Oral chemotherapy and patient perspective in solid tumors: a national survey by the Italian association of medical oncology.

Aim To assess patient perception toward oral chemotherapy for solid tumors, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology performed a large multi-institutional national survey. Methods A 17-item anonymous questionnaire including 7 general and 10 investigational questions with free-text, single-choice, or multiple-choice answers was administered. Analysis of response distribution according to predefined factors was described by summary measures and conducted by χ2 test and other nonparametric tests. Results From January to June 2010, 581 patients completed the questionnaire; data of 404 patients constituted the final study sample. Three groups could be distinguished according to treatment: IV …

The HERBA trial: a retrospective study on patients (pts) with HER2-positive (HER2+ve) breast cancer (BC) and brain metastases (BMs)

The HERBA Study: A Retrospective Multi-Institutional Italian Study on Patients With Brain Metastases From HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

There is no sufficient evidence to establish a standard of care for patients with brain metastases (BM) from HER2Data of 154 patients were retrospectively collected at 14 Italian institutions through a specifically designed database.Median overall survival (OS) was 24.5 months. Patients receiving surgery/stereotactic radiosurgery experienced longer OS compared to those receiving whole-brain radiotherapy or no treatment (33.5 vs. 11.4 months; hazard ratio = 0.34; 95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.52; P .001). Interestingly, whole-brain radiotherapy did not improve OS compared to no treatment (11.4 vs. 9.8 months; hazard ratio = 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.62-1.62; P = .99). HER2-targeted …