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Delhi launches cancer awareness campaign
Newsdesk Delhi launches cancer awareness campaign The state government in Delhi (India) has launched an awareness programme to promote the benefits of early cancer detection of oral, breast, and genital cancers – the most common types among the state’s population of 14 million people. A further campaign for women focuses on breast selfexamination and genital hygiene. For the past two years, the state has organised an ad hoc awareness campaign, but it has now decided to run a continuous programme. Using extensive advertising, the state is hoping to inform people of the causative factors. The campaign is aimed at the literate population. “If we are not able to buy time on radio or television due to the costs involved, we should be able to reach out to people who are literate but ignorant about causes, early recognition, and treatment of various cancers,” says Manoj Sharma, an advisor to the Delhi government.
Health officials are 2·5 2·3 currently working on a plan to buy airtime 2 on local cable channels. Nearly half 1·5 1·1 of the state’s annual 1·0 1 0·9 0·8 budget for cancer control is being used 0·5 for cancer awareness. 0 Forty percent of x s n a ng ai m gu ryn the population of Lu Br ho ha La p p m Delhi consists of so Ly Oe migrants, characterised by illiteracy, Leading sites of cancer mortality in men (crude death rate). Data poor nutrition, and from the Delhi Cancer Registry Report 1994–95 the consumption of chewing tobacco products. This poses that outreach cancer detection camps a problem for the health system. “The will also be set up. “The number of level of awareness is very low. Myths cases being referred from these like ‘cancer is incurable’ still persist,” hospitals for radiotherapy at LNJP says DN Sharma, a WHO consultant Hospital has gone up from about 700 with the central government. per year to 2300 cases last year due to The campaign is being backed by this campaign,” Manoj Sharma early detection clinics in all nine pointed out. Dinesh C Sharma district hospitals, and it is anticipated
Cisplatin/etoposide regimen effective in relapsed ovarian cancer An intensive regimen of cisplatin and etoposide appears to be ‘highly effective’ in treating patients with ovarian cancer who relapse after platinum-based combination therapy, according to a new study (Br J Cancer 2002; 86: 19–25). Ronald de Wit (Rotterdam Cancer Institute, The Netherlands) and colleagues evaluated the regimen with a non-randomised phase II trial. Of the 98 patients, about a third were platinum sensitive, with a treatment-free interval of more than 12 months; a third were ‘intermediate-sensitive’, with a treatment-free interval of 4–12 months; and the remainder were refractory, with disease progression within 4 months of their last platinum therapy. de Wit and colleagues report that in the sensitive, ‘intermediatesensitive’, and refractory groups, there were 92%, 91%, and 46%, partial and complete responses, respectively; and 63%, 31%, and 29%, complete responses, respectively.
THE LANCET Oncology Vol 3 March 2002
These statistics compare with a response of <15% in refractory patients treated with conventional therapies. They also point out that neurotoxicity and renal toxicity was ‘notably mild’ in many of the patients and few haematological complications arose, even though some patients had previously received two or more platinum-based regimens. “We were delighted by the success of the study. The new drug combination was highly effective at keeping women alive for longer, giving real hope to those who would otherwise have had very little,” de Wit says. The new regimen used weekly intravenous infusions of cisplatin, ranging from 50 to 70 mg/m2 depending on the patients’ sensitivity, for six weeks. Patients also received 50 mg per day of etoposide for the first, and last, two weeks of the six-week period. Those who showed no progression continued to take etoposide after the six-week cisplatin treatment.
http://oncology.thelancet.com
de Wit points out that complications included poor renal function and neuropathy resulting from previous platinum therapy. He also suggests that the formulation of cisplatin in 3% saline is important. “Dose-intensive cisplatin cannot be administered easily in isotonic (0.9%) saline,” he notes. According to Harry Long (Mayo Clinic, MN, USA) these findings need to be confirmed but, “if accurate, provide a highly active combination for salvage chemotherapy even in patients with platinum-refractory disease.” Long also points out that, although the response rate is high, the duration of response is relatively short and further improvements are needed. Mark Harries (Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, UK) notes that a number of other agents also show activity in relapsed ovarian cancer (eg Caelyx, topotecan) but, “the [de Wit] study shows interesting activity for this combination of drugs.” Emma Hitt
133
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Health officials are 2·5 2·3 currently working on a plan to buy airtime 2 on local cable channels. Nearly half 1·5 1·1 of the state’s annual 1·0 1 0·9 0·8 budget for cancer control is being used 0·5 for cancer awareness. 0 Forty percent of x s n a ng ai m gu ryn the population of Lu Br ho ha La p p m Delhi consists of so Ly Oe migrants, characterised by illiteracy, Leading sites of cancer mortality in men (crude death rate). Data poor nutrition, and from the Delhi Cancer Registry Report 1994–95 the consumption of chewing tobacco products. This poses that outreach cancer detection camps a problem for the health system. “The will also be set up. “The number of level of awareness is very low. Myths cases being referred from these like ‘cancer is incurable’ still persist,” hospitals for radiotherapy at LNJP says DN Sharma, a WHO consultant Hospital has gone up from about 700 with the central government. per year to 2300 cases last year due to The campaign is being backed by this campaign,” Manoj Sharma early detection clinics in all nine pointed out. Dinesh C Sharma district hospitals, and it is anticipated
Cisplatin/etoposide regimen effective in relapsed ovarian cancer An intensive regimen of cisplatin and etoposide appears to be ‘highly effective’ in treating patients with ovarian cancer who relapse after platinum-based combination therapy, according to a new study (Br J Cancer 2002; 86: 19–25). Ronald de Wit (Rotterdam Cancer Institute, The Netherlands) and colleagues evaluated the regimen with a non-randomised phase II trial. Of the 98 patients, about a third were platinum sensitive, with a treatment-free interval of more than 12 months; a third were ‘intermediate-sensitive’, with a treatment-free interval of 4–12 months; and the remainder were refractory, with disease progression within 4 months of their last platinum therapy. de Wit and colleagues report that in the sensitive, ‘intermediatesensitive’, and refractory groups, there were 92%, 91%, and 46%, partial and complete responses, respectively; and 63%, 31%, and 29%, complete responses, respectively.
THE LANCET Oncology Vol 3 March 2002
These statistics compare with a response of <15% in refractory patients treated with conventional therapies. They also point out that neurotoxicity and renal toxicity was ‘notably mild’ in many of the patients and few haematological complications arose, even though some patients had previously received two or more platinum-based regimens. “We were delighted by the success of the study. The new drug combination was highly effective at keeping women alive for longer, giving real hope to those who would otherwise have had very little,” de Wit says. The new regimen used weekly intravenous infusions of cisplatin, ranging from 50 to 70 mg/m2 depending on the patients’ sensitivity, for six weeks. Patients also received 50 mg per day of etoposide for the first, and last, two weeks of the six-week period. Those who showed no progression continued to take etoposide after the six-week cisplatin treatment.
http://oncology.thelancet.com
de Wit points out that complications included poor renal function and neuropathy resulting from previous platinum therapy. He also suggests that the formulation of cisplatin in 3% saline is important. “Dose-intensive cisplatin cannot be administered easily in isotonic (0.9%) saline,” he notes. According to Harry Long (Mayo Clinic, MN, USA) these findings need to be confirmed but, “if accurate, provide a highly active combination for salvage chemotherapy even in patients with platinum-refractory disease.” Long also points out that, although the response rate is high, the duration of response is relatively short and further improvements are needed. Mark Harries (Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, UK) notes that a number of other agents also show activity in relapsed ovarian cancer (eg Caelyx, topotecan) but, “the [de Wit] study shows interesting activity for this combination of drugs.” Emma Hitt
133
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.