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Background Effective treatment for patients at least 70 years with newly diagnosed glioblastoma remains challenging and alternatives to conventional cytotoxics are appealing. Autophagy inhibition has shown promising efficacy and safety in small studies of glioblastoma and other cancers. Methods We conducted a randomized phase II trial to compare radiotherapy with or without hydroxychloroquine (2:1 allocation). Patients aged at least 70 years with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma deemed suitable for short-course radiotherapy with an ECOG performance status of 0–1 were included. Radiotherapy treatment consisted of 30 Gy, delivered as 6 fractions given over 2 weeks (5 Gy per fraction). Hydroxychloroquine was given as 200 mg orally b.d. from 7 days prior to radiotherapy until disease progression. The primary endpoint was 1-year overall survival (OS). Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), quality of life, and toxicity. Results Fifty-four patients with a median age of 75 were randomized between May 2013 and October 2016. The trial was stopped early in 2016. One-year OS was 20.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.2–36.0) hydroxychloroquine group, and 41.2% (95% CI 18.6–62.6) radiotherapy alone, with a median survival of 7.9 and 11.5 months, respectively. The corresponding 6-month PFS was 35.3% (95% CI 19.3–51.7) and 29.4% (95% CI 10.7–51.1). The outcome in the control arm was better than expected and the excess of deaths in the hydroxychloroquine group appeared unrelated to cancer. There were more grade 3–5 events in the hydroxychloroquine group (60.0%) versus radiotherapy alone (38.9%) without any clear common causation. Conclusions Hydroxychloroquine with short-course radiotherapy did not improve survival compared to radiotherapy alone in elderly patients with glioblastoma.

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Background/Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate whether E-cadherin and syndecan-1 are molecular markers of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and Methods: The expression of E-cadherin and syndecan-1 (SDC1) was examined immunohistochemically on tissue specimens of 64 patients, with stage III disease at presentation. The obtained expression data were correlated with clinical parameters. Results: Negative expression of SDC1 was correlated with squamous histology (p=0.002). Ecadherin positive expression was significantly associated with increased 2-year overall survival (OS) rate (p=0.032). In the multivariate Cox analysis, performance status 0-1 was an independent predictor of OS (p=0.001) and disease-free survival (DFS) (p=0.001). E-cadherin expression was an independent predictor of OS (p=0.007) and DFS (p=0.029). Conclusion: E-cadherin might be a prognostic factor for OS and DFS in advanced stage NSCLC patients. Further investigations are needed for the establishment of E-cadherin and syndecan-1 as molecular markers, affecting treatment response and survival.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of health education among young adolescents, regarding their level of knowledge about the HPV and the acceptance of the HPV vaccination, with the aim of increasing vaccination coverage, in Trikala city, mainland of Greece. Methods: This study included high school students from all public and private schools of Trikala city. Questionnaires related to knowledge regarding the HPV infection and HPV vaccination were administered in three phases. In the first phase of the study, the questionnaires were completed by the entire study population. During the second and third phases, the completion of the questionnaires concerned only the population that received the intervention (interactive seminars). The second and third phase questionnaires were completed immediately after the interactive seminar and three months later, respectively. The statistical analysis of the results was performed using IBM SPSS 20.0 statistical program. Results: A total of 434 female students completed the questionnaire (response rate 76.26%). Most participants (66.6%) were females. The questionnaires evaluated the respondents’ awareness of the HPV infection. The results show that the percentage of the participants who stated that they “do not know” what HPV is decreased from 44.4% (first phase), to 1.6% (second phase), and 8.1% (third phase). Similarly, the willingness to accept the HPV vaccine increased from 71% (first phase), to 89.1% (second phase), and 83.5% (third phase). Conclusions: The present study shows that targeted interactive informational interventions in the school environment leads to a statistically significant increase in both the level of knowledge about HPV and the willingness of young adolescent students to be vaccinated against cervical cancer.