Thomas Wiebe

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with high-dose ifosfamide, high-dose methotrexate, cisplatin, and doxorubicin for patients with localized osteosarcoma of the extremity : A joint study by the italian and scandinavian sarcoma groups

PURPOSE To explore the effect of high-dose ifosfamide in first-line treatment for patients < or = 40 years of age with nonmetastatic osteosarcoma of the extremity. PATIENTS AND METHODS From March 1997 to September 2000, 182 patients were evaluated. Primary treatment consisted of two blocks of high-dose ifosfamide (15 g/m2), methotrexate (12 g/m2), cisplatin (120 mg/m2), and doxorubicin (75 mg/m2). Postoperatively, patients received two cycles of doxorubicin (90 mg/m2), and three cycles each of high-dose ifosfamide, methotrexate, and cisplatin (120 to 150 mg/m2). Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support was mandatory after the high-dose ifosfamide/cisplatin/doxorubicin combination. RESULTS No disease progression was recorded during primary chemotherapy, 164 patients (92%) underwent limb-salvage surgery, four patients (2%) underwent rotation plasty, and 11 patients (6%) had limbs amputated. Three (1.6%) patients died as a result of treatment-related toxicity, and one died as a result of pulmonary embolism after pathologic fracture. Grade 4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia followed 52% and 31% of all courses, respectively, and mild to severe nephrotoxicity was recorded in 19 patients (10%). The median received dose-intensity compared with protocol was 0.82. With a median follow-up of 55 months, the 5-year probability of event-free survival was 64% (95% CI, 57% to 71%) and overall survival was 77% (95% CI, 67% to 81%), whereas seven patients (4%) experienced local recurrence. CONCLUSION The addition of high-dose ifosfamide to methotrexate, cisplatin, and doxorubicin in the preoperative phase is feasible, but with major renal and hematologic toxicities, and survival rates similar to those obtained with four-drug regimens using standard-dose ifosfamide. Italian Sarcoma Group/Scandinavian Sarcoma Group study I showed that in a multicenter setting, more than 90% of patients with osteosarcoma of the extremity can undergo conservative surgery.

Alterations of lipid metabolism in healthy volunteers during long-term ethanol intake

Abstract. Nine young, healthy male volunteers were given ethanol (75 g/day) for 5 weeks. The ethanol was divided into five daily doses and taken so that blood ethanol levels never exceeded 0.04% (w/v).

Scandinavian Sarcoma Group Osteosarcoma Study SSG VIII: prognostic factors for outcome and the role of replacement salvage chemotherapy for poor histological responders

From 1990 to 1997, 113 eligible patients with classical osteosarcoma received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of high-dose methotrexate, cisplatin and doxorubicin. Good histological responders continued to receive the same therapy postoperatively, while poor responders received salvage therapy with an etoposide/ifosfamide combination. With a median follow-up of 83 months, the projected metastasis-free and overall survival rates at 5 years are 63 and 74%, respectively. Independent favourable prognostic factors for outcome were tumour volume < 190 ml, 24-h serum methotrexate > 4.5 microM and female gender. The etoposide/ifosfamide replacement combination did not improve outcome in the poor histological responders. In conclusion, this intensive multi-agent chemotherapy results in > 70% of patients with classical osteosarcoma surviving for 5 years. The data obtained from this non-randomised study do not support discontinuation and exchange of all drugs used preoperatively in histological poor responders. As observed in previous Scandinavian osteosarcoma studies, female gender appears to be a strong predictor of a favourable outcome.

Striving to survive: families' lived experiences when a child is diagnosed with cancer.

When a child is ill with cancer, this affects the whole family for long periods. The aim of this study was to elucidate the family’s lived experience when a child in the family was diagnosed with cancer. A descriptive inductive design with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach including interviews with 17 families (parents, children, and siblings) was chosen. The families’ lived experience was described as a 2-fold essential theme comprising “a broken life world” and an immediate “striving to survive.” The families’ secure everyday life disappeared and was replaced by fear, chaos, and loneliness. When striving to make the child and the family survive, family members strove to feel hope and have a positive focus, to gain control, and to feel close to other people. Phenomenological human science research can deepen the understanding of the meaning of being a family with a child who is ill with cancer and can help pediatric oncology staff become increasingly thoughtful, and thus better prepared to take action to diminish the chaos occurring in the family.

Scandinavian Sarcoma Group Osteosarcoma Study SSG VIII

Abstract From 1990 to 1997, 113 eligible patients with classical osteosarcoma received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of high-dose methotrexate, cisplatin and doxorubicin. Good histological responders continued to receive the same therapy postoperatively, while poor responders received salvage therapy with an etoposide/ifosfamide combination. With a median follow-up of 83 months, the projected metastasis-free and overall survival rates at 5 years are 63 and 74%, respectively. Independent favourable prognostic factors for outcome were tumour volume 4.5 μM and female gender. The etoposide/ifosfamide replacement combination did not improve outcome in the poor histological responders. In conclusion, this intensive multi-agent chemotherapy results in >70% of patients with classical osteosarcoma surviving for 5 years. The data obtained from this non-randomised study do not support discontinuation and exchange of all drugs used preoperatively in histological poor responders. As observed in previous Scandinavian osteosarcoma studies, female gender appears to be a strong predictor of a favourable outcome.

Successful treatment of a child with t(15;19)-positive tumor.

A subset of poorly differentiated carcinomas is characterized by the translocation t(15;19)(q13;p13), resulting in a BRD4/NUT fusion gene. Typically, this tumor affects children or young adults, with a predilection for midline head and neck or thoracic structures. The clinical course is invariably fatal, in spite of intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We here present the successful treatment of a 10‐year‐old boy who presented with a BRD4/NUT‐positive undifferentiated tumor in the iliac bone. The patient was selected for combined modality therapy, and has remained in complete continuous remission for close to 13 years. The findings show that t(15;19)‐BRD4/NUT‐positive tumors may arise in locations more typical for other pediatric tumors, such as Ewing sarcoma, and that they not always display epithelial differentiation. More importantly, our results also demonstrate that at least some patients with t(15;19)‐positive tumors may be successfully treated. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2007;49:1015–1017.

Five-year results in Ewing's sarcoma. The Scandinavian Sarcoma Group experience with the SSG IX protocol

The first Scandinavian protocol for Ewings sarcoma, SSG IV, resulted in a local control rate of 74% and 5-year metastasis-free survival (MFS) of 43%. The second protocol, SSG IX, was started in order to improve upon these results. It featured four chemotherapy cycles, each consisting of two courses of VAI (vincristine, doxorubicin, ifosfamide) alternating with one course of PAI (cisplatin, doxorubicin, ifosfamide) at 3-weekly intervals. Total treatment time was 35 weeks. Local therapy was given at week 9. Inoperable or non-radically operated patients received hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy 1.5 Gy twice daily between chemotherapy courses to a total dose of 42-60 Gy, depending on surgical radicality and tumour localisation. 88 patients were included (58 male, 30 female, mean age 20 years; range 5-65 years). The tumour (73 M0 and 15 M1) was located centrally in 31 patients (35%), in the extremities in 34 (39%) and other sites in 23 (26%) of cases. The median size of tumour was 10 cm (range 2-23), soft tissue was invaded in 87%. Surgery was the local therapy for 60 (68%) patients: amputation in 8 and local excision in 52. The surgical margins were wide in 35 patients, marginal in 14 and intralesional in 3. Radiotherapy was given to 17 non-radically operated patients postoperatively and to 28 patients with inoperable tumours primarily. Histological responses were evaluated in 52 patients. 9 local recurrences were observed (10%). Distant metastases developed in 24 M0 patients (33%). The estimated 5-year MFS was 58% and overall survival (OS) 70% for M0 and 27% and 28% for M1 patients, respectively. Survival was favourable in patients with non-metastatic extremity tumours (90%) and tumours operated with wide margins (90%). Patients with a total necrosis after chemotherapy had a better OS than those with a partial or poor response (P=0.003). The toxicity (World Health Organisation) was acceptable (gastrointestinal G1-2; haematological G3-4). The SSG IX protocol gave better local control and survival rates than the SSG IV. Whether this is due to a higher therapeutic efficacy of the present protocol cannot be ascertained in this comparison with a historical control.

A new specific chromosomal rearrangement, t(8;16) (p11;p13), in acute monocytic leukaemia

The translocation t(8;16) (p11;p13) was found as the sole deviation from the normal karyotype in three patients with acute monocytic leukaemia. The bone marrow morphology was strikingly similar in the two cases where smears were available for re‐evaluation: the leukaemic cells showed signs of differentiation, and active erythrophagocytosis was a particularly conspicuous feature. We suggest that t(8;16) (p11;p13) represents a new consistent abnormality in acute monocytic leukaemia, specifically associated with the differentiated subtype (M5b) and with pronounced phagocytic activity by the leukaemic monocytes.

Nonmetastatic Ewing family tumors: high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue in poor responder patients. Results of the Italian Sarcoma Group/Scandinavian Sarcoma Group III protocol

BACKGROUND High-dose chemotherapy (HDT) was added to conventional chemotherapy in Ewing sarcoma family tumor (EFT) patients, poor responders (PRs) to induction chemotherapy in order to improve their survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients aged ≤40 years with nonmetastatic Ewing sarcoma (ES) received vincristine (V), doxorubicin (A), cyclofosfamide (C), actinomycin (Ac), ifosfamide (I) and etoposide (E) (VACAc-IE regimen) as induction chemotherapy. As maintenance treatment, good responders (GR) received nine cycles of VACAc-IE regimen. PRs received three cycles of VAC-IE, mobilizing cycle with CE and HDT with Busulfan and Melphalan with stem cell support. RESULTS Three hundred patients [median age 15 years (3-40 years)] entered the study. One patient refused local treatment, 242 (81%) underwent surgery [with radiotherapy (RT) in 80] and 57 (19%) RT alone. No toxic deaths were recorded. Overall GR were 146 (49%). Twenty-eight PR did not receive HDT. At a median follow-up of 64 months (21-116 months), 5-year overall and event-free survival (EFS) were 75% and 69%, respectively. Five-year EFS was 75% for GR, 72% for PR treated with HDT and 33% for PR who did not receive HDT. CONCLUSIONS High-dose therapy added to the VACA-IE regimen in PR patients is feasible and effective. Selected groups of patients with ES can benefit from HDT.

Initial patient characteristics can predict pattern and risk of relapse in localized rhabdomyosarcoma

PURPOSE Evaluation of primary tumor-, treatment-, and patient-related factors predicting relapse pattern, risk, and survival after relapse with the aim to design a risk-adapted, tumor-directed surveillance program for patients with localized rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). PATIENTS AND METHODS One thousand one hundred sixty-four patients with nonmetastatic RMS achieved complete remission at the end of multimodal therapy in the consecutive trials of the Cooperative Weichteilsarkom Studiengruppe (CWS)-81, CWS-86, CWS-91, and CWS-96 between 1980 and 2002 (median follow-up, 5 years). Three hundred thirty-seven of these individuals developed either locoregional, metastatic, or combined relapses. Predictive factors for relapse, its pattern, and postrelapse survival were analyzed. RESULTS Age, histology, tumor size, tumor site, postsurgical stage, and omission of radiotherapy were identified as factors associated with an increased relapse risk in multivariate analyses. Relapse rates did not differ among the CWS trials. Median time to relapse was 1.43 years from first diagnosis (range, 0.13 to 13.5 years). There were 217 locoregional, 72 metastatic, and 48 combined recurrences. Only two patients developed metastases more than 4 years after diagnosis, and both had combined recurrences. Five-year postrelapse survival was 24%. Patient subsets with consistent relapse pattern, risk, and postrelapse survival rates were identified on the basis of histologic subtype and tumor size. CONCLUSION Initial patient and tumor characteristics predict pattern and risk of relapse and also correlate with postrelapse survival probabilities. In localized RMS, tumor-directed follow-up should focus on the primary site. Screening for metastatic relapse may not be necessary more than 4 years after diagnosis. The identification of subgroups with distinctive pattern and risk of relapse may be used to develop risk-adapted, tumor-directed guidance for detection of recurrent disease in localized RMS.