Oncology Medical News about breast cancer;Pentoxifylline and vitamin E;prevention of radiation-induced side-effects

Become a Member Today!
Register

Most Viewed Abstracts

1. Report Shows Shift in Starting Salaries for Physicians

2. Recommendations on the use of 18F-FDG PET in oncology

3. Taxane-based combinations as adjuvant chemotherapy of early breast cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized trials

4. Gene expression signatures, clinicopathological features, and individualized therapy in breast cancer

5. Sentinel node biopsy is important in mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

(Click the title below to leave the MDLinx Network and go to the Journal's Website)

Pentoxifylline and vitamin E treatment for prevention of radiation-induced side-effects in women with breast cancer: A phase two, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial (Ptx-5)
European Journal of Cancer, 06/25/09

Magnusson M et al. - In a trial to investigate if the same drugs could prevent radiation-induced side-effects in women with breast cancer, it was concluded that the combination of pentoxifylline and vitamin E was safe and may be used for prevention of some radiation-induced side-effects.

Methods

Women with breast cancer were treated for 12 mos with 400 mg pentoxifylline tid or placebo, in combination with 100 mg vitamin E tid, starting 1–3 mos after the completion of radiotherapy.
Primary end-point was passive abduction of the shoulder, and the secondary endpoint was difference in arm volumes.

Results

83 pts were included in the study; 42 in the pentoxifylline + vitamin E group and 41 in the placebo + vitamin E group.
Both treatments were generally well tolerated.
7 pts were withdrawn from the treatment due to disease progression; 4 in the pentoxifylline group and 3 in the placebo group.
At inclusion, pts had impaired passive abduction of the shoulder.
During treatment, both the groups improved significantly.
Median improvement from baseline was 3.7° on pentoxifylline and was 9.4° in the placebo group, but no difference between the groups was detected.
Arm volumes increased over time in the placebo group (1.04%), but not on pentoxifylline (0.50%), and differed significantly between the groups.

<< Previous
Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast: mammographic,...

Next >>
Phase II study of thalidomide plus dexamethasone induction...