A phase I dose-escalation trial of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy for non-spine bone and lymph node metastases (DESTROY-trial).

Background: In an oligometastatic setting, metastasis-directed treatment could render patients disease free, possibly for a protracted interval. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) is one of the treatment modalities that can be offered to these patients. In addition, the radiobiological qualities of SABR are promising for the use in perceived radioresistant tumours.

Ethics committees in western and central Africa: concrete foundations.

The involvement of developing countries in international clinical trials is necessary for the development of appropriate medicines for local populations. However, the absence of appropriate structures for ethical review represents a barrier for certain countries. Currently there is very little information available on existing structures dedicated to ethics in western and central Africa.

Vaccines administered simultaneously: directions for new combination vaccines based on an historical review of the literature.

Objectives: The recognized benefits of administering vaccines simultaneously has encouraged vaccine producers to develop combination vaccines. If contemporary research and development can realize vaccines that achieve the current standards for safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy, other specific vaccine associations may also merit reconsideration as combination vaccines.

Methods: An historical review of the vaccine association literature reveals two important themes: first, the programs of mass vaccination, in particular, the eradication of smallpox, sessions where multiple vaccines (other than the smallpox vaccine) were given concurrently, and the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI); and, second, the domain of travel vaccines, including travellers to a disease-endemic country (such as migrants, tourists, military personnel, or expatriates) and WHO requirements for international travellers.

[Which vaccination strategies for African meningococcal meningitis?].

In 1963, Lapeyssonnie published a masterful description of the epidemiology of cerebrospinal meningococcal meningitis in the Sahel region of Africa (essentially due to the Neisseria meningitidis sero-group A): geographic spread (meningitis belt), seasonal cycle (dry and cool season). When a combined polyosidic AC vaccine became available in the early 1970s, a disease control strategy was defined along the lines of epidemiological surveillance, prophylaxis of lethality by early treatment of cases and reactive vaccination, since the polyosidic vaccine could not be included in the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Despite some success, this strategy has not led to the control of cerebrospinal meningococcal meningitis in Africa.

[Surveillance of the safety of intravesical BCG therapy in France: quantitative analysis of serious adverse events notified over a period of five years].

Intravesical BCG therapy remains the first-line prophylactic treatment for recurrent superficial bladder tumours. However, the safety of this drug requires close and rigorous surveillance due to rare, but sometimes serious complications reported after treatment. A quantitative analysis of serious adverse events (SAE) notified in France since marketing of BCG for intravesical immunotherapy (Connaught strain) and over a five-year period (September 1996-September 2001) revealed the following results: During this period, 158 SAEs were spontaneously reported to the Aventis Pasteur Central Pharmacovigilance Department.