Objective This study evaluated the role of cetirizine compared to diphenhydramine as premedications for patients receiving paclitaxel, cetuximab, and rituximab infusions. Historically, diphenhydramine has been linked with more sedation in comparison to cetirizine; however, it is unknown if cetirizine can replace diphenhydramine in the prevention of hypersensitivity reactions in patients receiving chemotherapy. Methods This is a retrospective study designed to assess infusion reactions occurring in patients receiving diphenhydramine or cetirizine premedication for rituximab, paclitaxel, or cetuximab therapies. Infusion reactions were defined as various symptoms such as flushing, itching, alterations in heart rate and blood pressure, and dyspnea plus the clinical setting of a concurrent or very recent infusion. Results A total of 207 patients were evaluated in this study with 83 patients receiving cetirizine and 124 diphenhydramine patients. Overall, the percentage of patients with at least one chemotherapy-related infusion event in the cetirizine group was 19.3% (95% CI 11.4–29.4) compared to diphenhydramine group 24.2% (95% CI 17.0–32.7), P = 0.40. Of the patients who received cetirizine and then experienced an event in the first cycle, 41.7% (95% CI 13.7–74.3) of the events were due to paclitaxel, 50.0% (95% CI 19.4–80.6) were due to rituximab, and 8.3% (95% CI 0.1–43.6) were due to cetuximab. Of the patients who received diphenhydramine and then experienced an event in the first cycle, 26.1% (95% CI 5.7–51.4) were due to paclitaxel, 73.9% (95% CI 48.6–94.3) were due to rituximab and none due to cetuximab. Conclusion Cetirizine appears to be a viable substitute for diphenhydramine for the prevention of infusions reactions with cetuximab, paclitaxel, and rituximab infusions in adults. Prospective studies are needed to determine the efficacy and safety of cetirizine compared with diphenhydramine in the prevention of chemotherapy-related infusion reactions.
Tumor lysis syndrome is a life-threatening complication that often occurs after administration of cytotoxic therapy, but rarely occurs spontaneously without chemotherapy. This vignette describes a 59-year-old male with known extensive metastatic melanoma who presented to the hospital with spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome. Most spontaneous tumor lysis cases occur in patients with acute leukemias and aggressive lymphomas; however, this rare case depicts a patient with melanoma developing tumor lysis before the administration of chemotherapy.
Malignant melanoma is the third most common skin cancer yet has the highest mortality rate due to its predilection for metastasis. While the diagnosis of antemortem melanoma with cardiac metastasis is relatively uncommon, diagnosing malignant melanoma itself by first identifying a cardiac metastasis is even more rare. This vignette describes an antemortem diagnosis of melanoma in a 50-year-old woman through identification of metastasis to multiple sites, including the tricuspid valve.
502 Background: Right-sided colon cancers (RCC) are defined up to the splenic flexure where as left-sided colon cancers (LCC) involve the descending, sigmoid, and rectosigmoid regions. The landmark CALGB/SWOG 80405 study concluded that sidedness was an independent prognostic factor for survival in stage IV adenocarcinoma of the colon or rectum, with a poorer prognosis in RCC. This raises the question as to whether or not stage of malignancy plays a role. We performed a retrospective analysis on survival for stage I to IV colon cancer treated at our institution in order to assess if tumor location is an independent prognostic factor as described in previous studies. Methods: Primary site of cancer, sex, age at diagnosis, vital status, and year of diagnosis for stage I, II, III, and IV colon cancer was collected from our institution’s tumor registry from 2007 to 2017. The inclusion criteria included those diagnosed with stage I to IV colon cancer at 18 years of age and above. Exclusion criteria included a diagnosis of both RCC and LCC and patients under age 18. The median of overall survival and time to recurrence between LCC and RCC were compared using Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test with two-sided significance level at 0.05. Results: Time to overall survival and time to recurrence was shown to have no significant difference between RCC and LCC (p = 0.3398 and 0.9467, respectively). Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age and sex also support the claim (p = 0.1725 and 0.0633). There was a statistically significant difference in age between the two groups with the older mean age seen in RCC (68 versus 62). The distribution of recurrence was statistically significant with a higher recurrence in RCC (p = 0.0105). Conclusions: Unlike CALGB/SWOG 80405, our analysis included the transverse colon as part of RCC and examined stage I to IV colon cancer to ultimately conclude that there was no significant difference in overall survival or time to recurrence. Our study suggests that tumor location is not an independent prognostic factor on survival for all stages of colon cancer. However, a higher suspicion for recurrence may be needed for those diagnosed with RCC. Future investigations involving molecular subtypes and mutations are needed to further clarify prognosis and tumor sidedness.
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