Paraneoplastic syndromes.

A given cancer is a disease which combines a paraneoplastic syndrome with an invasive tumour capable of giving rise to metastases. Surgeons, radiotherapists, medical oncologists and experimental scientists are primarily interested in the tumour. Tumours of tissues and organs which do not normally produce hormones might, during the neoplastic transformation, begin to secrete hormones or substances able to mimic hormones in their effects on other tissues in the organism. The number of known hormones has increased considerably in the last 20 years. It has been found that even in the absence of clinical signs there are often secretory abnormalities and changes in the hormone balance in cancer. The tumour-paraneoplastic syndrome interaction is bidirectional. That paraneoplastic syndromes are dependent upon the tumour, is universally accepted; the reverse, that the tumour might depend on the paraneoplastic syndrome is not part of the current way of thinking. To treat cancer patients, instead of debating the cause and effect in the tumour-paraneoplastic syndrome pair with the classical idea of acting as close to the cause as possible, it seems better, in all circumstances, to treat both the tumour and the paraneoplastic syndrome, even if only subclinical.

Tissue distribution of 131I radiolabeled transferrin in the athymic nude mouse: localization of a human colon adenocarcinoma HT-29 xenograft.

The tissue distribution of 131I-transferrin (131I-Tf) was studied in athymic nude mice having s.c. human colonic adenocarcinoma HT-29 xenografts. Four days after 131I-Tf injection, the 131I-specific activity measured in the HT-29 tumor, i.e. amount of radioactivity per gram of fresh tissue, represented 0.31 +/- 0.09% of the injected radioactivity and was 1.90 fold more than that measured in the murine colon (P less than 0.05). After correction for intravascular 131I-Tf as estimated by means of 99mTc-Sn in vivo labeling of red blood cells, the 131I specific activity observed in the HT-29 tumor was 7.21 fold more than that observed in the murine colon. This subtracting method enabled us to localize a HT-29 tumor xenograft by gamma scintigraphy of the entire animal and demonstrated that 131I-Tf could be a non-specific but potent marker for human colon cancer.

Elbow joint salvage with the transverse rectus island flap: a new application.

The transverse rectus island flap has gained wide acceptance in breast reconstruction. We introduce its use in reconstruction of extensive wounds of the elbow region. Three cases are presented. Its principal advantages over other methods are size, pedicle length, reliability, acceptable donor defect, and potential prevention of elbow and shoulder stiffness. Its disadvantages are bulk, weight, and required staged procedures.

HIV induced neuroendocrine alterations in AIDS patients as a co-factor of immune deficiency.

HIV may induce subclinical neuroendocrine dysfunctions in some seropositive patients and these dysfunctions may be one of the co-factors that determine the pathogenesis of AIDS.

Mercury-induced autoimmune glomerulonephritis: requirement for T-cells.

Mercury-induced autoimmunity in Brown-Norway rats has been shown previously to be due to polyclonal activation of B lymphocytes, requiring the presence of T lymphocytes. Autoimmunity in that strain is characterised by the appearance of an autoimmune glomerulonephritis, by the production of a host of autoantibodies, and by an increase in total serum IgE. In the present study, T-cell deprived rats were tested to assess the role of T cells in the appearance of autoimmune abnormalities in vivo. It will be shown that both BN rnu/rnu and BN 'B' rats, who have virtually no T cells, do not develop autoimmunity following HgCl2 injections. In contrast BN 'B' rats reconstituted with normal T cells, and BN rnu/+ rats, exhibit autoimmune manifestations, including autoimmune glomerulonephritis, quite similar to those observed in Brown-Norway rats. These data demonstrate that T cells are essential for mercury-induced autoimmunity to occur in Brown-Norway rats.

Scapular free-flap dissection made easier.

An improved technique for the dissection of the scapular free flap is presented. It includes identification of the triangular space by palpation and delivery and deep dissection of the proximal flap pedicle by means of a counterincision in the axilla. This technique allows for a rapid, safe, and easy dissection of the transverse scapular flap.

[French oncology: a spatiotemporal general view from a special observation point, the Year Books of Cancer]. / La cancérologie francaise: vue d'ensemble spatiotemporelle d'un observatoire particulier, les Year Book of Cancer.

The Year Book(s) of Cancer were analyzed to count selected French articles within the 1965-1982 period. A comparison between two periods: 1966-1976 and 1978-1982 shows an increase in French production from 2.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent. Strong sectors are breast, female genital tract, leukemia and lymphoma, radiotherapy, immunology and immunotherapy. This increase in number of selected papers is mostly due to articles published in biomedical French journals in which French language is prevalent. The place of provincial institutions changed from 1/4 in 1965-1976 to 1/2 in 1978-1982. With the same method of analysis, cancerology seems more developed in France than cardiology or endocrinology. This statistic suggests the necessary endeavours to further regularly improve the situation.

Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and natural killing in nude rats: quantitative study according to age and sex.

Rats bearing the rnu mutation were used to study the influence of the thymus on killer (K) and natural killer (NK) cytotoxic activities. Both functions developed to a comparable level in 3-month old homozygote rnu/rnu athymic rats and their normal rnu/+ littermates. In old rats, cytotoxic activities did not decrease, except in the case of female rnu/rnu rats. K and NK cytotoxic activities are thus able to develop normally in the absence of thymic influence. Moreover, nude rats will be useful as a source of potent effector cells for studying both the cellular functions themselves and the antibodies involved in K-cell activity.

Selective increased tissue histamine levels in tumour-bearing rodents.

Histamine levels increased in the fundus of mice bearing a primary 3-methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcoma, and in the ventral skin, skeletal muscle and rumen of rats bearing a D.M.B.A. induced mammary adenocarcinoma; they did not increase in the tissues of mice bearing a McC3-1 fibrosarcoma (38th passage) or a Lewis lung carcinoma before the appearance of metastasis, but an increase in histamine levels was observed in dorsal skin, ventral skin and fundus, after the appearance of metastasis.

Intratumoral BCG and Corynebacterium parvum therapy of canine mammary tumours before radical mastectomy.

In two parallel studies, bitches with mammary tumour received single intralesional injections of BCG (1 mg: 10(7) living bacteria) and Corybacterium parvum (10(9) killed bacteria) (53 bitches) or C. parvum alone (129 bitches) at the same dosage. Control groups received injections, following the same protocol, of 1 ml BCG suspension medium diluted in saline in the first study (51 bitches) or no injections at all (120 bitches in the second study). A block dissection, including mammary tumours, adjacent mammary glands, and regional lymph nodes, was performed 2 weeks later in all animals. On the basis of histologically confirmed malignant tumours, 48 bitches (25 treated by-immunotherapy and 23 controls) in the first study and 67 bitches (30 treated by immunotherapy and 37 controls) in the second study remained for postsurgical follow-up. The clinical tolerance of the treatment was generally good. No significant differences were found in cumulative survival rates between treated and control group in either studies.

Ewing's sarcoma: transplantation in nude rat.

Eight Ewing's sarcoma, primary tumor or metastasis, have been transplanted in Nude Rats. These tumors grow slowly and only in female rats. One of them has been maintained for 13 months with 5 passages. It has conserved all the characteristics of the primary tumor, histologic and ultramicroscopic morphology, glycogen secretion and cytogenetic modification (11.22 translocation). The graft of Ewing's sarcoma to Nu/Nu rats is a valuable system to get more material in good condition to study the nature and the origin of Ewing's cells, to test the new chemotherapy trials and to prepare and test the monoclonal antibodies.

A monoclonal antibody with anti-Burkitt lymphoma specificity. I. Analysis of human haematopoietic and lymphoid cell lines.

38-13 is a hybridoma-produced monoclonal rat IgM which appears to define a Burkitt's lymphoma-associated antigen (BLA). In this paper, we described the reactivity of 38-13 with a panel of human haematopoietic and lymphoid cell lines. In indirect immunofluorescence (IF) assays, 15 of 26 Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) lines studied were clearly stained with 38-13 (from 13 to 100% positive cells) by microscope, with varying numbers of heavily labelled cells. In these positive cell lines, fluorescence-activated cell-sorter (FACS) analysis demonstrated that BLA was actually present on all the cells. Positive BL included Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome-carrying lines and EBV-negative ones; thus, BLA is not related to the presence of EBV. Most of the 15 BL cells that reacted with 38-13 contained a typical t(8;14) translocation, but had variant translocations such as t(2;8) and t(8;22). The cells were derived from BL patients of different geographical origins and clinical features. Four BL lines were poorly stained and seven were negative with 38-13 in IF assays. The 32 EBV-positive lymphoblastoid cell-lines (LCL) studied were negative. In three line pairs, consisting of a tumor line and an LCL from the same patient, only the BL line was demonstrated to react with 38-13. A series of non-BL cells, including haematopoietic, lymphoid and solid tumor lines, all failed to react with 38-13. Various attempts to modulate the expression of BLA on BL cells were unsuccessful. However, it cannot be ruled out that BLA is actually a transient B-cell differentiation marker.

Identification of cDNA clones coding for rat tyrosine hydroxylase antigen.

Five recombinant DNA plasmids have been constructed that contain structural gene sequences for rat tyrosine hydroxylase [TyrOHase; tyrosine 3-monooxygenase; L-tyrosine, tetrahydropteridine:oxygen oxidoreductase (3-hydroxylating), EC 1.14.16.2]. Rat pheochromocytoma PC 12 cell line, which contains relatively high levels of catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes, was used to purify RNA. TyrOHase cDNA clones were identified by screening 350 cDNA clones constructed from partially purified TyrOHase mRNA. A rapid and powerful screening of the recombinant clones by differential colony hybridization was possible because TyrOHase is a tissue-specific protein. The final selection relied on the ability of cDNA inserts to hybridize specifically to TyrOHase mRNA as judged by cell-free translation and immunoprecipitation. Blot hybridization analysis of polyadenylylated RNA from PC 12 cells indicated a major mRNA species of 1.9 kilobases. A species of the same size was identified from a human pheochromocytoma tumor, indicating a crossreactivity between rat TyrOHase cDNA and human TyrOHase mRNA.