CHOP plus etoposide and gemcitabine (CHOP-EG) as front-line chemotherapy for patients with peripheral T cell lymphomas.

Objective: The present study evaluated the feasibility of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) plus etoposide and gemcitabine (CHOP-EG) as front-line chemotherapy in patients with peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCLs).

Patients And Methods: Twenty-six patients with newly diagnosed PTCLs were enrolled into the pilot study. Treatment consisted of classical CHOP plus etoposide 100 mg/m(2) intravenously (i.

Bi-weekly chemotherapy of paclitaxel and cisplatin in patients with metastatic or recurrent esophageal cancer.

Although various combinations of chemotherapy regimens have been tried for patients with esophageal cancer, their duration of survival is extremely poor. In this study, we investigated the safety and clinical efficacy of paclitaxel and cisplatin chemotherapy in metastatic or recurrent esophageal cancer. 32 patients enrolled in this study and the median age was 60 yr.

Retrospective multicenter study of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation followed by reduced-intensity conditioning or conventional myeloablative regimen.

This retrospective study compared the results of reduced-intensity conditioning stem cell transplantation (RIST) and a conventional myeloablative regimen (CST) followed by allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. In this respect, 63 RISTs and 41 CSTs were performed at 5 transplantation centers in Korea between April 1998 and December 2002. The RIST group had more adverse pretransplant characteristics.

Recurrent retroviral vector integration at the Mds1/Evi1 locus in nonhuman primate hematopoietic cells.

Recent reports linking insertional activation of LMO2 following gene therapy for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) have led to a re-evaluation of risks following gene therapy with retroviral vectors. In our analysis of 702 integration sites in rhesus macaques that underwent transplantation up to 7 years earlier with autologous CD34+ cells transduced with amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV)-derived retroviral vectors containing marker genes, we detected insertion into one locus, the Mds1/Evi1 region, a total of 14 times in 9 animals. Mds1/Evi1 integrations were observed stably long term, primarily in myeloid cells.

The generation of leukemic dendritic cells from acute myeloid leukemia cells is potentiated by the addition of CD40L at the terminal maturation stage.

Leukemic dendritic cells (DCs) that are derived from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells display low-level expression of several key molecules. We investigated the optimal combination of cytokines needed to generate potent leukemic DCs from AML cells in vitro. AML cells were cultured in the presence of the following combinations of cytokines: Group A, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) + interleukin-4 (IL-4) + tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha); Group B, GM-CSF + IL-4 + CD40L; and Group C, CD40L addition at the terminal maturation point of cells that were grown as for Group A.

Identification of B-cell translocation gene 1 as a biomarker for monitoring the remission of acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a biologically heterogeneous disease of the hematopoietic system characterized by a clonal accumulation of immature blast cells in bone marrow. We used a proteomic approach based on two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to search for biomarkers related to the complete remission (CR) state of AML patients. We detected one AML-related protein, which was identified as the B-cell translocation gene 1 (BTG1) protein that belongs to anti-proliferative protein family.

Immunotherapy using autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells pulsed with leukemic cell lysates for acute myeloid leukemia relapse after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

Although a second stem cell transplantation (SCT) can be used as salvage therapy in patients with relapsing leukemia after SCT, most of these patients have a poor outcome. We tried clinical vaccination using monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with leukemic lysates to treat relapsing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after autologous SCT. To generate DCs, CD14+ cells isolated from peripheral blood stem cell products were cultured in AIM-V in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4.

Clinical efficacy and prediction of response to granulocyte transfusion therapy for patients with neutropenia-related infections.

We investigated the efficacy of transfusing granulocytes into 32 patients with severe neutropenia-related infections and the factors that predict response to this therapy. Our findings suggest that granulocyte transfusion therapy is useful for treating neutropenic patients with fungal infections and that 99mTc-HMPAO-granulocyte scintigraphy can be used to predict response to granulocyte transfusion therapy.

Generation of cytotoxic donor CD8+ T cells against relapsing leukemic cells following allogeneic transplantation by stimulation with leukemic cell- or leukemic lysate pulsed donor cell-derived dendritic cells.

To treat leukemia relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), we investigated the possibility of immunotherapy using donor CD8+ T cells that were generated by stimulating leukemic cell-derived dendritic cells (leukemic-DCs) or leukemic cell lysate pulsed donor cell-derived DCs (donor-DCs). Leukemic- and donor-DCs were generated from mononuclear cells of patients and CD14+ cells of HLA-matched donors, respectively. The expression of CD80, CD83, CD86, CD1a, and CD40 on leukemic-DCs was significantly lower than that on donor-DCs.

Hemolytic anemia as a sequela of arsenic intoxication following long-term ingestion of traditional Chinese medicine.

We report on a 51-yr-old woman who developed intravascular hemolytic anemia caused by arsenic after long-term ingestion of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Twelve years before the admission, she was diagnosed as neurocysticercosis. She has ingested a TCM for about 12 yr instead of undergoing medical therapy for the disease.

Freeze-thawing procedures have no influence on the phenotypic and functional development of dendritic cells generated from peripheral blood CD14+ monocytes.

Little is known about the potential influence of cryopreservation on the biologic activities of dendritic cells (DCs). In this study, we examined the effects of freeze-thawing on the phenotypic and functional development of human DCs obtained from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized peripheral blood CD14+ cells. CD14+ cells were cultured, immediately or after freeze-thawing, with granulocyte-macrophage CSF and interleukin-4 for 9 days, and then with added tumor necrosis factor-alpha for another 3 days.

Double-phase Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy as a therapeutic predictor in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Purpose: Tc-99m MIBI is a promising agent for the functional characterization of P-glycoprotein expression and the prediction of therapeutic outcome in human tumors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether tumor clearance of Tc-99m MIBI may have a predictive value in the clinical outcome in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Methods: Seventeen patients with histologically proved non-Hodgkin's lymphoma underwent Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy before starting chemotherapy.

Comparison of the gene expression profiles of monocytic versus granulocytic lineages of HL-60 leukemia cell differentiation by DNA microarray analysis.

It is now recognized that precise patterns of differentially expressed genes ultimately direct a particular cell toward a given lineage. In this study, we compared the expression profiles of cancer-related genes by cDNA microarray analysis during the differentiation of human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells into either monocytes or granulocytes. RNA was isolated at times 0, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 h following stimulation of differentiation with all-trans retinoic acid (all-trans RA) or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1,25-(OH)(2)D(3)], and hybridized to the microarray gene chips containing 872 genes related to cell-cycles, oncogenes and leukemias.

CD34 expression is associated with poor clinical outcome in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia.

This study investigated the clinical characteristics and prognostic relevance of CD34 expression in 47 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), showing t(15;17) or PML/RARalpha. Ten (21.3%) of the APL patients were CD34(+).

The role of PGE(2) in the differentiation of dendritic cells: how do dendritic cells influence T-cell polarization and chemokine receptor expression?

The role of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) in the function of dendritic cells (DCs), T-cell polarization, and expression of chemokine receptors was evaluated in human cells. Immature DCs were generated from peripheral blood CD14(+) cells using a combination of GM-CSF and interleukin-4 (IL-4) with or without PGE(2). On day 6, maturation of DCs was induced by the addition of tumor necrosis factor alpha with or without PGE(2).

A case of secondary myocardial lymphoma presenting with ventricular tachycardia.

Malignant lymphoma can involve the cardiac cavity or myocardium as a mass. Clinical symptoms of its cardiac involvement are usually absent or nonspecific, making the diagnosis of the cardiac involvement very difficult before death. We experienced a patient with secondary myocardial non-Hodgkin's lymphoma presenting with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) as a primary clinical problem.

Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell rescue of late graft failure after bone marrow transplantation in patients with aplastic anemia.

We investigated the effect and outcome of allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) rescue for aplastic anemia (AA) patients with graft failure after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Seven (28%) of 25 AA patients who received BMT from HLA-identical sibling donors developed late graft failure at a median of 7 months (range, 2.0-9.

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome presenting with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis--which is associated with a variety of infections, malignant neoplasms, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiencies--is an uncommon syndrome with a rapidly fatal outcome. We describe the first case of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome due to Hantaan virus presenting with reactive hemophagocytosis.