ABSTRACT

Background:The adverse influence of undernutrition in children with cancer may be remediated by early nutritional intervention. This study assessed the efficacy of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) in improving nutritional status and reducing treatment-related toxicities (TRTs) in such children. Methods:In a randomized controlled phase-3 open-label trial, severely and moderately undernourished children with cancer were randomized 1:1 to receive standard nutritional therapy (SNT) or SNT+RUTF for 6 weeks. The primary outcome (weight gain >10%) and secondary outcomes (improved/maintained nutritional status,

The objective was to test the utility of the cytokeratins CYFRA 21-1, tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS), Neuron specific enolase (NSE) and Carcino Embryonic antigen (CEA) in patients with lung cancer and in the pleural fluid of the patients with lung cancer and also the predicting ability of these tumor markers with respect to the histological types [including non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)] and pathological stages. 40 normal subjects and 222 cases of histological proven lung cancer were studied. The findings suggest that TPS and CYFRA 21-1, are useful serum markers for the diagnosis of NSCLC and NSE seems to be useful tumor marker for monitoring course of patients especially SCLC. The combined use of these cytokeratin markers TPS and CYFRA 21-1 may provide additional information for prognosis.

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in the world. Available staging procedures to detect breast cancer are bone scan, chest X-ray, liver ultrasonography, computerized tomography, estimation of tumor markers like carbohydrate antigen (CA15-3) and carcino embryonic antigen. These procedures are expensive and may not be required in all cases. Out of 70 patients studied, 55 had normal CA15-3 and 15 had elevated levels of Ca15-3. Eight (14.5%) of the 55 patients with normal CA15-3 had abnormal bone scan. Fifteen patients had CA15-3 levels above the normal range and among these 9 (60%) had abnormal bone scan. While prime facie it would appear that a high level of CA15-3 correlate with abnormal bone scan, it is also true that the numbers are small at present and conclusions about the validity of CA15-3 as marker of bone metastasis may be premature.