BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE:Treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is difficult. The response rate (RR) of NSCLC patients to traditional chemotherapy regimen is about 40%. Now the RR has been improved with application of new drugs, such as taxol, docetaxal, and gemzar. This randomized trial was designed to determine treatment efficacies of docetaxol plus cisplatin and gemzar plus cisplatin on advanced NSCLC, and observe their cytotoxicities.METHODS:A total of 43 advanced NSCLC patients were randomized into 2 groups, 22 in TP group (docetaxol plus cisplatin) and 21 in GP group (gemzar plus cisplatin), and received relevant treatments. The RR, time to progression (TTP), mean survival time (MST), and 1- and 2-year survival rates of the patients were analyzed.RESULTS:The RR was 45.4% in TP group with 1 case of complete remission (CR) and 9 cases of partial remission (PR), and 42.9% in GP group with 9 cases of PR. The TTP was 4.6 months in TP group, and 4.7 months in GP group; the MST was 10.6 months in TP group [95% confidence interval (CI), 9.3-11.3 months], and 11.3 months in GP group (95% CI, 6.8-14.8 months). The 1- and 2-year survival rates were 38.1% and 15.3% in TP group, and 34.1% and 11.2% in GP group. The differences of RR and survival rate between the 2 groups were not significant (P=0.71, P=0.89). The major cytotoxicity of TP was leukopeniaû the major cytotoxicities of GP group were fatigue and thrombocytopenia. All adverse reactions were tolerable.CONCLUSION:TP and GP regimens may enhance the remission rate of NSCLC patients with tolerable adverse reaction, and improve the short-term survival rate, but the differences in treatment efficacies of TP and GP groups are not significant.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE:The malignant tumor tissues usually suffer from hypoxia due to its fast growth, which increases its invasive ability. This study was to explore changes of matrix metalloprotei-nases (MMPs) in tumor cells under hypoxia in vitro.METHODS:Zymography was used to determine the changes of activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 cultured under hypoxia. Western blot, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect protein and mRNA levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9.RESULTS:Under normal circumstances, activities of MMPs in SW1990 cells were relatively low. When SW1990 cells were cultured under hypoxia, the activity of MMP-9 increased by about 5.5 times that in normal circumstances, while the activity of MMP-2 didn't change. The same changes in protein level of MMP-9 had been confirmed by Western blot, while protein level of MMP-2 didn't change. mRNA level of MMP-9 was higher in cells cultured under hypoxia for 12 h than in control cells and CoCl(2)-cultured tumor cells by 46.1% and 56.4%, but no change of MMP-9 was seen when hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) was produced in SW1990 cells stimulated by CoCl(2).CONCLUSIONS:Production of MMP-9 in SW1990 cells is enhanced significantly under hypoxia, and its activity altered correspondingly; but those of MMP-2 had no change. This alteration has no relation with enhancement of HIF-1alpha under hypoxia.

Objective In this study, we used the questionnaire to study (1) the effect of different degree of awareness on quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients. (2) the main factors that affect the cancer patients mood. Methods We adopted the FACT-G. which has been applied widely in QOL of cancer patients for susally available method in both foreigners and Chinese people. All the patients were hospitalized and we used squair analysis of variance and multinomial logistic regression methods to analysis the data. Results There were all 110 cases in this study,most of them were advanced patients(73. 6%), patients who knowed their deseases completely composed 34. 5% , partly knowed were 28.1% ,unknowed completely were 37. 4%. The results showed that wheather the patients know their diseases or not will affect their mood and QOL dramatically, espeacially the mood. The more patients knew about their diseases, the more serious their moods would be affected. On the other hand, sex, awareness. ECOG. pain affected the patients mood, multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that these factors had relativity with mood. (P is 0.022,0.006,0. 012,0. 004 ) Conclusion Cancer patients who know completely about their diseases compose only 34. 5%, whether know about their diseases will affect the patients mood and QOL. Gender,awareness. ECOG and pain will determine the patients mood.

新生血管形成是实体瘤快速增长所必须的先决条件之一,一方面,新生血管可以为肿瘤细胞带来丰富的氧气和养料,并将代谢产物带走;另一方面,肿瘤细胞通过新生的血管向远处转移,因此探讨肿瘤新生血管形成机制已成为目前肿瘤研究领域的又一个重要课题.