Bergstralh, Erik J.

74 Background: Nearly all men that experience recurrence of prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy are placed on salvage androgen deprivation therapy (sADT) in an attempt to control the disease. Yet, little is known regarding the efficacy of the treatment, the therapeutic duration or the predictors of treatment failure. Therefore, we examined our experience with sADT after radical prostatectomy in a cohort of patients with no evidence of systemic disease. Methods: We identified 1,373 patients that were treated with sADT after radical prostatectomy prior to the development of systemic disease. Clinical and pathologic variables predicting systemic progression and cancer death were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log rank test. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to analyze the impact of these variables on disease progression and survival. Results: Patients were treated with sADT at a median of 4.2 years after surgery. The median PSA at initiation of sADT was 1.6 ng/mL. The majority (1,234, 90%) of patients had a calculable PSA doubling time prior to the initiation of sADT. 275 patients (20.0%) experienced systemic progression at a median of 3.1 years after the start of sADT. 175 patients (12.7%) died of prostate cancer at a median of 4.7 years after the start of sADT. Factors that predicted disease progression after sADT on multivariate analysis included either neoadjuvant or adjuvant ADT (HR - 2.0, p<0.0001), increasing pathologic Gleason Score (HR - 1.18, p=0.009), increasing pathologic stage (HR - 1.3, p<0.0001), PSA at start of sADT (HR - 1.3, p<0.0001) and PSA doubling time (1.65, p<0.0001). Conclusions: Most men treated with sADT after radical prostatectomy prior to the development of systemic progression experience a lengthy disease-free interval. Multivariate predictors of treatment failure include prior adjuvant or neoadjuvant ADT, pathologic Gleason Score, pathologic stage, PSA level at initiation of sADT and PSA doubling time before sADT. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Abstract Seasonal variation in physical activity, back extensor muscle strength (BES), and bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine was studied in 65 healthy postmenopausal women. Physical activity score (PAS) was assessed with an ordinal scale (0-18); this score and the BES were obtained monthly for 2 years (25 readings). BMD values were obtained semiannually (5 readings). A periodic (cosine) regression model was fit to each subject's PAS and BES data to obtain individual estimates of the annual peak day d and the average annual range due to seasonality. There was a strong (P &lt; 0.001) seasonal pattern in physical activity; August 3 was the average peak day, and the seasonal range was 2.0 PAS units. There was modest (P = 0.047) seasonality in BES; June 6 was the estimated peak day, and the seasonal range was 8.22 pounds (about 7% of the mean). BMD averaged 0.015 g/cm2 higher in August through November than February through May (P = 0.002), and the highest monthly average BMD was in August. This seasonal range of 1.4% is larger than the average annual decline with age in BMD observed in longitudinal studies of postmenopausal women. The results of this study have important implications for the planning of longitudinal studies involving changes in physical activity or bone mass in geographic areas with diverse seasons.

Among 1138 newborns in a Level II nursery, breast-fed and formula-fed infants were comparable in terms of sex, mode of delivery, gestational age, birth weight, and birth temperature. Breast-fed neonates subsequently lost more weight and a greater percentage of their birth weight (mean, 7.4% vs. 4.9%) than did formula-fed infants. Loss of more than 10 percent of birth weight was associated with short gestation and low birth weight and with breast feeding. Birth weight loss of ≥3 percent was associated with a risk of fever (≥37.5°C) among breast-fed and formula-fed infants, but there was no gradient of increasing risk of fever with increasing percentage weight loss beyond 3 percent. After weight loss and other significant variables were adjusted for in a multivariate analysis, breast feeding was not independently predictive of fever. Although breast feeding may be associated with weight loss, it is not prudent to assume that this is the cause of fever in a breast-fed neonate.