Implementation of plate reader-based indooxine and Nessler protocols for monitoring L-asparaginase serum activity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Monitoring the blood serum activity of L-asparaginase in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) has been highly recommended to detect enzyme inactivation that can cause relapse and to avoid unwanted toxicity. Nevertheless, perhaps at least partially due to the lack of clinically approved commercially available kits or standardized and independently reproduced and validated in-house protocols, laboratory assay-based determination of the optimal doses of L-asparaginase is not carried out routinely. In this study, we adapted previously published protocols for two plate reader-based colorimetric methods, indooxine and Nessler, to measure asparaginase activity.

Randomized, placebo-controlled phase II study of vandetanib plus docetaxel in previously treated non small-cell lung cancer.

Purpose: Vandetanib is a once-daily oral inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 and epidermal growth factor receptor kinase activity. The activity of vandetanib plus docetaxel was assessed in patients with previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Patients And Methods: This two-part study comprised an open-label run-in phase and a double-blind randomized phase.

[The position of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small-cell lung carcinoma].

Surgical treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) offers greatest chances for long-term survival. However, the treatment is applicable only to patients diagnosed at an early stage of the disease, i.e.

[Adjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer].

For its high incidence and lethality lung cancer represents one of the most serious medical and social problems. Even the early stages of non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC) in comparison with tumours of other location have comparatively unfavourable prognosis, even if the patient undergoes radical surgical treatment. Most of patients die from remote metastases.

Generation of polluted waters from mining wastes in a uranium deposit.

Dump consisting of 9500 tons of rich-in-pyrite mining wastes located in the uranium deposit Curilo, Western Bulgaria, was, after rainfall, an intensive source of acid drainage waters. These waters had a pH in the range of about 1.7-4.