Women 70 years of age or older who were enrolled in these trials were similar to their younger counterparts in response rates, time to disease progression, survival, and toxic effects. Women in this age group should not be excluded, based on age alone, from clinical trials involving chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer.

A method for the specific labeling of the active site of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase was developed. The method consisted of incubating cell extracts with 3H-decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine and sodium cyanoborohydride in the presence of a spermidine synthase inhibitor. Under these conditions, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase was labeled specifically and stoichiometrically. This procedure was used (a) to establish that the subunit molecular weight of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase from rat liver, prostate, and psoas and from mouse SV-3T3 cells was 32 000, (b) to titrate the number of active molecules of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase in various cell extracts, and (c) to provide a high specific activity labeled preparation of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase for use in radioimmunoassay of this enzyme. Competitive radioimmunoassays using this labeled antigen had a sensitivity such that 3 fmol (0.1 ng) of enzyme protein could be quantitated. The rapid loss of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase which occurred when SV-3T3 cells were exposed to exogenous polyamines was shown to be due to a rapid decline in the amount of enzyme protein measured both by titration of the active site and by radioimmunoassay.

Women 70 years of age or older who were enrolled in these trials were similar to their younger counterparts in response rates, time to disease progression, survival, and toxic effects. Women in this age group should not be excluded, based on age alone, from clinical trials involving chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer.

Background. Approximately 22,000 new cases of gastric cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, most of which are advanced disease and thus are not curable by surgery. Chemotherapy has had little impact on patient survival. Consequently, the evaluation of new agents is needed. Gemcitabine, a cytosine arabinoside analogue, was evaluated in a Phase II trial to assess its efficacy in previously untreated patients with advanced gastric cancer. Methods. Patients were treated with weekly gemcitabine, 800 mg/m2, for 3 consecutive weeks, followed by a 1‐week rest period. Eighteen patients were enrolled. Fifteen patients were evaluable for response; 2 patients refused therapy before the completion of one cycle of treatment, and one patient was found to have nonmeasurable disease. Results. No major objective responses were seen. Two minor responses occurred. One patient with a minor response was removed from the study at his request after ten cycles of treatment. The other patient remains on the study with stable disease at more than 17 months. Toxicities on this study were mild. Median leukocyte count and platelet nadirs were 5.0 (range, 2.2–51.0) and 234,000/μ1 (range, 59,000–554,000/μ1), respectively. Conclusion. Gemcitabine at this dose and schedule has no significant antitumor activity in gastric cancer.