Bevacizumab alleviates radiation-induced brain necrosis: A report of four cases.

To analyze the therapeutic effect of bevacizumab on radiation-induced brain necrosis. Four radiation-induced brain necrosis patients, administered with bevacizumab at a dose of 7.5 mg/kg every 3 weeks, 2 times. One case of brain metastasis of lung cancer and one case of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with brain necrosis after radiotherapy. However, their physical signs disappeared after the treatment with bevacizumab. One case of brainstem lesion and one case of brain glioma patient showed a transient improvement in signs and symptoms after treatment with bevacizumab. Bevacizumab can significantly alleviate the radiation-induced brain edema, and can improve the symptoms successively.

Complete genome sequences of the SARS-CoV: the BJ Group (Isolates BJ01-BJ04).

Beijing has been one of the epicenters attacked most severely by the SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus) since the first patient was diagnosed in one of the city's hospitals. We now report complete genome sequences of the BJ Group, including four isolates (Isolates BJ01, BJ02, BJ03, and BJ04) of the SARS-CoV. It is remarkable that all members of the BJ Group share a common haplotype, consisting of seven loci that differentiate the group from other isolates published to date. Among 42 substitutions uniquely identified from the BJ group, 32 are non-synonymous changes at the amino acid level. Rooted phylogenetic trees, proposed on the basis of haplotypes and other sequence variations of SARS-CoV isolates from Canada, USA, Singapore, and China, gave rise to different paradigms but positioned the BJ Group, together with the newly discovered GD01 (GD-Ins29) in the same clade, followed by the H-U Group (from Hong Kong to USA) and the H-T Group (from Hong Kong to Toronto), leaving the SP Group (Singapore) more distant. This result appears to suggest a possible transmission path from Guangdong to Beijing/Hong Kong, then to other countries and regions.