Dexrazoxane given at a dexrazoxane:epirubicin dose ratio of 10:1 protects against epirubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and does not affect the clinical activity and the noncardiac toxicity of epirubicin. The clinical use of dexrazoxane should be recommended in patients whose risk of developing cardiotoxicity could hamper the eventual use and possible benefit of epirubicin.

A database of 327 patients with advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) has been analyzed in order to identify potential baseline prognostic factors predicting for survival, following recombinant Interleukin-2 treatment (rIL-2). All patients received a continuous infusion (CIV). Eligibility criteria were uniform across studies, and included patients with an ambulatory performance status (PS), measurable disease, no CNS metastases, and no major organ compromise. Multivariate analyses identified baseline PS (ECOG 0 vs. 1), time from diagnosis to treatment (DTI greater than 24 months vs. less than or equal to 24 months), and the number of metastatic sites (1 vs. greater than or equal to 2, where lung, bone and other sites are considered as separate sites) as important predictors for survival. Patients can be classified into 4 subgroups, which are a function of the number of risk factors present. Median survival for each subgroup is 28, 17, 10 and 5 months, respectively. The model was validated in an independent cohort of 125 patients with RCC treated with subcutaneous (s/c) rIL-2, and predicted for survival accurately. By determining in which risk group category patients may fall, treating physicians may be better equipped to decide on patient management. The model may also be of value in order to stratify patients in randomized clinical trials.

Dyslexic readers, classified as L-types or P-types, received direct or indirect stimulation of the right (L-types) or left (P-types) hemisphere. Direct stimulation was produced by presenting words in the left (L-types) or right (P-types) visual field. Indirect stimulation took place through the presentation of visual-perceptual (L-types) or phonetic (P-types) demanding texts. Analyses of event-related potentials (ERP), elicited by centrally presented words, revealed the component reflecting P250 activity to be asymmetrically affected by experimental vs. control treatments. Treatment effects on scholastic achievement were shown in L-type dyslexics who had received direct stimulation of their right hemisphere and in P-type dyslexics whose left hemisphere had been indirectly stimulated. Training-induced electrical changes in brain asymmetry correlated with changes in measures of reading accuracy and speed. The set of findings replicated most of the results of a previous study (Bakker, Moerland, & Goekoop-Hoefkens, 1981).

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) targets cells bearing IL-2 receptors and induces different degrees of lymphocytosis. This study retrospectively evaluated whether lymphocytosis, in addition to clinical characteristics at baseline and to tumor objective response, may predict overall survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients who received IL-2 subcutaneously (s.c.). Overall survival, clinical characteristics, tumor response, and total lymphocyte count at baseline and during the first treatment cycle of 266 advanced renal cell cancer patients, treated with 1 of 4 different first-line s.c. IL-2-based protocols, were studied using the Cox multivariate analysis. Median IL-2 cumulative dose and length of treatment (+/-SD) were 232 +/- 282 x 10(6)/m(2) in 7 +/- 5.9 weeks, respectively. Median overall survival (os) was 13.1 months (range 0.7-86.9+) in all. Tumor outcome consisted of: 9 CR (3%) (os = NR); 35 PR (13%) (os = 19.7 months.); 117 SD (44%) (os = 15.1 months); 105 PD (39%) (os = 6.4 months). Median lymphocyte counts were 1400/mm(3) at baseline (25th-75th, 900-1900/mm(3)) and 3600/mm(3) as a maximum value (25th-75th, 2600-4800/mm(3)). Death risk significantly decreased by 11% for each 1,000 lymphocytes/mm(3) (RR 0.89; 95% CI 0.82-0.97), after correcting for clinical characteristics (PS ECOG 0 versus > or =1, time from primary diagnosis > or =2 years versus <2 years, number of metastatic sites 1 versus >1) and tumor response (CR, PR). A two-step bootstrapping procedure confirmed such predictive performance. Lymphocyte count monitoring represents a biomarker of the host response to subcutaneous IL-2 treatment useful for multimodal clinical assessment, as it predicts overall survival in advanced cancer patients independently from tumor response and from main clinical characteristics.