This randomized study compared the efficacy of epirubicin-based adjuvant chemotherapy on the disease-free interval (DFI) and overall survival of patients with high-risk soft-tissue sarcomas. After curative surgery, 43 of the 88 enrolled patients were assigned to surgery with or without radiotherapy and 45 to surgery plus chemotherapy (26 epirubicin, 19 epirubicin + ifosfamide) with or without radiotherapy. The trial closed prematurely because of poor patient accrual. There was a statistical significant difference in the 5-year disease-free survival of the patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy (69%) and that of those treated with surgery with or without radiotherapy (44%) (p = 0.01). The 5-year survival of the patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy was 72% as against 47% of those treated with surgery with or without radiotherapy (p = 0.06). The power of the study was 0.65 for both the DFI and overall survival. The results of the study suggest a possible advantage of epirubicin-based adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma at high risk of relapse.

Ingrowing toenails are a common problem causing significant morbidity. Many of the procedures used for treating this painful condition cause considerable discomfort and have high failure rates. In recent years, phenol cauterization of the nail bed has been used increasingly. A retrospective study was carried out of all patients treated by this method in the authors' clinic during the period January 1996 to December 2001. In this study, phenol cauterization is the standard form of treatment and 948 phenol cauterizations were carried out in 764 patients. There was no significant morbidity and the procedure was tolerated well by all patients. Overall recurrence was 4.3% (33 patients) after 18 months. All symptomatic recurrences were successfully treated by repeating phenol cauterization. Phenol cauterization compares favourably with other surgical ablation techniques for ingrowing toenails and may be the ablation procedure of choice of an ingrowing toenail.