A phase III trial of topotecan and whole brain radiation therapy for patients with CNS-metastases due to lung cancer.

Brain metastases represent an important cause of morbidity in patients with lung cancer and are associated with a mean survival of less than 6 months. Thus, new regimens improving the outcome of these patients are urgently needed. On the basis of promising data raised in a phase I/II trial, we initiated an open, randomised, prospective, multicentric phase III trial, comparing whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT; 20 x 2 Gy) alone with WBRT+topotecan (RCT; 0.

Non-sufficient cell cycle control as possible clue for the resistance of human malignant glioma cells to clinically relevant treatment conditions.

Objectives: Human gliomas have a catastrophic prognosis with a median survival in the range of one year even after therapeutic treatment. Relatively high resistance towards apoptotic stimuli is the characteristic feature of malignant gliomas. Since cell cycle control has been shown to be the key mechanism controlling both apoptosis and proliferation, this study focuses on DNA damage analysis and protein expression patterns of essential cell cycle regulators P53 and P21waf1/cip1 in glioma under clinically relevant therapeutic conditions.

Pro-invasive gene regulating effect of irradiation and combined temozolomide-radiation treatment on surviving human malignant glioma cells.

The current chemotherapeutic treatment of glioblastoma patients has minor success. Little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms of the resistance of gliomas towards current therapies. This study investigated both suppressive cellular effects and regulation of extracellular matrix remodeling proteins with pro-invasive activity in surviving human glioblastoma cells under clinically relevant treatments.

Preclinical evaluation of a radiosensitizing effect of gemcitabine in p53 mutant and p53 wild type bladder cancer cells.

Objectives: Despite clinical use, the radiosensitizing effect of gemcitabine (2'2'-difluorodeoxycytidine) in human transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) has not been shown to date. We investigated gemcitabine as a radiosensitizer for human TCC cells.

Methods: Monolayer cultures of RT112 (G1, p53 wild type), RT4 (G1-G2, p53 wild type), T24 (G3, p53, mutant type), and SUP (G4, p53 mutant type) cells were incubated in medium with gemcitabine.

The carbon tip electrode.

The development of the carbon tip electrode and its low chronic threshold behavior are described. Compared to presently used electrode material, carbon tip electrodes result in lower chronic stimulation thresholds. In a group of 43 patients, chronic pulse generator output has been favorably reduced in association with this type of electrode.