[Insulinoma presenting as pseudo-drug-resistant focal epilepsy]. / Un insulinome se présentant comme une épilepsie focale pharmacorésistante.

INTRODUCTION: We describe a case of insulinoma presenting as a refractory frontal lobe epilepsy in a 44-year-old man with a history of severe head trauma. CASE REPORT: Despite escalating treatment, his seizure frequency worsened during the previous year. He also developed psychomotor slowing and sweating occurring early in the morning. He gained weight. Insulinoma was diagnosed based on the presence of episodes of hypoglycemia, abnormal insulin/blood glucose ratio and a tumor in the pancreas (echo-ultrasound). After partial pancreatectomy, the patient became seizure free and anti-epileptic drugs were progressively stopped, with a follow-up of five years. CONCLUSION: Insulinoma should be considered in patients with no reason for having drug-resistant epilepsy, especially when seizures occur early in the morning or when episodes of neuropsychiatric symptoms with sweating are present.

[Psychosocial distress and communication about cancer in ill partners and their spouses]. / Détresse psychosociale et communication à propos du cancer chez le partenaire malade et son conjoint.

INTRODUCTION: Each cancer can have a psychological impact not only on the patient himself/herself, but also on his/her spouse. OBJECTIVE: Our study concerned 30 couples encompassing a member treated for a cancer, non related to gender. It was aimed at determining the links between the levels of psychosocial distress measured in both members of each couple, patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, as well as communication skills about cancer in both members of the couples. METHODS: Psychosocial distress and communication about cancer were measured by the general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the openness to discuss cancer in the nuclear family (ODCF), with an additional version adapted for the spouse on the occasion of this study. RESULTS: A positive correlation was found between the respective scores of the two members of the couples, for the GHQ-28 (r=0.53; p=0.005) as well as for the ODCF (r=0.44; p=0.024). GHQ-28 scores were not associated with the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, nor with the stage of cancer, the number of months elapsed since the diagnosis of cancer, or the ODCF personal or spouse's score. On the other hand, when the communication within each couple was classified into concordant (insufficient or, on the contrary, open for both members) or discordant (insufficient for one of the two members and open for the other), and after controlling for gender, higher levels of psychosocial distress were found in patients (p=0.038) as well in spouses (p=0.052) belonging to discordant compared with concordant couples. CONCLUSION: These results suggest an effect of contamination or a mutual reinforcement of the distress of each member of such couples, as well as the presence of relatively similar styles of communication in the two partners of each couple. They also underline the possible adaptive function of a restricted style of communication about cancer, if such a restriction is shared by both the members of the couple, and incites particular attention to be paid to couples where one of the partners, but not the other, adopt an open style of communication about cancer.

[Influence of the communication about one parent's cancer on children's suffering]. / Influence de la communication à propos du cancer d'un parent sur la souffrance des enfants.

INTRODUCTION: Factors contributing to children's distress when a parent is affected with a cancer are still insufficiently known. This study aimed at searching for associations between psychosocial distress in children living with a parent suffering from cancer, the severity of parental cancer, the levels of psychosocial distress in both parents and the openness to discuss cancer in the family. METHODS: Thirty families encompassing a parent treated for cancer and 54 children aged four to 16 were examined. Each parent's psychosocial distress was assessed by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the distress of the children living within the family by the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) filled out by both parents. Each parent's communication ability about cancer was assessed by the Openness to Discuss Cancer in the nuclear Family questionnaire (ODCF). RESULTS: No association was found between children's distress and objective cancer characteristics. Higher externalized disorders scores at CBCL (aggression) were found when the ill parent was the mother (P=0.018). After controlling for cancer parent's gender, CBCL total score and internalized disorders (anxiety, depression) score were higher in families characterized by an "open" style of communication, defined on the parental couple as a whole (respectively p=0.007 and 0.024), such an effect being present only when the ill parent was the mother (interaction effect: p<0.001). CONCLUSION: These results underline the importance of family characteristics for understanding the suffering observed in children living with a parent affected with a cancer in comparison with objective cancer characteristics.

Prostate-specific antigen doubling time before onset of chemotherapy as a predictor of survival for hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the possible use of prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSA-DT) before chemotherapy initiation as a surrogate marker of survival in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from 250 consecutive metastatic HRPC patients treated with chemotherapy between February 2000 and November 2006 were retrospectively analysed. At least three PSA assays were required within 3 months before chemotherapy. PSA-DT was calculated as ln 2 divided by the slope of the log PSA line, and the difference between two log PSA levels was divided by the time interval. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Survival rates according to PSA-DT were stratified on chemotherapy regimen. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to isolate the impact of PSA-DT on OS, controlling for associate prognostic covariates. RESULTS: Patients received docetaxel- (82%) or mitoxantrone-based chemotherapy. The median PSA-DT was 45 days (range 4.7-1108 days). There were 174 deaths (70%). The median survival was 16.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI] = 12.5-20.5) and 26.4 months (95% CI = 20.3-32.4) for patients with a PSA-DT < 45 and > or =45 days, respectively. In the multivariate setting, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) was 1.39 (95% CI = 1.03-1.89; P = 0.04), stratified by chemotherapy regimen. CONCLUSION: A short PSA-DT before onset of chemotherapy in HRPC patients was associated with an increased risk of death. This could be useful as a stratification parameter in trials with new drugs in a metastatic setting.

Enzyme immunoassay of progesterone at the picogram level using beta-galactosidase as label.

We report here the first sensitive enzyme immunoassay of a hapten. A progesterone beta galactosidase conjugate was prepared using carbodiimide as a bifunctional reagent. Rabbit progesterone antisera were previously obtained. The separation of the bound from the free fraction of the label was performed with the help of polymerized anti rabbit gamma-globulins. The enzyme activity of the bound fraction was determined with O-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactoside as substrate. Specificity and sensitivity (approximately 15 pg) of this enzyme immunoassay can be successfully compared with radioimmunoassay performances. It thus provides a non radioactive, inexpensive and reliable method of small molecule quantitation.

Hodgkin's disease in childhood and adolescence: results of chemotherapy-radiotherapy in clinical stages IA-IIB.

From April 1972 to May 1980, 72 children and adolescents (aged 5 to 19 years old, median 16) with Hodgkin's disease, clinical stages IA-IIB (IA, 18; II2A, two areas involved on the same side of the diaphragm, 23; II3+A, three areas or more, 16; IIB, 15) were prospectively treated in two successive clinical trials (H 72 and H 77). Clinical stages IA and II2A received three courses of mechlorethamine, Oncovin, procarbazine, and prednisone (MOPP) and supradiaphragmatic radiotherapy (40 Gy), and no laparotomy was performed. Clinical stages II3+A and IIB received either six cycles of MOPP (H 72), three cycles of MOPP, or three cycles of CCNU, vinblastine, procarbazine, and prednisone (CVPP) (H 77) and subsequently had a laparotomy followed by supradiaphragmatic radiotherapy and a lumboaortic field if results of laparotomy were positive. Patients without evidence of mediastinal involvement did not have mediastinal radiotherapy. At the completion of therapy, the disease in 70 of 72 patients was in complete remission (one failure, one death during treatment). Eight patients relapsed (in situ, 1; marginal, 1; nonirradiated subdiaphragmatic area, 6) after three to 57 months of complete remission (median 20 months); one patient died after relapse. There were three deaths after complete remission of the disease (infection, two; acute nonlymphocytic leukemia [ANLL], one). As of June 1984 the median follow-up was 82 months (range, 49 to 145 months), the actuarial probabilities for survival and freedom from relapse for all patients being 91.6% and 87.6%, respectively. There was no statistical difference according to clinical stage, age (greater than 15 or less than 15 years), sex, or number of cycles of chemotherapy (six or three). Bone growth defects related to radiotherapy were reduced particularly in the 29 patients who did not receive mediastinal radiotherapy. None of these patients had a mediastinal relapse. Azoospermia was the rule for the male patients studied, but young girls and young women retained reproductive integrity.

Increased risk of secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia after extended-field radiation therapy combined with MOPP chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of the number of mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisolone (MOPP) cycles and the extent of irradiation on the risk of secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (SANLL) after a single combined treatment for Hodgkin's disease (HD). Between April 1972 and May 1980, 462 patients with HD clinical stage (CS) I, II, and III were prospectively treated with three or six cycles of MOPP and supra- and/or infradiaphragmatic irradiation (40 Gy). Four hundred forty-one patients achieved complete remission (CR). By January 1988, 237 patients had been followed-up in first CR for at least 10 years. Ten patients developed SANLL between the 34th and 123rd month of CR. The 15-year SANLL risk is 3.5% +/- 2.7%. Cox's stepwise regression analysis performed with all initial and treatment covariates (sex, age, histology, splenectomy, MOPP chemotherapy, and irradiation extent) showed that the only significant explanatory variable of SANLL risk was the irradiation extent (P less than .002). Using the log-rank test, SANLL risk ranged from 2.2% for supradiaphragmatic irradiation alone to 9.1% for subtotal (STNI) or total nodal irradiation (TNI) (P less than .001). These results strongly suggest that extended high-dose irradiation and MOPP chemotherapy should not be combined for the treatment of HD.

Mediastinal tumor size and response to chemotherapy are the only prognostic factors in supradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease treated by ABVD plus radiotherapy: ten-year results of the Paris-Ouest-France 81/12 trial, including 262 patients.

PURPOSE: To identify prognostic factors in 262 patients with supradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease (HD), clinical stages (CS) I and II, prospectively treated between 1981 and 1988 according to the Paris-Ouest-France (POF) 81/12 protocol by three 1-month cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine plus methylprednisone (ABVD-MP) followed by subtotal nodal irradiation (RT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The size of mediastinal tumor (MT) was measured in all patients: 66 did not have MT (NoMT); 105 had a small-size MT (SSMT), ie, mediastinal mass ratio (MMR) less than 0.33; 58 had a medium-size MT (MSMT), ie, MMR > or = 0.33 and less than 0.45; and 33 had a bulky MT (BuMT), ie, MMR > or = 0.45. All patients received three cycles (CS IA, one cycle only) of ABVD-MP; patients in partial remission (PR) or complete remission (CR) after chemotherapy (CT) received supradiaphragmatic RT (involved fields, 40 Gy; adjacent fields, 30 Gy) plus lumboaortic and splenic RT (30 Gy); patients not in CR or PR after CT received salvage CT. RESULTS: Two hundred seventeen patients (82.8%) entered CR after CT and 258 (98.5%) after RT. Ten-year freedom-from-progression (FFP) and survival rateswere 88.6% and 89.4%, respectively. According to univariate analysis, MT size and post-CT status were the only factors to influence both FFP and survival. For patients with NoMT or SSMT, those with MSMT, and those with BuMT, FFP rates were 94.1%, 87.0%, and 63.0% (P < .001), respectively, while corresponding survival rates were 92.6%, 87.2%, and 78.2% (P < .05). FFP rates were significantly different between the patients who achieved CR and those who did not achieve CR after CT: 94.6% versus 65.3% (P < .001); corresponding survival rates were 89.9% and 73.7% (P < .01). Multivariate analysis confirmed that MT size and post-CT status were the only two prognostic factors for FFP; for survival, the same two characteristics, as well as age (< 40 v > or = 40 years), significantly affected prognosis. We were thus able to identify three groups. The 33 patients (12.6%) with a BuMT had 10-year FFP and survival rates of 63.0% and 78.2%, respectively. Of 229 patients without BuMT, the 195 who attained CR after CT had an optimal prognosis (FFP, 96.6%; survival, 93.6%), while those who failed to achieve CR after CT had an intermediate prognosis (FFP, 68.8%; survival, 77.6%). CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the independent impact on HD prognosis of tumor burden and post-CT status.

Outpatient treatment with subcutaneous interleukin-2 and interferon alfa administration in combination with fluorouracil in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: results of a sequential nonrandomized phase II study. Subcutaneous Administration Propeukin Program Cooperative Group.

PURPOSE: We report the results of the Subcutaneous Administration Propeukin Program (SCAPP) II trial of an outpatient treatment in renal cell carcinoma using interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon alfa-2a (IFN-alpha) administered subcutaneously in combination with fluorouracil (5-FU). The objective of this multicenter trial was to confirm that the combination of IL-2, IFN-alpha, and 5-FU leads to a response rate greater than 20%. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma were included in this study. During the induction phase of the treatment, which lasted 10 weeks, IL-2 and IFN-alpha were administered subcutaneously three times a week for 8 weeks at doses of 18 MIU and 9 MIU, respectively. During these 8 weeks, every Monday, 5-FU was administered at a dose of 750 mg by intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. After evaluation, responding patients or patients with stable disease (SD) were given maintenance treatment, until disease progression (PD) or the appearance of unacceptable toxicity. Each maintenance cycle consisted of a 2-week treatment followed by a three-week rest period. During treatment, IL-2 and IFN-alpha were administered subcutaneously three times a week at doses of 18 MIU and 9 MIU, respectively. Every Monday, 5-FU was administered at a dose of 750 mg by intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. RESULTS: This trial was closed when the sixth sequential analysis showed the lack of benefit from this combination. At the end of the induction period, of 62 patients, 12 (19%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 10% to 31%) reached an objective response, including one complete response (CR), 16 presented with SD, and 27 showed PD. Twenty-seven patients (43%) developed severe toxicity that required reduction of the planned doses (13 patients), delayed treatment (eight patients), or treatment termination (six patients). Seventeen patients were given maintenance treatment. One- and 2-year survival rates were estimated at 55% and 33%, respectively. The 2-year survival rate was 15% in 11 patients who presented with three poor-prognosis factors and 41% in 51 patients who initially presented with no, one, or two poor-prognosis factors (P = .04). CONCLUSION: As in other recently published studies that used 5-FU, IL-2, and IFN-alpha, the multicenter SCAPP II trial in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma generated severe toxicity. This sequential trial failed to confirm the favorable results previously obtained by Atzpodien and Sella with this combination of three drugs. Its efficacy, assessed on the response and survival rates, is near to the results observed in programs that used IL-2 alone given subcutaneously.

Correlation between CD4 cell counts and cellular and plasma viral load in HIV-1-seropositive individuals.

We conducted a study of 152 HIV-1-seropositive individuals in order to evaluate the possible correlations between the isolation of HIV from peripheral blood mononuclear cells or from plasma and CD4 cell counts. HIV was isolated from only 36% of plasma samples, and the isolation rate was closely related to CD4 cell counts, increasing gradually from 0% in subjects with greater than 800 x 10(6)/l CD4 cells to 88% in those with less than 100 x 10(6)/l CD4 cells. In contrast, HIV was isolated from 92% of cell samples (99% in subjects with less than 900 x 10(6)/l CD4 cells, 46% in those with CD4 counts greater than or equal to 900 x 10(6)/l). Since most cell samples were positive, a scoring method was designed to quantify the cellular viral load. The results obtained demonstrated that the cellular viral load was closely related to CD4 counts. We also found that the cellular viral load was higher in subjects with either positive plasma isolation or positive p24 antigenaemia. The measurement of the cellular viral load by this scoring method appears to be useful for the management of HIV-seropositive individuals and for the evaluation of therapeutic trials.

Lack of isolate-specific neutralizing activity is correlated with an increased viral burden in rapidly progressing HIV-1-infected patients.

OBJECTIVE: To delineate the interaction between in vivo HIV replication and host antiviral immunity during disease progression in order to elucidate the pathogenesis of AIDS. DESIGN: In a cohort of HIV-seropositive patients, the serum concentration of viral particles, the blood concentration of mononuclear cells harbouring infectious virus and the serum titre of isolate-specific neutralizing antibodies were correlated with the rates of CD4+ T-cell depletion and disease progression. METHODS: Using a quantitative reverse-transcriptase linked polymerase chain reaction assay, the concentration of viral particles was measured in blood samples from 103 initially symptom-free subjects who were followed up for > or = 24 months. The concentration of infectious virus and the neutralizing antibodies to autologous HIV isolates were assessed in 37 out of the 103 subjects. The rate of decrease in CD4 cells over the 24 months was calculated for each subject. RESULTS: Rapidly progressing patients (rate of decrease in CD4 cells > or = 60%) had a high concentration of viral particles and a high concentration of infectious virus associated with an undetectable serum titre of isolate-specific neutralizing antibodies. Stable patients (rate of decrease in CD4 cells < 30%) had a low concentration of infectious virus and either a low concentration of viral particles with the absence of isolate-specific neutralizing antibodies or a high concentration of viral particles with the presence of isolate-specific neutralizing antibodies. Slowly progressing patients (rate of decrease in CD4 cells > or = 30 and < 60%) showed an intermediate profile. CONCLUSIONS: Progression to AIDS is associated with a shift in the balance between viral replication and host immunity that increases the concentration of infected cells and destroys the CD4+ T-lymphocyte population.

Glucocorticoids rescue CD4+ T lymphocytes from activation-induced apoptosis triggered by HIV-1: implications for pathogenesis and therapy.

OBJECTIVE: During HIV-1 infection, CD4+ T lymphocytes migrate to immune-reactive lymphoid organs where they are infected by the virus and/or killed by apoptosis on immunoregulatory stimuli--a potential mechanism underlying fatal CD4+ T-cell depletion observed in AIDS. This study seeks to determine the effects of glucocorticoids (GCC) on the activation-induced T-cell apoptosis triggered by HIV-1. METHODS: CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were purified from HIV-negative donor peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by positive selection and exposed to HIV-1 (primary isolates). HIV-1-exposed CD4+ and CD8+ T cells as well as PBMC derived from HIV-1-infected patients were cultured with medium alone or anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies (MAb)/mitogens in the presence or absence of hydrocortisone or prednisolone. Viral infection kinetics were assessed by polymerase chain reaction and viral replication was measured by p24 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cell survival, apoptosis, T-cell proliferation, blast cell transformation, and interleukin (IL)-2 receptor (CD25) expression were monitored in parallel for each cell population. RESULTS: Fractionated CD4+ T cells acutely infected by HIV-1 underwent apoptotic death on anti-CD3 MAb/mitogen stimulation. This activation-induced apoptotic cell killing was antagonized by pharmacological doses of prednisolone or hydrocortisone added up to 6 h after stimulation. GCC were also found to be capable of inhibiting the accelerated apoptosis in PBMC (including both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell fractions) from HIV-1-infected patients. This anti-apoptotic action of GCC overbalanced their downregulatory effect on T-cell proliferation, resulting in an overall improvement of CD4+ T-cell survival in patient PBMC. These effects of GCC were abrogated by the anti-GCC RU 486 and were not associated with significant suppression of CD25 expression and IL-2-dependent T-cell blast transformation; moreover, GCC had no impact on viral infection and replication. CONCLUSION: GCC exert a receptor-mediated anti-apoptotic activity in mature T cells through both activation-induced and HIV-1-triggered pathways and could be potent inhibitors of T-cell apoptosis in HIV-1-infected patients.

Interleukin-2 therapy for refractory and relapsing lymphomas.

Recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) has been reported to be active in metastatic renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. The purpose of this trial was to determine the efficacy and toxicity of rIL-2 administered in continuous infusion in patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). 21 patients with HD (4 patients), diffuse large-cell NHL (7) or low-grade NHL (10) in failure or relapse after multiple-conventional treatments were included in this trial. rIL-2 therapy consisted of an induction period of two cycles separated by 3 weeks of rest, and, in the absence of progressive disease or undue toxicity, a maintenance period of 4 monthly cycles. Each induction cycle comprised the continuous infusion of rIL-2: 18 x 10(6) IU/m2 per day on days 1-5 and days 12-16. Each maintenance cycle comprised the continuous infusion of rIL-2: 18 x 10(6) IU/m2 per day on days 1-5. Among the 21 treated patients, 5 (all of those with low-grade NHL) responded to the induction phase (1 complete response, 4 partial responses) and 2 patients had a mixed response. Conversely, no response was observed in patients with HD or large-cell NHL. The median duration of response was 4 months. rIL-2 administered as a continuous infusion was well tolerated and most patients received the full dosage, and management did not require intensive care. During the induction period, 2 patients experienced grade III cardiovascular or renal toxicity. During the maintenance period, rIL-2 had to be interrupted in 1 patient because of a myocardial infarction. This trial confirms the inefficacy of rIL-2 for the treatment of large-cell NHL and HD. Conversely, in low-grade NHL, rIL-2 activity needs to be explored by further studies. rIL-2 may have a place in the early phase of the disease, when the immune system is not compromised, as an adjuvant treatment in residual disease in order to improve the duration of response.

Mepacrine labelling test and uranaffin cytochemical reaction in human megakaryocytes.

5-HT storage organelles were observed by electron microscope analysis in human megakaryocytes. They were less numerous per unit of surface than in platelets. Their number depended on the visualization technique employed. Thus after fixation with calcium-enriched glutaraldehyde a higher number of very opaque organelles was observed than of uranaffin-positive organelles after the cytochemical uranaffin reaction. With conventional electron microscopy deep black granules characteristic of dense bodies were not observed. Fluorescent microscopy showed greenish-yellow granules distributed throughout the whole cytoplasm in 96 +/- 1.4% of normal megakaryocytes incubated with mepacrine. In 85.6 +/- 5%, 5.28 +/- 1.28 granules per 10 microns 2 were observed. With the mepacrine labelling test, 74% of the megakaryocytes of a patient with Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome contained no granules. A similar finding was made in the platelets of the same patient. This suggests that mepacrine also stains the dense bodies in the megakaryocytes and that in the Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome the platelet anomaly is secondary to a megakaryocyte anomaly.

Lysis of CD4+ T cells expressing HIV-1 gag peptides by gag-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T cells.

The vast majority of in vitro experiments testing the cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) activity in HIV infection has been performed with target cells consisting of autologous EBV-transformed B lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCLs) expressing Human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) proteins. However data concerning the lysis of primary CD4+ T lymphocytes expressing HIV-1 antigens by CTLs is still lacking. To study the CTL activity against such primary targets, we used a system involving PBMCs of an HIV+ asymptomatic patient (PT) as effector cells and the CD4+ lymphocytes or B-LCLs of his healthy HLA-identical twin brother (HTW) as target cells. These syngeneic targets were either infected with recombinant vaccinia virus containing HIV-1 gag gene (gag-vac), or coated with HIV-1 gag peptides. We demonstrate in this study that PT CTLs (which were CD3+, CD4-, CD8+, TCRalphabeta+, TCRgammadelta-, CD56-) specifically lysed both types of syngeneic target cells expressing gag-vac; however, CD4+ T cells expressing HIV gag proteins were lysed less efficiently than B-LCLs expressing the same HIV epitopes. On the other hand, no specific lysis was detected when the target cells were uninfected or infected by wild-type vaccinia virus.

Front-line high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation for high risk Hodgkin's disease: comparison with combined-modality therapy.

This retrospective study compares high-dose therapy (HDT) with autologous stem cell transplantation and combined-modality treatment (CT) as a first-line therapy for Hodgkin's disease (HD) for patients with both a clinical stage (CS) IV and/or a mediastinal mass > or =0.45 of the thoracic diameter (MM > or =0.45) at diagnosis, and an incomplete response after the first-line chemotherapy. Data on 42 grafted patients (GP) in Nantes Hospital, France and on 108 combined-modality treated patients (CTP) from two protocols of the GOELAMS group, France (POF 81 and H90) was analyzed. Both groups were comparable except for pulmonary disease in excess in the grafted group (P = 0.01). Among GP, 95% were in complete response at the end of first-line treatment and 77% among CTP. Median follow-up was 53 months (range, 7 to 128 months) for GP and 88 months (range, 25 to 181 months) for CTP. The 5-year freedom from progression (FFP) and event-free survival (EFS) rates were better for GP (87% vs 55% for FFP: P = 0.0004 and 81% vs 51% for EFS: P = 0.0004) whereas the overall survival (OS) rates did not differ significantly (85% for GP vs 71% for CTP: P = 0.06). Similar results were obtained for the groups with a response > or =50% after initial chemotherapy: 91% vs 65% for FFP, P = 0.01; 87% vs 61% for EFS, P = 0.02; and 92% vs 77% for OS, P = 0.2; and for the groups with a response <50%: 80% vs 22% for FFP, P = 0.0003; 72% vs 13% for EFS, P = 0.0001; and 76% vs 46% for OS, P = 0.04. This study shows a better control of the disease with HDT.

Features and prognosis of chemotherapy-treated Hodgkin's disease with initial bone marrow involvement.

The features and prognosis of Hodgkin's disease with bone marrow involvement were studied in a series of 53 patients. This form of the disease is characterized by the high incidence of clinical and biological signs reflecting disease activity, common cytopenia (which is rare in other forms), an increased incidence of the lymphocyte depletion histologic type, and extensive lymphoid involvement, often with splenomegaly. In bone marrow biopsy specimens, Sternberg-Reed cells are found in 80% of cases and fibrosis is common, though it always disappears if remission is achieved. Chemotherapy, essentially with the MOPP combination, produced an 82% remission rate with 44% complete remission (CR). Hematologic toxicity was relatively severe in patients with marrow fibrosis. Recurrence occurred in 14 of the 39 remissions and was either localized and successfully treated by complementary radiotherapy, or diffuse and beyond any form of therapy. In nine cases, the first sign of recurrence was observed in the lymph node group initially most affected. Among the 18 patients treated by reinduction chemotherapy, four recurrences were observed. However, there was only one recurrence among the 12 patients who achieved CR and none among those who had received complementary radiotherapy. The long-term prognosis is similar to that of other visceral forms, and if CR is achieved the chance of maintaining the remission is 83% after the first year, with a follow-up exceeding 6 years.

Comparison of Epstein-Barr virus markers in Reed-Sternberg cells in adult Hodgkin's disease tissues from an industrialized and a developing country.

The link between Hodgkin's disease (HD) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is well documented in childhood and here the same hypothesis has been examined in adults, by comparing cases from an industrialized and a developing country. In this study the prevalence of EBV markers in nodal lesions of adult HD were compared in 21 patients from France (Fr) and 25 from Algeria (Al), all clinically staged during 1990-1992. Median age was 29 years. Histologic subtypes included lymphocytic predominance (LP) Fr 1; nodular sclerosis (NS) Fr 16, Al 16; mixed cellularity (MC) Fr 4, Al 9. EBV markers examined included expression of latent membrane protein (LMP) in Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells (RSC) by immunochemistry; EBV-DNA and -RNA in situ hybridization (ISH); EBV-DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results showed that RSC were LMP-positive in 4 (2 NS, 2 MC) French and 7 (3 NS, 4 MC) Algerian. All LMP+ cases were also positive for EBV DNA-RNA ISH. ISH was positive in RSC of 33% of the French and 72% of Algerian patients (p < 0.02). The positivity was more frequent in MC (77%) than in other histologic types (45%). The EBV genome was detected by PCR on DNA extracted from frozen samples in 84% of Fr and 95% of Al patients (100% of MC and 86% of other histologic types). Conclusion. The discrepancy between PCR and ISH results may be due to the lesser sensitivity of the ISH technique, or, alternatively, to the presence of EBV in the lymphoid cells surrounding RSC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)