Long term low dose maintenance chemotherapy in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

In this study the effect of low dose long-term maintenance chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was evaluated. Following a complete remission two consolidation courses were given with the same drugs. Thereafter patients received low dose maintenance chemotherapy in every four weeks until disease relapsed or for up to two years. A total of 68 patients were evaluated. The median duration of remission of 22.5 months in patients who received maintenance chemotherapy while it was only 7 months in those without maintenance chemotherapy after a median follow-up time of 71 months, which was significant. Overall survival (OS) was also significantly longer in patients with maintenance therapy. Similar results were also obtained in comparison of patients over 60. Thus, it was concluded that maintenance therapy might be beneficial for older AML patients with limited therapy choice

Primary central nervous system leukemia presenting with an isolated oculomotor palsy

PubMed ID: 18710807We present a patient with an isolated oculomotor nerve palsy due to central nervous system leukemia with bone marrow findings consistent with myelofibrosis without any blasts. This has not been previously reported. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The effect of oxytetracycline on non-specific immune response in sea bream (Sparus aurata L. 1758)

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of orally administered oxytetracycline HCl (OTC) of 75 mg/kg body weight for 10 days on the immune response in sea bream (Sparus aurata L. 1758) using the nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test and erythrocyte and leucocyte counts. Administration of 75 mg/kg OTC for 10 days enhanced the non-specific immune response, and increased NBT (+) cell, total erythrocyte and leucocyte numbers in sea bream at 23 ± 1°C. The effect of OTC on the immune system lasted around 21 days after ceasing the administration and the parameters evaluated then returned to normal levels. © Tübi·tak

Histopathologic and immunophenotypic features of childhood and adult anaplastic large-cell lymphomas

The t(2;5) (p23; q35) translocation associated with CD30-positive anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) creates a hybrid gene encoding the chimeric nucleolar protein nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (NFM-ALK) protein, which can be demonstrated by immunostaining with ALK1 monoclonal antibody. In this study, 40 specimens of ALCL from 6 pediatric, 34 adult patients, were immunostained with monoclonal antibodies against CD30 (Ber-H2), EMA, CD45 (LCA), CD3, CD20 (L26), CD15, and ALK1 antigens, and results were correlated with histopathologic features. The mean age of the pediatric and adult patients was 10-years and 38-years, respectively. ALK1 was positive in 14 cases (35%) representing 83% of pediatric and 26% of adult patients, statistically significantly higher in the pediatric group (p= 0.01). Considering the better prognosis attributed to cases with t (2;5), it is interesting to note that the percentage of ALK1-positive cases is significantly higher in pediatric patients with coexpression of EMA, compared to adults

The autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adult patients with lymphoma: Turkish Bone Marrow Transplantation Registry results

Turkish Bone Marrow Transplantation Registry (TBMTR) was established in 1995. Since 1992, data of adult lymphoma patients from fifteen national transplantation centers were collected and analyzed by TBMTR. A total of 437 adult lymphoma patients (185 Hodgkin's and 252 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were registered in TBMTR from 1992 to 2002. Peripheral blood as stem cell source was used in 94% of the transplantations. Non-TBI (total body irradiation) conditioning regimens were administered in 88% of the cases. The 100-day transplantation-related mortality (TRM) was 11% in relapsed and 11% in primary refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma patients whilst TRM was found to be 9% and 30% in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients in first remission and in primary refractory cases, respectively. Infection was the most common cause of TRM. 10-year and 5-year survival rates were 50% and 49% in relapsed cases and primary refractory cases with Hodgkin's lymphoma, respectively; while in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients 10-year survival rate was 65% in cases in first remission, 7-year survival rate was 50% in sensitive relapse, 2-year survival rate was 0% in resistant relapse and 3-year survival was 24% in primary refractory cases. In conclusion, TBMTR results are comparable to EBMT and IBMTR results. Therefore, autologous HSCT may provide long-term survival in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in first remission and in sensitive relapse

Investigation of epstein-barr virus DNA and RNA in tissues of patients with lymphoma [Lenfomali hastalarin dokularinda Epstein-Barr virus DNA ve RNA'sinin araştirilamasi]

PubMed ID: 16544549Relation between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and nasopharyngeal carsinoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, and lymphomas in immunosupressed patients have been shown previously in different studies. The same relationship was also shown in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) by some researchers. The aim of this study was to demonstrate EBV nucleic acids in tissue sections of adult patients with lymphoma. The presence of EBV encoded RNA (EBER) were investigated with in situ hybridization and EBV-DNA with PCR method in 29 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections (19 lymph nodes, the others being gastric, orbital, skin, salivary gland, testicle, small intestinal, tongue root, bone marrow and gingival tissues) of 8 patients with HL and 21 patients with NHL who were followed-up in Haematology Clinics of our university hospital. EBER and EBV-DNA positivity rates were found as follows respectively; 50% (n: 4) and 37.5% (n: 3) of 8 HL patients, and 23.8% (n: 5) and 47.6% (n: 10) of 21 NHL patients. In total evaluation EBER and/or EBV-DNA were positive in 5 of 8 (62.5%) HL, and 12 of 21 (57.1%) NHL tissue sections. There was no significant difference in EBER and EBV-DNA positivity between HL and NHL groups. As a result, our study emphasize a possible EBV related aetiology in HL and NHL

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with bone involvement: A single center experience with 18 patients

Objective: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) of bone is a rare entity. The most common histological subtype is diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The major presenting symptoms are soft tissue swelling, bone pain and pathological fracture. Treatment options are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, or a combination of these modalities. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the 18 patients (11 females, 7 males) with NHL of bone who were diagnosed and treated between 1995-2005. The median age was 56.5 years. The median duration of symptoms was 4.5 months. The bone pain was the first symptom in all patients. Tru-cut biopsy was performed for diagnosis in most of the cases. Diagnosis in five patients (27.8%) required open biopsy. Results: DLBCL (77.8%) was the most common histological type among all patients. Other histological subtypes were anaplastic large cell lymphoma (11.1%), Burkitt-like lymphoma (5.6%) and marginal zone lymphoma (5.6%). According to Ann Arbor staging system, 44.4% of patients were Stage I, 11.1% were Stage II and 44.4% were Stage IV. Bone marrow involvement was determined in four patients (22.2%). All patients except one were treated with anthracycline-containing regimens and eight patients (44.4%) received rituximab combination with chemotherapy. Radiation therapy was performed as the first-line therapy in 9 (50%) patients. The median follow-up was 37 months (range, 2-124 months). Among the 17 patients who achieved complete remission, five (27.8%) relapsed. All patients were still alive. The five-year relapsefree survival was 73.5%. Conclusion: The treatment of bone lymphoma can be planned according to the stage and location of the disease. Although we had a relatively low number of patients, it could be concluded that whether or not radiation therapy is performed, rituximab in combination with systemic chemotherapy has been proven beneficial on survival

Autologous stem cell transplantation and stem cell mobilization kinetics in elderly patients with B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

As known, the world population is aging and as the life span increases the number of advanced-age lymphomas also shows an upward trend. Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the standard treatment modality in chemotherapy-sensitive relapsed or refractory aggressive lymphomas. Increased morbidity and mortality related to both the transplant itself and comorbid diseases can be observed in elderly lymphoma patients. Patients who are 65 years or older and underwent autologous HSCT with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma were retrospectively included in our study. In terms of survival analysis, median follow-up was 34.5 months (8–159) while the overall survival (OS) was 58%. In the univariate analysis of prognostic data in OS, patients who were referred to transplantation with complete response had a statistically significant survival advantage (p = 0.043). In terms of the effect of pre-transplant conditioning regimens on survival, BEAM regimen yielded better results, though not statistically significant. Age, number of chemotherapy cycles received before mobilization and radiation therapy had no significant effect on the CD34 (+) cell count in the final product (p = 0.492, 0.746 and 0.078 respectively). In conclusion, autologous HSCT is a practicable treatment modality that provides survival advantage in suitable advanced-age patients with a diagnosis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. © 2017 Elsevier Lt