Role of autologous blood transfusion in sacral tumor resection: patient selection and recovery after surgery and blood donation.

We carried out sacral en-bloc resection in six patients (three with chordoma; one with pheochromocytoma; one with malignant schwannoma; and one with giant cell tumor) using preoperatively collected autologous blood, to avoid homologous blood transfusion. An average of 3200 ml was collected preoperatively, with patients receiving recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO), at a total dose of 130 000 units on average. In four patients, we were able to accomplish the surgery without homologous blood transfusion. Postoperatively, the hemoglobin level in these four patients recovered to the pre-collective level in 4.5 weeks, on average. These clinical results indicate that en-bloc sacrectomy, which requires a large volume of blood transfusion, can be accomplished with preoperatively collected autologous blood alone.

[A model for sensitivity determination of anticancer agents against chemical-induced colon cancer in rats].

Chemically-induced colon cancer was used to test the sensitivity of tumors to chemotherapeutic agents. Thirty-four Sprague-Dawley rats received dimethylhydrazine (40 mg/kg) s.c. once weekly for 10 weeks to induce colon cancer. Twenty weeks after beginning the carcinogen treatment, a barium enema was performed to determine the size of colon tumors. The animals were divided into CDDP group and CPT-11 group, in which the maximum tolerable dose of each drug was given. After 5 weeks of treatment, the barium enema was repeated. "Response" was assessed on the basis of tumor doubling time. Response rates in the CDDP and CPT-11 groups were 6% and 35%, respectively. This reflects the clinical data of those drugs and confirms the results of our previous study. The present study may be a predictive model for screening anticancer drugs for human colorectal malignancy.