ObjectiveTo investigate clinical outcomes of a new self-made nasogastric tube (NGT) fixation device. MethodsFrom January 2012 to May 2013, 76 consecutive patients with esophageal cancer who underwent esophagectomy by a same surgical group in West China Hospital were included in this study. There were 62 male and 14 female patients with their average age of 60.7 years. Clinical outcomes of the NGT fixation device were prospectively evaluated from the operation day to patients' resumption of oral intake (usually 6 days postoperatively), or the time when NGT fell off accidentally or patients asked to exit this study. The main outcomes included whether NGT fell off, and caused or increased patients' discomfort. ResultsThe operation time of the 76 patients was 192±12 minutes. Postoperatively, 1 patient died of refractory pulmonary infection and respiratory failure before further treatment was refused by the patient and relatives. All the patients completed this study. There was no NGT falling off or severe patients' discomfort. Three patients complained obvious but tolerable face compression with mild discomfort. ConclusionsThis new fixation device can effectively prevent NGT from falling off. Further clinical trial is needed to investigate its clinical value.
Nerve growth factor (NGF), a pleiotropic molecule, can bind to specific tyrosine kinase receptor TrkA and induce a number of biological activities. NGF and TrkA are involved not only in the development of nervous system, but also in the pathogenesis of different types of malignancies. Studies have shown that NGF and its TrkA receptor are closely related to carcinogenesis, proliferation, angiogenesis and metastasis of solid tumors. Thus, inhibitors targeting at TrkA may provide a new approach for cancer treatment, and some of them have already been applied in clinical trials. This review summarizes the involvement of NGF-TrkA in tumors and related progress of molecular targeted therapies.
The resistance of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) has been brought into focus. COX-2 signal pathway was found to be closely related to EGFR signal pathway by recent researches, and there has been a growing interest to focus the researches on whether COX-2 pathway inhibition improves the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs in treating advanced NSCLC. In this review, we will illustrate recent advances of combined inhibition of EGFR and COX-2 signal pathways in NSCLC therapy.
ObjectiveTo systemically evaluate the efficacy and safety of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) signal pathway inhibition in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MethodsA systematic literature search in PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, ASCO databases, CNKI and Wanfang database was conducted to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from the time of database establishment to June 2015. RCTs of COX-2 inhibitors treating advanced NSCLC were included. We assessed the methodology quality of the included studies by using Jadad's scale, and performed this meta-analysis by using stata12.0 software. ResultsTwelve RCTs involving three different COX-2 inhibitors with a total of 1 828 patients were identified including 8 studies of high quality and 4 studies of low quality. We found that COX-2 signal pathway inhibition could significantly increase overall response rate at RR=1.27 with 95%CI1.10 to 1.46 (P=0.001). While our present data could not confirm the efficacy of COX-2 inhibitors in improving progression-free survival (PFS) at HR=0.93 with 95%CI0.81 to 1.08 (P=0.334), overall survival (OS) at HR=0.95 with 95%CI0.84 to 1.08 (P=0.461), or one-year survival rate at RR=1.08 with 95%CI0.90 to 1.24 (P=0.29). As for toxicities, only increased risk of thrombocytopenia at RR=1.28 with 95%CI 1.03 to 1.85 (P=0.03) was observed in the patients treated with COX-2 inhibitors. ConclusionCOX-2 signal pathway inhibition is effective in improving the overall response rate of the patients with advanced NSCLC, and is well tolerated. Whether COX-2 signal pathway inhibition is effective in improving long-term survival of the patients with advanced NSCLC still needs to be confirmed via further clinical trials.