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- Bartek Jr., Jiri, et al.
(author)
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Short-term outcome following surgery for rare brain tumor entities in adults : a Swedish nation-wide registry-based study and comparison with SEER database
- 2020
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In: Journal of Neuro-Oncology. - : Springer. - 0167-594X .- 1573-7373. ; 148:2, s. 281-290
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: To investigate outcomes after surgery for rare brain tumors using the Swedish Brain Tumor Registry (SBTR).Methods: This is a nationwide study of patient in the SBTR, validated in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries. We included all adults diagnosed 2009-2015 with a rare brain tumor entity (n = 216), defined as ependymoma (EP, n = 64), subependymoma (SUBEP, n = 21), ganglioglioma (GGL, n = 54), pilocytic astrocytoma (PA, n = 56) and primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET, n = 21). We analyzed symptomatology, tumor characteristics and outcomes.Results: Mean age was 38.3 +/- 17.2 years in GGL, 36.2 +/- 16.9 in PA, 37.0 +/- 19.1 in PNET, 51.7 +/- 16.3 in EP and 49.8 +/- 14.3 in SUBEP. The most common symptom was focal deficit (39.6-71.4%), and this symptom was most common in GGL patients with 64.2% of GGL presenting with seizures. Most patients had no or little restriction in activity before surgery (Performance Status 0-1), although up to 15.0% of PNET patients had a performance status of 4. Gross total resection was achieved in most (> 50%) tumor categories. Incidence of new deficits was 11.1-34.4%. In terms of postoperative complications, 0-4.8% had a hematoma of any kind, 1.9-15.6% an infection, 0-7.8% a venous thromboembolism and 3.7-10.9% experienced a complication requiring reoperation. There were 3 deaths within 30-days of surgery, and a 1-year mortality of 0-14.3%.Conclusion: We have provided benchmarks for the current symptomatology, tumor characteristics and outcomes after surgery for rare brain tumors as collected by the SBTR and validated our results in an independent registry. These results may aid in clinical decision making and advising patients.
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- Carstam, Louise, et al.
(author)
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Socioeconomic factors affect treatment delivery for patients with low grade glioma : a Swedish population-based study
- 2020
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In: Journal of Neuro-Oncology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0167-594X .- 1573-7373. ; 146:2, s. 329-337
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Despite aspirations to achieve equality in healthcare we know that socioeconomic differences exist and may affect treatment and patient outcome, also in serious diseases such as cancer. We investigated disparities in neurosurgical care and outcome for patients with low-grade glioma (LGG).METHODS: In this nationwide registry-based study, patients who had undergone surgery for LGG during 2005-2015 were identified (n = 547) through the Swedish Brain Tumor Registry. We linked data to multiple national registries with individual level data on income, education and comorbidity and analyzed the association of disease characteristics, surgical management and outcome, with levels of income, education and sex.RESULTS: Patients with either low income, low education or female gender showed worse pre-operative performance status. Patients with low income or education also had more comorbidities and those with low education endured longer waiting times for surgery. Median time from radiological imaging to surgery was 51 days (Q1-3 27-191) for patients with low education, compared to 32 days (Q1-3 20-80) for patients with high education (p = 0.006). Differences in waiting time over educational levels remained significant after stratification for age, comorbidity, preoperative performance status, and tumor size. Overall survival was better for patients with high income or high education, but income- and education-related survival differences were not significant after adjustment for age and comorbidity. The type of surgical procedure or complications did not differ over socioeconomic groups or sex.CONCLUSION: The neurosurgical care for LGG in Sweden, a society with universal healthcare, displays differences that can be related to socioeconomic factors.
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- Ekheden, Isabella, et al.
(author)
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Survival of esophageal and gastric cancer patients with adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy-a retrospective analysis of a register-based patient cohort
- 2020
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In: European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. - : Springer Nature. - 0031-6970 .- 1432-1041. ; 76:7, s. 1029-1041
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PurposeThe survival of esophageal and gastric cancer patients treated with chemotherapy is rarely assessed outside of clinical trials. Therefore, we compared the effectiveness of various curative or palliative chemotherapy regimens on the survival of esophageal and gastric cancer patients in a “real world” clinical setting.MethodsWe identified a cohort of 966 incident esophageal and gastric cancer patients in Stockholm/Gotland County (a low-risk Western population) during 2008–2013. Patients who received chemotherapy with curative intention (n = 279) and palliative intention (n = 182) were analyzed separately. Using Cox proportional hazards regression models, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and adjusted for the potential confounding factors: age, sex, TNM stage, radiotherapy, comorbidity, marital status, education, income, and country of birth.ResultsIn esophageal cancer patients with curative treatment intention, we observed a higher hazard for death among patients who received carboplatin-fluorouracil compared to patients who received cisplatin-fluorouracil, corresponding to a HR of 2.18 (95% CI 1.09–4.37). Conversely, in patients with cancer in the gastroesophageal junction who had a curative treatment intention at diagnosis, we observed a reduced hazard for death among those who received fluorouracil-oxaliplatin, compared to patients who received cisplatin-fluorouracil (HR 0.28; 95% CI 0.08–0.96).ConclusionAmong patients with esophageal cancer who received treatment with curative intention, cisplatin-fluorouracil was associated with better survival compared to carboplatin-fluorouracil, while patients with gastroesophageal junction cancer who were treated with cisplatin-fluorouracil had worse survival compared to fluorouracil-oxaliplatin.
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- Faraz, Mahmood, et al.
(author)
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LRIG1 gene copy number analysis by ddPCR and correlations to clinical factors in breast cancer
- 2020
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In: BMC Cancer. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2407. ; 20:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains 1 (LRIG1) copy number alterations and unbalanced gene recombination events have been reported to occur in breast cancer. Importantly, LRIG1 loss was recently shown to predict early and late relapse in stage I-II breast cancer.Methods: We developed droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assays for the determination of relative LRIG1 copy numbers and used these assays to analyze LRIG1 in twelve healthy individuals, 34 breast tumor samples previously analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and 423 breast tumor cytosols.Results: Four of the LRIG1/reference gene assays were found to be precise and robust, showing copy number ratios close to 1 (mean, 0.984; standard deviation, +/-0.031) among the healthy control population. The correlation between the ddPCR assays and previous FISH results was low, possibly because of the different normalization strategies used. One in 34 breast tumors (2.9%) showed an unbalanced LRIG1 recombination event. LRIG1 copy number ratios were associated with the breast cancer subtype, steroid receptor status, ERBB2 status, tumor grade, and nodal status. Both LRIG1 loss and gain were associated with unfavorable metastasis-free survival; however, they did not remain significant prognostic factors after adjustment for common risk factors in the Cox regression analysis. Furthermore, LRIG1 loss was not significantly associated with survival in stage I and II cases.Conclusions: Although LRIG1 gene aberrations may be important determinants of breast cancer biology, and prognostic markers, the results of this study do not verify an important role for LRIG1 copy number analyses in predicting the risk of relapse in early-stage breast cancer.
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- Malmström, Annika, 1957-, et al.
(author)
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Do we really know who has an MGMT methylated glioma? : results of an international survey regarding use of MGMT analyses for glioma
- 2020
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In: Neuro-Oncology Practice. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 2054-2577 .- 2054-2585. ; 7:1, s. 68-76
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Glioma O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation status informs clinical decision making. Worldwide different methods and cutoff levels are used, which can lead to discordant methylation results.Methods: We conducted an international survey to clarify which methods are regularly used and why. We also explored opinions regarding international consensus on methods and cutoff.Results: The survey had 152 respondents from 25 countries. MGMT methylation status is determined for all glioblastomas in 37% of laboratories. The most common methods are methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (msPCR) (37%) and pyrosequencing (34%). A method is selected for simplicity (56%), cost-effectiveness (50%), and reproducibility of results (52%). For sequencing, the number of CpG sites analyzed varies from 1–3 up to more than 16. For 50% of laboratories, the company producing the kit determines which CpG sites are examined, whereas 33% select the sites themselves. Selection of cutoff is equally distributed among a cutoff defined in the literature, by the local laboratory, or by the outside laboratory performing the analysis. This cutoff varies, reported from 1% to 30%, and in 1 laboratory tumor is determined as methylated in case of 1 methylated CpG site of 17 analyzed. Some report tumors as unmethylated or weakly vs highly methylated. An international consensus on MGMT methylation method and cutoff is warranted by 66% and 76% of respondents, respectively. The method preferred would be msPCR (45%) or pyrosequencing (42%), whereas 18% suggest next-generation sequencing.Conclusion: Although analysis of MGMT methylation status is routine, there is controversy regarding laboratory methods and cutoff level. Most respondents favor development of international consensus guidelines.
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- Pace, Andrea, et al.
(author)
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Determining medical decision-making capacity in brain tumor patients : why and how?
- 2020
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In: Neuro-Oncology Practice. - : Oxford University Press. - 2054-2577 .- 2054-2585. ; 7:6, s. 599-612
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Brain tumor patients are at high risk of impaired medical decision-making capacity (MDC), which can be ethically challenging because it limits their ability to give informed consent to medical treatments or participation in research. The European Association of Neuro-Oncology Palliative Care Multidisciplinary Task Force performed a systematic review to identify relevant evidence with respect to MDC that could be used to give recommendations on how to cope with reduced MDC in brain tumor patients.Methods: A literature search in several electronic databases was conducted up to September 2019, including studies with brain tumor and other neurological patients. Information related to the following topics was extracted: tools to measure MDC, consent to treatment or research, predictive patient- and treatment-related factors, surrogate decision making, and interventions to improve MDC.Results: A total of 138 articles were deemed eligible. Several structured capacity-assessment instruments are available to aid clinical decision making. These instruments revealed a high incidence of impaired MDC both in brain tumors and other neurological diseases for treatment- and research-related decisions. Incapacity appeared to be mostly determined by the level of cognitive impairment. Surrogate decision making should be considered in case a patient lacks capacity, ensuring that the patient's "best interests" and wishes are guaranteed. Several methods are available that may help to enhance patients' consent capacity.Conclusions: Clinical recommendations on how to detect and manage reduced MDC in brain tumor patients were formulated, reflecting among others the timing of MDC assessments, methods to enhance patients' consent capacity, and alternative procedures, including surrogate consent.
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