Treatment of advanced seminoma with cyclophosphamide, vincristine and carboplatin on an outpatient basis.

This study describes the efficacy and toxicity of a combination regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide, vincristine (oncovin) and carboplatin (COC) for advanced seminoma on an outpatient basis. Twenty-seven patients (mean age 43 years, range 28-63 years) were classified as stage IIC (n = 5), stage IID (n = 12), stage III (n = 9) or stage IV (n = 1). Six had been treated with prior radiotherapy; elevated beta-HCG and elevated LDH serum levels were observed in 15 and 25 patients respectively. Patients were treated with four cycles of 750 mg m-2 cyclophosphamide intravenously (i.v.), 1.4 mg m-2 vincristine i.v. (maximum 2 mg) and carboplatin adjusted to creatinine clearance. Cycles were given at 3 week intervals. The median dose of carboplatin administered was 400 mg m-2 (range 300-450 mg m-2). Six patients [22%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 6-38%] achieved a complete response (CR), 19 (70%; 95% CI, 51-88%) a partial response and two (8%; 95% CI, 0 18%) showed only a response in tumour markers but not a reduction of retroperitoneal mass (NR). Post-chemotherapeutic masses were not removed surgically or irradiated. After a median follow-up of 26 months (range 5-69 months), two patients have died, one from cardiac arrest 2 years after achieving CR, the other with relapsed seminoma 5 months after therapy. None of the other patients relapsed. Main toxicity was haematological, with 22 patients (81%) experiencing thrombocytopenia WHO grade III/IV and 27 (100%) leucocytopenia WHO grade III/IV, requiring dose reduction in five patients. Seven patients experienced granulocytopenic fever. Non-haematological toxicity was rare. Peripheral neuropathy grade I was observed in four patients and grade III in one. Haemorrhagic cystitis occurred once. In conclusion, despite considerable haematological toxicity, COC is feasible on an outpatient basis, even after prior radiotherapy, and is an effective regimen for advanced seminoma with only 1/27 treatment failures after a median follow-up of 26 months

Limitations of the nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction on tyrosinase for the detection of malignant melanoma micrometastases in lymph nodes

The specificity and sensitivity of the nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on tyrosinase was studied, for the detection of micrometastases of malignant melanoma. The specificity was assessed in the blood of six healthy donors, four patients with non-melanoma cancers of which one patient was treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. Lymph nodes of nine patients without malignant melanoma were tested and four cell lines of various other tumours. Six of the nine non-melanoma lymph nodes were positive in this assay. The sensitivity was tested in a spike experiment in vitro, using a melanoma cell line. The detection limit was ten melanoma cells per 107peripheral blood lymphocytes. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

"The dearest of our possessions": applying Floridi's information privacy concept in models of information behavior and information literacy

This conceptual paper argues for the value of an approach to privacy in the digital information environment informed by Luciano Floridi's philosophy of information and information ethics. This approach involves achieving informational privacy, through the features of anonymity and obscurity, through an optimal balance of ontological frictions. This approach may be used to modify models for information behavior and for information literacy, giving them a fuller and more effective coverage of privacy issues in the infosphere. For information behavior, the Information Seeking and Communication Model, and the Information Grounds conception, are most appropriate for this purpose. For information literacy, the metaliteracy model, using a modification a privacy literacy framework, is most suitable

1.5 Decades Later: Bearing fruits from the ACR/EULAR exchange Program

Imaging Science & TechnologyApplied Science

Subharmonic Shapiro steps and assisted tunneling in superconducting point contacts

We analyze the current in a superconducting point contact of arbitrary transmission in the presence of a microwave radiation. The interplay between the ac Josephson current and the microwave signal gives rise to Shapiro steps at voltages V = (m/n) \hbar \omega_r/2e, where n,m are integer numbers and \omega_r is the radiation frequency. The subharmonic steps (n different from 1) are a consequence of the ocurrence of multiple Andreev reflections (MAR) and provide an unambiguous signature of the peculiar ac Josephson effect at high transmission. Moreover, the dc current exhibits a rich subgap structure due to photon-assisted MARs.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, 4 figure