Concurrent gemcitabine and 3D radiotherapy in patients with stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is preferably treated with concurrent schedules of chemoradiotherapy, but none is clearly superior Gemcitabine is a radiosensitizing cytotoxic drug that has been studied in phase 1 and 2 studies in this setting. The aim of this study was to describe outcome and toxicity of low-dose weekly gemcitabine combined with concurrent 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT).

Patients & Methods: Treatment consisted of two cycles of a cisplatin and gemcitabine followed by weekly gemcitabine 300 mg/m2 during 5 weeks of 3D-CRT, 60 Gy in 5 weeks (hypofractionated-accelerated).

A new Dutch Law regulating provision of identifying information of donors to offspring: background, content and impact.

In 2004 a law was introduced in The Netherlands, which gives offspring conceived by semen or oocyte donation the right to know the identity of the donor. The law also regulates the provision of other information concerning the donor to the offspring, their parents or their general practitioner. With the introduction of this law, a choice has been made in which the wish of offspring prevails above others involved.

[Cryopreservation of semen of adolescents and young adult men with cancer].

The importance of cryopreserving semen for young male cancer patients is illustrated in three case descriptions. A 28-year-old man with chronic myeloid leukaemia that resulted in azoospermia, later fathered a child with his semen that had been stored prior to chemotherapy. In an 18-year-old adolescent with non-Hodgkin lymphoma the possibility to store cryopreserved semen was only raised after chemotherapy had been started and had caused azoospermia.

Prognosis of post-neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) treated with positive end-expiratory pressure ventilation (PEEP).

Thirty-six patients with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) were treated with mechanical ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). In 16 patients the RDS was the result of direct pulmonary injury due to chest trauma (group A), and in 20 patients the RDS followed non-direct injury of the lungs (group B). Fifteen patients died.