Minimal breast carcinoma.

Fifty-three patients with intraductal and microinvasive carcinoma of the breast were analyzed. Comparison of two groups of patients, one treated before 1969 and the other since, revealed a decrease in the mean age from 50 to 44 years, an increase in the annual rate from 0.6 to 5.0 percent and an increase in bilateral disease from 0 to 40 percent. The study also showed that patients with microinvasive disease (invasion up to 0.5 cm) had the same excellent prognosis as those with intraductal cancer. The results of this study suggest that (1) simultaneous random mirror-image biopsies of the contralateral breast should be performed with intraductal cancer of the breast, and (2) total mastectomy with lymph node sampling is the maximal treatment necessary in both intraductal and microinvasive cancer of the breast.

[Purification and assay of chicken pepsin]. / Purificación y actividad de la pepsina de pollo.

The proteolitic enzyme pepsin (EC 3.4.23.1) was purified from chicken stomach by a modification of the method of Bohak (1970): after homogenazing the raw material, the zymogen was extracted with NaCl and NaHCO3, activated with 3N HCl and precipitated with NaCl (28% final concentration). The precipitate was lyophilised; fractions of it were suspended in 0.02N HCl. The solution was filtered through a column (2.6 x 80 cm) of Sephadex G-100 at an elution rate of 8-10 ml x cm-2 x h-1. Two protein peaks were obtained, the first one corresponding to the pepsin (2.0 mg/ml in pooled fractions). The milk clotting activity of the enzyme was determined on skimmed milk as a substrate (Berridge, 1955). Its proteolitic activity on the artificial substrate N-acetyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-3, 5-diiodo tyrosin (APD) also was determined (Rick-Fritsch, 1974). Mean clotting activity value was 5.52 UC, higher (P < 0.01) than that of the reference chymosin (0.64 UC). The activity with APD was unsatisfactory, due to very high absorbance values of the blanks. It is concluded, that the purification steps followed in this trial are simple and rapid, conferring a strong stimulus to using chicken pepsin as a clotting agent for the industrial production of pasteurized white cheese.

The use of intravenous phenylalanine mustard followed by supervoltage irradiation in the treatment of carcinoma of the ovary.

Between 1970 and 1980, 50 patients with carcinoma of the ovary were treated sequentially with six courses of IV phenylalanine mustard (L-PAM), second look surgery, and radiotherapy using the strip technique. Seven patients had advanced Stage I disease and six patients had Stage II disease; all of these patients are alive and well with no evidence of disease (NED) with a mean survival of five years. Thirty-seven patients had Stage III disease: ten of these patients did not respond to L-PAM (26%); 17 patients had a partial response (48%), and four of these (22%) are alive with NED and a mean survival of five years; ten patients (26%) had a complete response to L-PAM and all are alive and well with a mean survival of five years. The presence of a minimal tumor burden after the initial surgery, a mixed histology, a low-grade differentiation, suppression of leukocyte count to below 2000/mm3 after the first course of chemotherapy, and a complete response to L-PAM, were all factors that contributed to the probability of a long-term survival. Tumors responding to L-PAM and then recurring also responded to a combination of cisplatin and adriamycin, and hexamethylmelamine.

Factores tróficos en neuronas dopaminérgicas mesencefálicas / Trophic factors in mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons

Desde su descubrimiento, se ha postulado, y en algunos casos comprobado, que los factores tróficos juegan un papel importante en el desarrollo, mantenimiento y regeneración del sistema nervioso. El conocimiento y la manipulación de estas sustancias ha servido para: a) formular nuevas teorías acerca de la etiología de varios desórdenes neurodegenerativos y b) desarrollar nuevas alternativas terapéuticas para estas entidades. En la presente revisión, resumimos los principales efectos de diferentes factores tróficos sobre las neuronas dopaminérgicas de la substantia nigra en desarrollo, cuya degeneración en el adulto ocasiona la mayoría de los síntomas observados en la enfermedad de Parkinson

Rabdomiosarcoma embrionario en region paratesticular: reporte de un caso / Paratesticular embrionary rhabdomyosarcoma: a case

Se describe un caso de Rabdomiosarcoma Embrionario Paratestícular en un niño de 3 años y medio de edad en la Policlínica de Ecopetrol, Barrancabermeja, practicándosele Orquidectomía total y Quimioterapia, Se hace revisión de esta entidad