A long-lasting, complete hematologic and cytogenetic remission of chronic myelogenous leukemia after treatment with busulfan alone

A 44-year-old man suffering from cytogenetically and molecularly proven Philadelphia translocation-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase was treated with busulfan for 18 months and studied during a follow-up period of 13 years. Hematologically and cytogenetically, he attained a continuing complete remission, although at one point (9.5 years) at least, after attaining complete remission molecular analysis indicated the presence of minimal residual disease

Drug use, impaired driving and traffic accidents.

This literature review provides a comprehensive report on the relationship between drug use, impaired driving and traffic accidents. It covers methodological issues, presents results of prevalence surveys among drivers and provides an overview of findings from major international epidemiological surveys published since 1999. The report also gathers evidence from experimental and field studies of the relationship between drug use, driving impairment and traffic accidents Table of contents • Methodological issues in determining the relationship between drug consumption, impaired driving and traffic accidents • Prevalence of drugs in drivers • Effects and risks associated with drugs • Overall conclusio

Consensus strategy to quantitate malignant cells in myeloma patients is validated in a multicenter study

Recently the Belgium-Dutch Hematology-Oncology group initiated a multicenter study to evaluate whether myeloma patients treated with intensive chemotherapy benefit from additional peripheral stem cell transplantation. To determine treatment response accurately, we decided to quantitate malignant cells. To test a consensus quantitation strategy, 5 centers independently determined the immunoglobulin heavy chain sequences of patient tumor cells and developed allele-specific oligonucleotides (ASO) and ASO-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We compared the reproducibility of real-time quantitation with quantitation using limiting dilutions. We distributed DNA samples with a 4-log range of tumor cell concentrations and found average quantitation values deviating 74% and 42% from the input values with real-time PCR (1 center) and limiting dilutions (4 centers), respectively. Within single centers we found an average variation coefficient of 0.74, with limiting dilutions not significantly different from the average 0.82 center-to-center variation coefficient. Within a single center, real-time quantitation proved more reproducible (average variation coefficient, 0.36). Quantification was confirmed in 3 patients during treatment in the protocol. This report shows that real-time PCR or limiting dilution assays can be used for quantitation in a single multicenter trial. We present a consensus strategy that allows an accurate comparison of quantitation data generat