Adjuvant chemotherapy in esophageal cancer.

Esophageal cancer with high incidence and mortality rates plays a major clinical and social role. Adjuvant radiotherapy, chemotherapy and combined chemoradiation are used for esophageal cancer patients after esophagectomy. Outcomes of these approaches are analyzed in the literature.

Islet cell transplantation: in vivo and in vitro functional assessment of nonhuman primate pancreatic islets.

Transplantation of pancreatic islets of Langerhans as a therapeutic approach for treatment of type I diabetes offers an alternative to subcutaneous insulin injections. Normalization of blood glucose levels by transplanted islets may prevent the development of diabetes-related complications. Problems related to rejection, recurrence of autoimmunity, and local inflammation upon transplantation of islets into the liver need to be solved before the implementation of islet cell transplantation can be viewed as a justifiable procedure in a large cohort of patients.

Long-term survival and function of intrahepatic islet allografts in rhesus monkeys treated with humanized anti-CD154.

Reported effects of anti-CD154 treatment on autoimmunity, alloreactivity, and inflammatory events mediated by macrophages and endothelial cells indicated that it might be an ideal agent for the prevention of intrahepatic islet allograft failure. This hypothesis was tested in MHC-mismatched rhesus monkeys. Transplantation of an adequate number of viable islets resulted in engraftment and insulin independence in six of six recipients treated with anti-CD154 (hu5c8) induction plus monthly maintenance therapy (post-operative day >125, >246, >266, >405, >419, >476).

Long-term survival and function of intrahepatic islet allografts in baboons treated with humanized anti-CD154.

Clinical islet cell transplantation has resulted in insulin independence in a limited number of cases. Rejection, recurrence of autoimmunity, and impairment of normal islet function by conventional immunosuppressive drugs, e.g.

Islet transplantation: present and future perspectives.

Islet cell transplantation can potentially normalize blood glucose levels and stop the progression of clinical complications, and if the transplant is done early in the course of the disease complications may be prevented. Remarkable progress has been made in recent years and islet cell transplantation has resulted in normalization of metabolic control in several patients with Type 1 diabetes in the absence of hypoglycemia. Only a few patients, however, have achieved insulin independence.