Audit of principal investigator's compliance for submission of continue review application and decisions taken on lapses in validity of approval by the Institutional Ethics Committee at tertiary oncology center in Navi Mumbai

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Palliative chemotherapy in carcinoma nasopharynx

Introduction

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare malignancy. We conducted an audit of systemic therapies received in palliative setting in carcinoma nasopharynx and studied their outcomes.

Methods

Patients who underwent first-line palliative systemic chemotherapy between January 2014 and April 2017 for carcinoma nasopharynx at the department of medical oncology at authors' institute were selected for this analysis. Toxicities, responses, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed. In addition, a Quality-Adjusted Time without Symptoms or Toxicity analysis with threshold utility analysis was performed.

Results

Fifty-one patients were included in this analysis. The indication of palliative chemotherapy was locoregionally recurrent disease in 25 (49.0%) patients and metastatic disease in 26 (51.0%) patients. The overall response rate was 62.0% (n = 33). The median PFS was 225 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 164-274 days) and median OS was 513 days (95% CI: 286-931 days). The restricted mean TOX state duration was 2.6 days (95% CI: 0.3-4.9), restricted mean TWiST duration was 219.2 days (95% CI: 184.0-254.4), and restricted mean REL duration was 74.3 days (95% CI: 38.1-110.4).

Conclusion

Systemic cytotoxic therapy in nasopharyngeal cancers is associated with high response rates and clinically meaningful PFS; with low duration of time spent in adverse events.

Effect of a planned training session on good clinical practice knowledge in research professionals: A pilot study

Context

Adherence to good clinical practice (GCP) guidelines by the researcher provides public confidence that the rights, safety and well-being of human participants involved in research are protected. It has been observed that researchers require basic GCP training. Considering this, we had decided to conduct a training session on overview of GCP.

Aims

To strengthen the knowledge and awareness regarding GCP.

Settings and Design

The design of the study was quasi-experimental one group, pre-test and post-test design and the study was conducted at ACTREC among healthcare professionals at Tata Memorial Centre.

Methods and Material

A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data in pre and post-test. A total of 138 participants were participated in the study. The training session was pre-planned which included a lecture followed by the question-answer session.

Statistical Analysis Used

Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to assess the effect of the planned teaching programme. Macnemar test was used for item wise comparison of pre and post-test scores. Mann Whitney test was used to determine the significant difference between knowledge scores and selected demographic variables.

Results

This study has resulted in overall improvement of knowledge with a median difference of 5 with P-value <0.001. There was a statistically significant improvement of knowledge between pre and post-test of those having GCP training in the past, working group and education.

Conclusions

The exercise of holding training program was found to be significant in improving the knowledge base of participants, especially investigators and study coordinators.