Radiotherapy concurrent with weekly gemcitabine after transurethral tumor resection in muscle invasive bladder cancer.

OBJECTIVE: In this report, we determined the efficacy and the toxicity of low dose weekly gemcitabine with radiotherapy, in medically unfit or refused surgery muscle-invasive bladder cancer (BC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2008 to 2012, 15 patients were included into the retrospective analysis. Weekly gemcitabine was administered at a rate of 50 mg/m(2) with a median dose of 63 Gy radiotherapy. RESULTS: The median age was 69 (range, 55-86). Median follow-up was 15 months (range, 5-53 months). A complete response was achieved in 12 patients (80%). Median progression free survival and overall survival were 15 months (range, 7-23 months) and 18 months (range not calculated), respectively. Local recurrence was found in 3 patients (20%) and distant recurrence was found in 5 patients (33.3%) for the entire group. While salvage surgery was performed on 1 patient, salvage chemotherapy was delivered for 4 patients. Treatment was well tolerated, there was no treatment interruption or instances of toxic death. A serious toxicity (grade 3) cystitis was seen in only 1 patient. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodality treatment of muscle invasive BC proved a feasible and effective treatment option. Gemcitabine based chemoradiation is an active treatment option with a low toxicity profile for patients with muscle invasive BC, who are not suitable medically or refused to surgery.

Treatment results of the Ewing sarcoma of bone and prognostic factors.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to assess the clinical outcome of patients with ESFT of the bone treated with the European Intergroup Cooperative Ewings Sarcoma Study (EICESS)-92 treatment protocol at a single center, and to identify prognostic factors. METHODS: Ninety-eight patients younger than 18 years of age, diagnosed with ESFT of the bone between 1992 and 2005, were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: Eighty-seven patients were treated with the EICESS-92 protocol. The median follow-up was 105 +/- 38 months. The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) survival rate was 40%, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 47%. For non-metastatic disease, the rates of 5-year EFS and OS were 45% and 51%. These rates were 18% and 27%, for metastatic disease. The 5-year EFS and OS rates were 17% and 30%, respectively for females. For males, theses rates were 45% and 48%. Of 87 patients, 52 were admitted with primary extremity lesions. Distant metastasis was detected in 48% of patients with a metaphyseal tumor. In patients with diaphyseal lesions, it was 17%. The 5-year EFS and OS were 35% and 43%, respectively. In non-metastatic disease, these measures were 43% and 50%, whereas in metastatic disease, they were 20% and 27%. In patients with a lesion originating from metaphysis, the 5-year EFS was 17%, and the 5-year OS was 29%, for patients with a diaphyseal lesion, these values were 50% and 54%. CONCLUSION: The presence of metastasis was closely related with metaphyseal tumors. The localization of tumor in the bone (i.e., diaphyseal or metaphyseal) and gender of patients seem to have prognostic importance.