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Background: Childhood cancer is relatively rare, the most common types include, leukemias, brain cancers, and lymphomas. Children with cancer usually suffered from immunosuppression due to either the disease itself or its treatment. In this study, we aimed to assess the humoral immunity after completion of the treatment plan in children with hematological malignancies. Patients and methods: Twenty-nine patients were evaluated in a prospective study conducted between March 2018 and April 2020 at the Pediatric Oncology Department, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University. The patients were assessed for the concentration of total serum IgM, IgG, and specific measles IgM and IgG within one month after completing treatment, at 3 and 6months post-treatment, respectively. Results: The mean age of the patients was 6.36 ± 4.09 years, and 55.2 % were males. Patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) constituted 58.6% of the studied patients. Most patients (62.1%) were stratified as intermediate risk. Compared to normal reference values of immunoglobulins, our patients had significantly low levels of total IgM and total IgG at finishing chemotherapy (P 0.001), while at three and six months only total IgG continued to be significantly low (P=0.001). As regard specific measles immunoglobulins (Igs), measles IgM was borderline higher (P=0.059) while measles IgG showed higher values compared to reference values (P=˂0.001) at finishing treatment, both specific measles immunoglobulins increased significantly to levels higher than normal reference values at three and six months after finishing(P=˂0.001). Less intensive treatment and duration of treatment had significantly affected the level of specific measles IgG (P=0.012, P=0.05 respectively). Conclusions: Patients with hematological malignancies are vulnerable to humoral immune suppression at the end of the treatment, which persists for up to six months after stopping treatment. A shorter duration of treatment was the main factor that affected the immune recovery of our patients.

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Background: In breast cancer, painful bone metastases are common. Local radiotherapy is the standard treatment of painful bone metastases. Pain control and overall response rateswere low in radiotherapy alone. The objectives of this study were to compare the safety and efficacy of external beam radiotherapy with concurrent capecitabine vs. external beam radiotherapy alone in pain control of painful bone metastases in breast cancer patients. Materials and methods: Eighty-four patients with painful bone metastases from breast cancer participated in this prospective study. We randomized the patients into two groups: group A treated with radiother- apy 30 Gy in 10 fractions and group B treated with capecitabine 825 mg/m2 every 12 hrs. concurrently with the same radiotherapy dose. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding early treat- ment toxicity. Most of the toxicity was gastrointestinal (diarrhea and nausea) and mild (grade I or II). The median pain score decreased from week one, and there was a marked response at week4. The differ- ence in median pain score between both groups was statistically significant with p-value = 0.045. The median analgesic score in both groups was statistically significant with a p-value = 0.032 at week 12. A complete response to pain at week 4 was 19% and 42.9% in groups A and B, respectively. Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiation in painful bone metastases from breast cancer origin was toler- able and safe; it had a higher overall response rate and pain palliation than radiotherapy alone.

Background: In breast cancer, painful bone metastases are common. Local radiotherapy is the standard treatment of painful bone metastases. Pain control and overall response rateswere low in radiotherapy alone. The objectives of this study were to compare the safety and efficacy of external beam radiotherapy with concurrent capecitabine vs. external beam radiotherapy alone in pain control of painful bone metastases in breast cancer patients. Materials and methods: Eighty-four patients with painful bone metastases from breast cancer participated in this prospective study. We randomized the patients into two groups: group A treated with radiother- apy 30 Gy in 10 fractions and group B treated with capecitabine 825 mg/m2 every 12 hrs. concurrently with the same radiotherapy dose. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding early treat- ment toxicity. Most of the toxicity was gastrointestinal (diarrhea and nausea) and mild (grade I or II). The median pain score decreased from week one, and there was a marked response at week4. The differ- ence in median pain score between both groups was statistically significant with p-value = 0.045. The median analgesic score in both groups was statistically significant with a p-value = 0.032 at week 12. A complete response to pain at week 4 was 19% and 42.9% in groups A and B, respectively. Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiation in painful bone metastases from breast cancer origin was toler- able and safe; it had a higher overall response rate and pain palliation than radiotherapy alone.

Background: In breast cancer, painful bone metastases are common. Local radiotherapy is the standard treatment of painful bone metastases. Pain control and overall response rateswere low in radiotherapy alone. The objectives of this study were to compare the safety and efficacy of external beam radiotherapy with concurrent capecitabine vs. external beam radiotherapy alone in pain control of painful bone metastases in breast cancer patients. Materials and methods: Eighty-four patients with painful bone metastases from breast cancer participated in this prospective study. We randomized the patients into two groups: group A treated with radiother- apy 30 Gy in 10 fractions and group B treated with capecitabine 825 mg/m2 every 12 hrs. concurrently with the same radiotherapy dose. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding early treat- ment toxicity. Most of the toxicity was gastrointestinal (diarrhea and nausea) and mild (grade I or II). The median pain score decreased from week one, and there was a marked response at week4. The differ- ence in median pain score between both groups was statistically significant with p-value = 0.045. The median analgesic score in both groups was statistically significant with a p-value = 0.032 at week 12. A complete response to pain at week 4 was 19% and 42.9% in groups A and B, respectively. Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiation in painful bone metastases from breast cancer origin was toler- able and safe; it had a higher overall response rate and pain palliation than radiotherapy alone.

Background: In breast cancer, painful bone metastases are common. Local radiotherapy is the standard treatment of painful bone metastases. Pain control and overall response rateswere low in radiotherapy alone. The objectives of this study were to compare the safety and efficacy of external beam radiotherapy with concurrent capecitabine vs. external beam radiotherapy alone in pain control of painful bone metastases in breast cancer patients. Materials and methods: Eighty-four patients with painful bone metastases from breast cancer participated in this prospective study. We randomized the patients into two groups: group A treated with radiother- apy 30 Gy in 10 fractions and group B treated with capecitabine 825 mg/m2 every 12 hrs. concurrently with the same radiotherapy dose. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding early treat- ment toxicity. Most of the toxicity was gastrointestinal (diarrhea and nausea) and mild (grade I or II). The median pain score decreased from week one, and there was a marked response at week4. The differ- ence in median pain score between both groups was statistically significant with p-value = 0.045. The median analgesic score in both groups was statistically significant with a p-value = 0.032 at week 12. A complete response to pain at week 4 was 19% and 42.9% in groups A and B, respectively. Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiation in painful bone metastases from breast cancer origin was toler- able and safe; it had a higher overall response rate and pain palliation than radiotherapy alone.