Evaluation of current practice: management of chemotherapy-related toxicities.

Adverse effects induced by cytotoxic chemotherapy (CT) have been mostly evaluated in clinical trials. The aim of this study was to assess in a nonselected patients group the incidence of CT-related toxicities and to identify risk factors in daily practice. Patients treated with CT (except cisplatin-based or carboplatin-based CT), for a solid tumour, were included in a prospective multicentre observational study. Clinical parameters, renal function and albumin level were assessed at baseline. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify risk factors of CT-related toxicities. A total of 502 patients were recruited in different types of oncology departments. During CT, 62% of patients experienced grade 2-4 toxicities. Haematological toxicities affected 34% of patients and 20% of patients developed an infection requiring antibiotics. For 55% of patients, toxicities induced dose reduction (59% of cases), CT delay (25%) or discontinuation (16%) according to the management habits in the investigating centre. Performance status≥1, breast cancer, lymphopenia, hypoalbuminaemia and clearance creatinine<60 ml/min were risk factors for haematological toxicity. Performance status≥1, hypoalbuminaemia, proteinuria and clearance creatinine<90 ml/min were risk factors for change of CT schedule. A majority of patients receiving CT experienced significant toxicity leading to change of standard CT protocol. Albumin, creatinine clearance and lymphocyte should be routinely monitored at baseline to manage CT and to prevent their toxicities.

Modified compact fluorescent lamps improve light-induced off-season floral stimulation in dragon fruit farming.

Efficient light-induced floral stimulation plays a key role in energy conservation and maintaining stable productivity during off-season periods of dragon fruit plants. In this study, we first reported on results of a survey on dragon fruit farmers regarding use of lamps in performing artificially induced flowering process in Vietnam. It was found that the use of incandescent lamp was prevalent in dragon fruit cultivation practices, resulting in heavy electricity consumption, and that low-power compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs were not extensively utilized, possibly due to low floral induction performance of domestic CFL bulbs. Arguing that emission spectra of currently used lamps were not consistent with adsorption spectra of phytochromes, whose transformation is responsible for flowering process of dragon fruit, we then proposed three improved CFL lamps (power capacity of 20 W) having emission spectra focused on red and far-red regions. New lamp prototypes were tested in 7 field experiments in three different provinces in Vietnam. One improved CFL bulb (treatment 2) performed relatively well in comparison with the incandescent control lamp (60 W) in six out of seven experiments with regard to some growth indicators (e.g., number of floral stems, number of bubs, number of fruits per plant) and fruit yield. Recent success on commercialization of the improved CFL lamp demonstrates the potential of CFL lamps in floral stimulating irradiation of other crops and plants and in alleviating electricity burden in dragon fruit growing areas.