[Experience in using hydrotherapy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at a sanatorium]. / Opyt primeneniia vodolecheniia u detei s ostrym limfoblastnym leikozom v usloviiakh sanatoriia.

34 children aged 10-15 years in long-term remission of acute lymphoblastic leukemia were on combined rehabilitation for concomitant diseases. Adjuvant balneotherapy promoted improvement in the heart rate and decreased asymmetry of circulation. No side effects were registered.

[Use of intra-arterial chemotherapy in the treatment of malignant tumors in children]. / Primenenie vnutriarterial'noi khimioterapii v lechenii zlokachestvennykh opukholei u detei.

Transcatheter arterial chemotherapy has been perfected in the treatment of 66 patients with various severe malignant tumors. A total of 75 arterial cytostatic injections were made, out of them 57 were given in primary tumors and 18 in tumor metastases. The children's age ranged from 1 to 14 years. High arterial therapeutic doses in combination with extracorporeal blood purification by hemosorption in the treatment of hepatic metastases yielded 100% efficiency. Prolonged arterial chemotherapy for pulmonary metastases provided an excellent therapeutic effect. Thus, 75 arterial injections of cytostatics gave rise to 32% of complete remissions, 48% of partial remissions. There was no benefit in 20% of cases. Adverse reactions were absent.

[The role of the day hospital in providing diagnostic and therapeutic care for children with malignant tumors]. / Rol' statsionara odnogo dnia v obespechenii diagnosticheskoi i lechebnoi pomoshchi detiam so zlokachestvennymi obrazovaniiami.

The day hospital proved effective for diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cancer. It is more cost-effective and less emotionally traumatic for patients than the usual hospital.

[The rate of antipyrine metabolism in cancer patients administered specific therapy]. / Skorost' metabolizma antipirina u onkologicheskikh bol'nykh pri provedenii spetsificheskoi terapii.

Liver monooxygenase (MO) activity was evaluated in 31 children with oncological diseases. The enzyme activity was assessed by measuring the saliva half life of the test drug antipyrine. It was shown that MO activity is reduced in hepatitis, metastatic lesions of the liver, after long-term chemotherapy, combined treatment or progress of disease. Considerable individual variations in MO activity were observed even in cases of comparable pathologies during examinations. It is suggested that therapeutic response in patients with low MO liver levels could be optimized by appropriately stimulating said enzyme system prior to chemotherapy.

[Evolution of drug treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma in children]. / Evoliutsiia lekarstvennogo lecheniia rabdomiosarkom u detei.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most frequently occurring type of malignant solid tumors in children. The tumor site, aggressive growth, proneness to recurrence, metastatic spreading, and high neglect predetermine the negligible share of the surgical method in multimodality treatment of rhabdomyosarcomas. Of importance are the development and the use of different types and schemes of drug therapy which can be employed in combination with radiotherapy. Drug therapy of rhabdomyosarcomas has large practical potentialities which rise from year to year.

[The immunological cellular phenotype and the prognosis in neuroblastoma in children]. / Immunologicheskii fenotip kletok i prognoz pri neiroblastome u detei.

Ganglioside profile was evaluated in 19 samples of tumor tissue obtained from 13 surgical patients with various morphological patterns of neuroblastoma. In six of those cases, two samples from each proving most different in terms of cell maturity were selected for examination. The relative content of GD2 gangliosides was 27.0-37.6% in sympathoblastoma and as low as 5.1-14.8% in ganglioneuroblastoma. Ganglioneuroblastomas showed fairly high levels of GM1 and GD1a gangliosides which were almost completely absent in sympathoblastomas. Ganglioside profile variations seen within each tumor type were incomparable with differences in profile established between morphological patterns of neuroblastoma studied.

[Rhabdomyosarcoma in children]. / Rabdomiosarkomy u detei.

Issues in diagnosis and complex treatment of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma were studied in 198 patients with morphologically verified disease. Tumors most often developed in the genitourinary organs (36.6%), head and neck (37%) and--less frequently--on the trunk and extremities (26.4%). The diagnostic workup included instrumental methods, ultrasonography and computed tomography. All modern modalities of cancer treatment, viz. surgery, drug and radiotherapy were used in those patients. As a rule, treatment was either combined or complex. Two-year-survival rate ranged from 83% for rhabdomyosarcoma of the orbit to 50% for those of the trunk and extremities and 47% for head and neck neoplasms. Two-year survival for patients with rhabdomyosarcoma of non-genitourinary sites was 54%.

[Hepatitis B virus and the development of human embryonal tumors]. / Virus gepatita B i vozniknovenie émbrional'nykh opukholei cheloveka.

Sera from children bearing embryonal tumors and from their parents were screened for the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and its DNA by means of serology and molecular hybridization, respectively. Sera from tumor-bearing children and their parents both contain HBV or its DNA at average 5 times more frequently than the healthy donors or patients with non-oncological diseases. It is suggested that the presence of HBV or its DNA is caused not solely by infection during cure but also by vertical transmission from parents. The presence of HBV or its DNA might be treated as a risk factor increasing the development of embryonal tumors.

[Clinical significance of determining differentiation antigens of peripheral blood lymphocytes in neuroblastoma and nephroblastoma in children]. / Klinicheskoe znachenie opredeleniia differentsirovochnykh antigenov limfotsitov perifericheskoi krovi pri neiroblastome i nefroblastome u detei.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes were studied in 22 pediatric patients suffering nephroblastoma and neuroblastoma. Monoclonal antibodies were used. Failure of T-cell immunity was registered in both groups. Nephroblastoma patients revealed high levels of natural killer cells. Immunity was studied versus clinical stage, duration of disease and response. Immunocorrection modalities are discussed.

[Changes in the hemoglobin fractions of nephroblastoma patients]. / Izmeneniia gemoglobinovykh fraktsii u bol'nykh s nefroblastomoi.

Hemoglobin fractions were studied in 80 patients suffering from nephroblastoma (Wilms' tumor). 10 out of 80 children had an elevated fetal hemoglobin value, higher than 2.5%, but as there was no other evidence for a thalassemia, we could not refer these patients to delta beta-thalassemia heterozygotes. An electrophoretic study of hemolyzates showed that 4 children had a uniform "quickly-proceeding" anomalous hemoglobin fraction localized in front of HbA2 which decreased in time. In one case, this anomaly was discovered in propositus and also in his father and paternal grandmother. A child suffering from unilateral sporadic Wilms' tumor and his mother had a Negro type hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPHF). This complex of Wilms' tumor and HPHF is described for the first time. HPHF and nephroblastoma complex as a possible variant of intersticial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 11 is discussed. The diagnostic value of the study of hemoglobin fractions and the activity of enzymes (catalase, LDH-A), whose genes are localized on the short arm of chromosome 11, are also discussed. It would be useful for genetic counselling to select a group of children with high risk for nephroblastoma.

[Prognostic factors in neuroblastoma in children]. / Prognosticheskie faktory pri neiroblastome u detei.

The results of clinico-morphological studies of 152 cases of neuroblastoma are presented. Neuroblastoma should be regarded as a tumor in which the following patterns may be distinguished: sympatogonioma (2.6%), sympatoblastoma -1 (38.8%), sympatoblastoma -2 (15.2%), ganglioneuroblastomia (41.4%), and combined ganglioneuroblastoma (2%). Mean two-year survival rate was 40.2%. Such factors as patient's by the time of tumor detection, radical surgery and excision of primary neoplasm in patients with metastases were found to improve the prognosis. The two-year survival rates in sympatoblastoma -1, sympatoblastoma -2 and ganglioneuroblastoma were 19.6, 50, and 72%, respectively.

[Problems of nephroblastoma in children]. / Problemy nefroblastom u detei.

An evaluation of 388 cases of Wilms tumor within 13 years established a high proportion of advanced cases among children: stage II - 30.6; III - 35.4; IV - 27.6 and V (bilateral) - 6.4%. Main homeostatic indices remained unchanged until stages III-IV. Primary tumor and metastases can be detected by a complex of clinical, X-ray and radioisotope methods the effectiveness of which is determined by degree of tumor extension. Dissemination of tumor at different sites were detected by primary examination in 40.5% and at later stages in 15% of patients. Most metastases (96%) were detected within the first 12 months of therapy. They were significantly more frequent at stage III and their frequency was in correlation with the patient's age at the time of tumor detection. Out of 388 cases, 112 (28.9%) survived for more than 3 years, stage II - 57.1; stage III - 25.4 and stage IV - 4.6% included. 1.5 - 2 year-long courses of pre- and postoperative polychemotherapy proved to be effective, whereas in cases of stage III tumor they should be supplemented with irradiation of primary tumor, its bed, regional lymph collectors and metastases. These measures ensured a 3-year survival in 69.5% of stage II patients and in 32.3% of stage III patients.