regimen in the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

The objective of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of concomitant or adjuvant tomozolomide with whole-brain irradiation (WBI) in patients with brain metastases. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database were searched to identify relevant original published trails, and the references of eligible studies were manually screened. Randomized controlled trails reported in any language, comparing concomitant or adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) and WBI with WBI alone in patients with brain metastases, were eligible for inclusion. Two investigators independently assessed the quality of included trials and extracted data. The RevMan 5 software was used for statistical analysis. Four trials involving 280 patients were included. The result showed that the group TMZ+WBI was superior to group WBI in partial response, stable disease, progressive disease, and objective response with the pooled risk ratio value and 95% confidence interval, respectively, 1.89 (1.19-3.02), 0.82 (0.45-1.50), 0.29 (0.10-0.78), and 1.72 (1.32-2.24). The incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms and > or =grade 3 myelosuppression presented statistical difference, TMZ+WBI group is higher than WBI group, the pooled risk ratio value and 95% confidence interval were 3.75 (1.04-13.44) and 13 (1.75-96.79), respectively. The currently available evidence showed that the combination of TMZ and WBI may moderately improve the response rate, but accordingly increase the incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms and myelosuppression. Future large-scale, high-quality, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials are needed.

Adult patients with advanced soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are generally treated similarly, regardless of great differences between STS subtypes, disease presentation and patients' characteristics. As ifosfamide is frequently applied in first line systemic therapy, we aimed to establish prognostic and predictive factors for outcome to ifosfamide-based therapy.

Aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) represents approximately 60% of lymphomas in the West and even more in the developing world. cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (CHOP) is recognized as the standard chemotherapy regimen and the addition of rituximab to B-cell subtypes has been shown to significantly improve treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, still a significant fraction of patients is not offered rituximab due to economic reasons. Thus, CHOP is still offered to these patients as well as those with T-cell subtypes. Data from the early 1990s have indicated that the dose intensity (DI) of doxorubicin is a key factor in predicting survival.