“
“BACKGROUND. in men with prostate cancer, pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) velocity (PSAV) has been demonstrated as a predictor of biochemical and survival

outcomes in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). The utility of pretreatment PSAV in predicting outcomes after radiotherapy (RT), with or without androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), is less certain. This study was undertaken to determine whether pretreatment PSAV is associated with biochemical disease-free survival, patterns of selleck recurrence, and survival outcomes in men treated with radiation therapy and ADT.\n\nMETHODS. Two hundred seventy-seven patients with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer treated with RT and ADT formed the study cohort. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate whether PSAV was associated with disease outcomes.\n\nRESULTS. The median age of diagnosis was 70 years, and the median follow-up was 6.8 years. Men with a

PSAV in the highest quartile tended to have higher risk disease at presentation (P =.028). After adjustment for known prognostic factors and duration of ADT, MRT67307 mouse men who had a PSAV in the highest quartile had an increased risk of distant metastasis (hazard ratio [HR], 4.0; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.61-9.9 [P =.003]) and prostate cancer-specific mortality (HR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.27-5.95 [P =.01]) compared with men who had a lower PSAV, but had no increase in the risk of local recurrence (P =.76).\n\nCONCLUSIONS. A high pretreatment PSAV was associated

with distant metastasis and prostate cancer-specific mortality but not with local recurrence. A high pretreatment PSAV may signify the presence of occult metastatic disease. Randomized trials are needed to determine whether more aggressive Selleckchem Galardin intervention is required in men who present with high pretreatment PSAV.”
“Purpose A high rate of sustained viral response (SVR) in Koreans with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is related to a favorable IL28B genotype. We compared two dosing strategies for peginterferon alfa-2a in Koreans with CHC and defined the combined effect of polymorphisms and dosing on the virological response.\n\nMethods A total of 178 treatment-na < ve patients with CHC genotype 1 were prospectively enrolled. All patients were randomly assigned to treatment with one of two peginterferon alfa-2a regimens: 180 mu g per week for 48 weeks (full-dose group) or 180 mu g per week during the first 12 weeks followed by 135 mu g per week for the next 36 weeks (dose-reduction group). Polymorphisms related to IL28B, ITPA, C20orf194 and SLC29A1 were studied.\n\nResults SVR rates did not differ between the full-dose and dose-reduction groups (56.5 and 51.2 %, respectively, p = 0.474).