The prognosis for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder is poor with most patients succumbing to their disease within 2 to 3 years. Clinical management at this stage of the disease is palliative with systemic chemotherapy the main treatment of choice. A number of cytotoxic agents have shown activity in metastatic disease including cisplatin, methotrexate, doxorubicin and vinblastine. However, response rates still need improving and toxicities may sometimes be severe, and so the search for newer agents with improved benefit-to-risk ratios is constantly being pursued. One such agent that shows promise is gemcitabine.

Vulval intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) is a pre-malignant condition of the vulval skin; its incidence is increasing in women under 50 years. VIN is graded histologically as low grade or high grade. High grade VIN is associated with infection with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and may progress to invasive disease. There is no consensus on the optimal management of high grade VIN. The high morbidity and high relapse rate associated with surgical interventions call for a formal appraisal of the evidence available for less invasive but effective interventions for high grade VIN.

Treatment of cancer is increasingly more effective but is associated with short and long term side effects. Oral side effects remain a major source of illness despite the use of a variety of agents to prevent them. One of these side effects is oral mucositis (mouth ulcers).

The addition of Rituximab (R) to standard chemotherapy (C) has been reported to improve the end of treatment outcome in patients affected by CD-20 positive malignant lymphomas (CD20+ ML). Nevertheless, given the profound and prolonged immunosuppression produced by R there are concerns that severe infections may arise. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to determine whether or not the addition of R to C may increase the risk of severe infections in adults undergoing induction therapy for CD20+ ML.

Nearly one third of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients at diagnosis have stage III disease. Concurrent chemoradiation has emerged as the standard of care for patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC. Meta-analyses of studies comparing concurrent with sequential therapy showed that there was a relative improvement of about 20% with concurrent therapy over sequential therapy in these patients and that concurrent chemoradiation is more toxic than the sequential approach, particularly with regard to esophagitis. The incidence of pneumonitis is not significantly higher with concurrent therapy. All the phase 3 trials comparing concurrent with sequential therapy included cisplatin-based therapy. In addition, patients enrolled in these studies were required to have good performance status and some studies mandated limited weight loss. Some patients are also treated with lower doses of chemotherapy, particularly carboplatin and paclitaxel, concurrently with radiation followed by full-dose chemotherapy. Randomized studies have failed to show benefit of induction or consolidation chemotherapy. For patients who have a poor performance status or significant weight loss, a sequential approach of chemotherapy followed by radiation may be appropriate. Ongoing clinical trials are evaluating the utility of integrating some of the newer agents such as pemetrexed and cetuximab into the treatment plan for stage III patients.

Bevacizumab is currently approved for the treatment of several malignancies. Haematologic toxicities are not among the main concerns associated with bevacizumab, but they have been occasionally reported. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the incidence and risk of haematologic toxicities associated with bevacizumab.

Cyclophosphamide plus total body irradiation (CYTBI) and oral busulfan plus cyclophosphamide (BUCY) are commonly used conditioning regimens prior to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in patients with leukemia. However, there is conflicting data on the superiority of one regimen over the other. Our aim was to critically appraise and synthesize available evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of CYTBI compared to BUCY as a conditioning regimen.

The objectives of the present study are to investigate the efficacy and safety profile of gemcitabine-based combinations in the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (LA/MPC).

To evaluate the effectiveness and toxicity of sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Sorafenib is a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine-kinase inhibitor currently used in several malignancies. While not a traditional cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agent, hematological toxicities have been reported with this drug but the incidence and risk have not been formerly assessed. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the incidence and risk of hematologic toxicities associated with sorafenib use.

To report the rates of endophthalmitis and the spectrum of causative organisms after intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents and possible prevention strategies.

Cisplatin and several related antineoplastic agents used to treat many types of solid tumors are neurotoxic, and most patients completing a full course of cisplatin chemotherapy develop a clinically detectable sensory neuropathy. Effective neuroprotective therapies have been sought.

Cabergoline is widely considered to be poorly effective in acromegaly.

Fatal adverse events (FAEs) have been reported in cancer patients treated with the widely used angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy. Currently, the role of bevacizumab in treatment-related mortality is not clear.

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare treatment effectiveness and adverse effects in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with palonosetron to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) modulates platinum-based chemotherapeutic efficacy by removing drug-produced DNA damage. To summarize published data on the association between polymorphisms of NER genes (ERCC1 and ERCC2) and responses to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapies, we carried out a meta-analysis of gastric and colorectal cancer for commonly studied polymorphisms ERCC1 rs11615C>T and ERCC2 rs13181T>G.

One of the most important adverse effects of anthracyclines is cardiotoxicity. A well-informed decision on the use of anthracyclines in the treatment of childhood cancers should be based on evidence regarding both antitumour efficacy and cardiotoxicity.

High-grade bleeding is a serious adverse event associated with bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting vascular endothelial growth factor and widely used in the current cancer treatments. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the overall incidence and risk of high-grade bleeding in cancer patients who receive bevacizumab therapy.

Whether pemetrexed plus platinum (PP) regimen is superior to gemcitabine plus platinum (GP) regimen for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PP versus GP regimens for patients with NSCLC.

Bevacizumab is a treatment option in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Congestive heart failure (CHF) has been reported, although the overall incidence and relative risk (RR) of this complication remains unclear. We performed an up-to-date, comprehensive meta-analysis to determine the risk of serious CHF in patients with breast cancer receiving bevacizumab.