High-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue in the primary treatment of metastatic and pelvic osteosarcoma: final results of the ISG/SSG II study.

Background: Patients with metastatic osteosarcoma at diagnosis or axial primary tumors have a poor prognosis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of intensified treatment with high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and stem cell rescue in this group.

Methods: From May 1996 to August 2004, 71 patients were included in a Scandinavian-Italian single arm phase II study.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis: 40 years' experience.

Objectives: Our study analyzes 40 years' experience with pediatric Langerhans cell histiocytosis patients.

Materials And Methods: Between June 1968 and December 2009, 121 patients (79 males, 42 females; median age 4.13 y) were diagnosed at our center (74% monosystemic disease; 26% multisystemic), treated according to current protocols.

Nonossifying fibroma: A possible pitfall in F18-FD-PET/CT imaging of Hodgkin's disease.

A 14-year-old girl was examined for a right lateral neck swelling and radiographic mediastinal widening. Biopsy of a right supraclavicular lymph node demonstrated the nodular sclerosing form of Hodgkin's lymphoma. An 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F18-FDG-PET/CT) study showed several pathological areas of lymph-node uptake in the upper mediastum and right distal tibia.

Response to high-dose ifosfamide in patients with advanced/recurrent Ewing sarcoma.

Aim: To determine activity and toxicity of high-dose ifosfamide (HDIFO) in recurrent or advanced Ewing sarcoma family tumors (EFT).

Methods: Thirty-seven EFT patients [median age 17 years (6-45 years)] previously treated with chemotherapy regimens including standard dose ifosfamide were enrolled. HDIFO was administered for metastatic recurrent disease in 33 patients and for progression during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 4 patients.