Increased predisposition to cancer in brothers and offspring of testicular tumor patients.

Cancer susceptibility was examined in first-degree relatives of 293 testicular tumor patients (TTPs) and 586 age-matched healthy males. Significantly increased risk was found in the families of TTPs (OR: 1.4; CI: 1.08-1.79), however, except for testicular cancer of 7 brothers (OR: 11.7; CI: 1.42-256.5), and 6 various childhood tumors (bilateral Wilms' tumor, neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, ALL, histiocytosis-X, testicular tumor) of 200 offspring (OR: 12.9; CI: 1.54-286.2), no association with other malignancies was observed. No differences were seen between the fertility of patients and controls when occupational or socio-economic status of the families was taken into account. However, the majority of the controls (85%) fathered the first child between 20-30 years of age, while only 61% of TTPs had the first child in the same age group. TTPs fathered more girls than boys (P=0.009), and the lower male - higher female ratio of index children was also identical, irrespective of the conception taking place before or after the father's treatment. Occupations did not, but smoking might have influenced cancer susceptibility of the patients. Aggregation of fraternal testicular tumors, and both dramatically increased cancer risk and altered sex ratio of the offspring indicate a remarkable role of hereditary factors in tumorigenesis and later consequences of a certain portion of testicular malignancies, which must be refined by molecular studies.

Fermented Wheat Germ Extract Reduces Chemotherapy-Induced Febrile Neutropenia in Pediatric Cancer Patients.

PURPOSE: An open-label, matched-pair (by diagnosis, stage of disease, age, and gender) pilot clinical trial was conducted to test whether the combined administration of the medical nutriment MSC (Avemar) with cytotoxic drugs and the continued administration of MSC on its own help to reduce the incidence of treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid cancers compared with the same treatments without MSC. METHODS: Between December 1998 and May 2002, 22 patients (11 pairs) were enrolled in this study. At baseline, the staging of the tumors was the same in each pair (mostly pTNM = T2N0M0), with the exception of two cases in which patients in the MSC group had worse prognoses (metastasis at baseline). There were no significant differences in the average age of the patients, the length of treatment time (MSC) or follow-up, the number of patients with central venous catheters, the number of chemotherapy cycles, the frequency of preventive counterneutropenic interventions, or the type and dosage of antibiotic and antipyretic therapy used in the two groups. RESULTS: During the treatment (follow-up) period, there was no progression of the malignant disease, whereas at end-point the number and frequency of febrile neutropenic events significantly differed between the two groups: 30 febrile neutropenic episodes (24.8%) in the MSC group versus 46 (43.4%) in the control group (Wilcoxon signed rank test, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The continuous supplementation of anticancer therapies with the medical nutriment MSC helps to reduce the incidence of treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid cancers.

[Survival of Ewing' s sarcoma patients in Hungary] / A Ewing-sarcomás betegek tünetmentes túlélési esélyeinek értékelése a Gyermekonkológiai Szekció eredményei alapján.

Correlation between different prognostic factors and the overall survival of Ewing's sarcoma patients has been investigted. In this study data have been selected from the databank of Hungarian Pediatric Oncologist Section (1988-1999) (n=65). Whenever it was possible statistical analysis has been performed. Results: In our patients time interval from the primary symptoms to the diagnosis was 2-16 months. The average event-free survival in patients suffering from Ewing's sarcoma without metastasis is 0.39. Meanwhile, this value in patients with pulmonary or other metatasis is 0.24 (Kaplan-Meier analysis). Conclusion: Our results show a moderate difference between the Hungarian and the international event-free survival. Late detection is one of the answers of this discrepancy.

[Childhood liver tumor in Hungary: two interesting clinical cases] / Gyermekkori májtumor Magyarországon: két rendhagyó klinikai eset.

Hepatic tumors account for 0.5-2% of all childhood tumors in Hungary, based of the data last ten years. More than half of the cases were histologically malignant. The worldwide incidence of malignant hepatic tumors is 1.6 / 1 million. Here we present two patients with hepatoblastoma. In the first case the size of the initially inoperable tumor diminished following the chemotherapy and total surgical resection became possible. No sign of relapse occurred so far. The second case included a congenital hepatic tumor which was remarkable because of its unusual clinical presentation and histology.

[A case of central nervous system atypical teratoid / rhabdoid tumor] / Központi idegrendszeri atípusos teratoid / rhabdoid tumor.

The atypical teratoid / rhabdoid tumour is a rare type of tumours of central nervous system appearing usually under 2 years of age, bearing a rather bad prognosis and it may cause serious differential diagnostic problem. The tumour is characterized histologically by the presence of the rhabdoid cells, immunohistochemically by vimentin, SMA, EMA positivity, the frequent presence of cytokeratin, GFAP positivity, but germ cell markers: AFP, hCG negativity, cytogenetically by aberrations of chromosome 22. The case of a one and half month old female infant is presented, who died 8 months after the appearance of the first symptoms. The diagnostic possibilities and the unsolved problem of the therapy are discussed.

Fermented wheat germ extract reduces chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in pediatric cancer patients.

PURPOSE: An open-label, matched-pair (by diagnosis, stage of disease, age, and gender) pilot clinical trial was conducted to test whether the combined administration of the medical nutriment MSC (Avemar) with cytotoxic drugs and the continued administration of MSC on its own help to reduce the incidence of treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid cancers compared with the same treatments without MSC. METHODS: Between December 1998 and May 2002, 22 patients (11 pairs) were enrolled in this study. At baseline, the staging of the tumors was the same in each pair (mostly pTNM = T2N0M0), with the exception of two cases in which patients in the MSC group had worse prognoses (metastasis at baseline). There were no significant differences in the average age of the patients, the length of treatment time (MSC) or follow-up, the number of patients with central venous catheters, the number of chemotherapy cycles, the frequency of preventive counterneutropenic interventions, or the type and dosage of antibiotic and antipyretic therapy used in the two groups. RESULTS: During the treatment (follow-up) period, there was no progression of the malignant disease, whereas at end-point the number and frequency of febrile neutropenic events significantly differed between the two groups: 30 febrile neutropenic episodes (24.8%) in the MSC group versus 46 (43.4%) in the control group (Wilcoxon signed rank test, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The continuous supplementation of anticancer therapies with the medical nutriment MSC helps to reduce the incidence of treatment-related febrile neutropenia in children with solid cancers.