[Towards cure for all children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia?].

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a model in oncology. The outcome was dismal 40 years ago but is now generally excellent, owing to the recent advent of new drugs. These advances were made possible by the creation of specialized units, better supportive care (transfusions, antibiotics and pain control) and intense biological and clinical research coordinated by national and international cooperative groups, allowing the use of available drugs to be optimized.

[A brief history of treatments for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia].

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most frequent childhood malignancy. The first effective drugs, which provided only short-lived complete remission, started to be used in the 1950s. All the effective drugs currently in use were discovered in the 1960s, when the first multidrug chemotherapy regimens were shown to confer prolonged complete remission, raising the possibility of a cure.

Testicular anti-mullerian hormone secretion is stimulated by recombinant human FSH in patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.

Serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), a prepubertal Sertoli cell marker, declines during puberty as an early sign of testicular testosterone (T) production. When T synthesis or action is impaired, serum AMH is abnormally high in the first months after birth and at puberty but normal between these two periods. We postulated that FSH might be responsible for AMH up-regulation in the absence of androgen inhibition.

Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism as a model of post-natal testicular anti-Müllerian hormone secretion in humans.

The pituitary gonadotropins are the main regulators of testicular hormonal secretion in humans. Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH), characterized by the absence of secretion of endogenous gonadotropins is therefore a convenient model to asses the respective effects of luteinizing hormone (LH) (or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)), exogenous testosterone (T) and FSH on gonadal function. In order to investigate the hormonal control of AMH secretion in man, serum AMH levels were measured in adult patients with congenital HH (CHH) and with post-pubertal acquired HH (AHH) either untreated, during hCG or T therapy.

[Pilot study and preliminary validation of the French version of a quality-of-life questionnaire specific for subjects with growth hormone deficiency].

This study forms part of a research project seeking to develop a standardized questionnaire by which clinicians can assess the impact of growth hormone (GH) deficiency and its treatment on the "perceived health" or health-related quality of life of adults. The specific aim of this study was to translate and adapt for French patients the AGHDA (Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency Assessment) a standardized health-related quality of life measure for use with GH-deficient adults, initially developed in the United Kingdom, and to collect data which could be used to assess the main psychometric characteristics of its French version the ISPA-HC (Indicateur de Santé Perceptuelle Adulte-Hormone de Croissance). The main properties analyzed are: 1/ The scale's acceptability, as determined by means of face-to-face interviews with a small number of subjects, then by an ad hoc questionnaire administered during a test-retest study; 2/ The scale's reliability, as determined by a test-retest study (with a 15-days interval between tests); 3/ The scale's concurrent validity, as expressed by comparison with scores obtained by means of a generic quality of life scale, the ISPN (the French version of the Nottingham Health Profile).