In the first three months of a 24-month open study to assess the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg in the long-term acute treatment of cluster headache, 138 patients treated a maximum of two attacks daily each with a single 6 mg injection. A total of 6353 attacks were treated. Adverse events, reported in 28% of sumatriptan-treated attacks, were qualitatively similar to those seen in migraine long-term trials. Their incidence did not increase with frequent use of sumatriptan. There were no clinically significant treatment effects on vital signs, ECG recordings or laboratory parameters. Headache relief (a reduction from very severe, severe or moderate pain to mild or no pain) at 15 min was obtained for a median of 96% of attacks treated. There was no indication of tachyphylaxis, decrease in the speed of response, or increased frequency of attacks with long-term treatment. This study demonstrated that, in long-term use, subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg is a well-tolerated and effective acute treatment for cluster headache.

A study has been carried out on 10 patients with ovarian cancer treated by intraperitoneal mitoxantrone. The serum concentration was determined by high performance liquid chromatography with spectrophotometric detection. The extracted analyte on the cartridge was injected and eluted on-line into the analytical column by the mobile phase. This improved the signal and sample processing rate, without significant loss in analytical performance. Excellent linearity (r greater than 0.9994) was observed for the calibration curve over the range 1-2000 ng/mL, along with a precision within-day and between-day estimated as 1.5% and 5.6%, respectively. Sensitivity was an order of magnitude higher than that of the comparison method. From a clinical point of view, these preliminary results have shown that intraperitoneal administration is more beneficial than intravenous therapy. Low serum levels (1-30 ng/mL) with a maximum at the first or second hour are revealed.

No abstract

No abstract

CA 125 serum levels were assessed in 23 patients undergoing chemotherapy for advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC). Rising, falling and unchanged levels correlated with disease in 21 out of 23 (95%) cases. Ten out of I I patients who showed objective response to chemotherapy had a decrease in antigen levels. Two out of 3 patients with stable disease had unchanged values. Progression was always associated with rising levels. CA 125 is a reliable marker for monitoring response to chemotherapy in advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma.Although, among solid tumors, EOC is one of the most responsive to cytotoxic chemotherapy, monitoring the response to the treatment has always been difficult. In fact, this tumor often spreads to the peritoneal surface, forming multiple small metastatic nodules that cannot be readily detected by common diagnostic procedures. Moreover, current treatment of EOC provides a surgical debulking as complete as possible, followed by chemotherapy, so that it is often very difficult to assess the effectiveness of a treatment regimen, particularly in patients with small residual burden. Therefore, a second look became a re-staging modality routinely performed for patients achieving complete clinical response as well as for patients with disease otherwise not evaluable (Berek et al., 1984;Schwartz et al., 1980;Webb et al., 1982).Recently, Bast developed a promising assay based on a murine monoclonal antibody (MAb) (OC 125), reacting with the antigen CA 125 which is expressed by more than 80% of non-mucinous EOC (Bast et al., 1981). This marker proved useful in monitoring the response to chemotherapy, in early detection of relapses and in predicting the second-look findings Rubin et al., 1986). The purpose of this study was to verify if serial measurements of CA 125 serum levels correlate with chemotherapy outcome in patients with stage 111-IV advanced ovarian cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODSFrom October 1986 to May 1988 a total of 230 serum samples were collected from 57 patients affected by ovarian cancer. Samples were stored at -20°C until they were analyzed. CA 125 was measured by an MAb (EIA Abbott, North Chicago, IL; CA 125). The reference limit of 35 U/ml as proposed by Bast was verified in 35 control subjects. Only increases or decreases of at least 30 % of the initial value were considered as variations of serum level. Clinical staging was performed according to the system adopted by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IFGO). This series includes 23 patients with stage 111-IV EOC treated with a platinum-containing regimen. All patients had pre-treatment CA 125 level > 35 U/ml. Table I summarizes the characteristics of patients. Serum samples were obtained at the moment of admission to the Oncologic Institute of Bari and before each cycle of chemotherapy. Most patients were referred to us after laparotomy in other hospitals. Therefore we were unable to obtain CA 125 serum levels before laparotomy . Nevertheless, all patients with clinically detectable residual diseas...