Interferon alpha (IFN alpha 2a) therapy for herpes virus-associated inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease).

Background/aims: The etiology and pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease remain unclear, so that exact causal therapy is not yet possible. In our UC and CD patients, viral infections, particularly of the upper respiratory tract, aggravated the underlying disease. This had led us to use in-situ hybridization to investigate intestinal mucosa for viral agents such as HSV I + II- and Epstein-Barr virus DNA.

Successful treatment of stage-IIIB seminoma with single-agent carboplatin therapy.

Single-agent carboplatin chemotherapy has recently been introduced into the therapy of limited seminoma. Because of poor compliance due to Down's syndrome we successfully treated a 32-year-old man with relapsed stage-IIIB seminoma with a dose-modified carboplatin monotherapy schedule leading to complete remission even after a follow-up of 4 years.

Acquired C 1-inhibitor deficiency with angioedema due to pleomorphic immunocytoma in a patient with three malignant tumors: long-term follow-up data and presentation of an additional case.

Two cases of lymphoma-associated acquired C 1-inhibitor deficiency are described. In both patients, C 1-inhibitor deficiency and related symptoms preceded the diagnosis of the underlying neoplasm by several months. C 1-inhibitor deficiency was most likely due to consumption following immunocomplex formation.

Efficacy of antiestrogen treatment in a benign metastasizing leiomyoma with paraneoplastic estradiol production.

Benign metastasizing leiomyoma (BML) is a rare hormone-dependent disease which occurs predominantly in women during their child-bearing years. After our patient had refused ablative hormone therapy (bilateral ovarectomy), evidence of estrogen and progesteron receptors in tumor tissue taken from the lung sites, as well as extremely high estradiol serum levels, led us to conduct high-dosage antiestrogen therapy for 5 years; daily administration of 250 mg of Tamoxpuren(R) resulted in stable disease of the pulmonary sites without any side effects. This also significantly lowered estradiol serum levels, which improved clinical symptoms.

Color-coded Doppler sonography in the diagnosis of abdominal masses.

A man in his forties was operated on for testicular cancer on the right-side with subsequent radiotherapy. Two years later, another tumor was found on the opposite side and surgically removed, followed by polychemotherapy. In the follow-up period, CT scanning and ultrasound showed large abdominal masses which were suspected to be metastases.