Early CT findings after interstitial radiation therapy for primary malignant brain tumors.

The CT findings after interstitial radiation therapy for brain tumors have not been extensively described. We evaluated retrospectively the CT scans of 13 patients who were treated with brachytherapy for malignant glioma. We found no typical CT appearance that differentiates recurrent tumor from radiation effect.

Bone marrow transplantation for good-risk patients with leukemia in a university affiliated hospital.

Of the first 14 patients with acute or chronic leukemia to undergo bone marrow transplantation at our hospital, 9 (64%), all good-risk, are still alive in remission at 18 to 42 months of follow-up (mean, 29 months) with their Karnofsky performance status between 80% and 100%. The conditioning regimen of fractionated-dose irradiation and high-dose chemotherapy eradicated their disease; only two patients relapsed after transplantation. Toxicity was acceptable.

Sequential half-body irradiation (SHBI) and combination chemotherapy as salvage treatment for failed Ewing's sarcoma--a pilot study.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the toxicity of sequential half-body irradiation (SHBI) and combination chemotherapy (5-FU, VM-26 and BCNU) in patients who had failed primary aggressive therapy for their Ewing's sarcoma. A secondary goal was to evaluate the response of these previously treated patients to the combination of systemic radiation and multi-agent chemotherapy. The first patient in the study was treated with SHBI only and died 139 days following retreatment.

Primary anterior mediastinal seminoma.

A review of the Mayo Clinic experience with primary anterior mediastinal seminomas involved 17 patients who had pure anterior mediastinal seminomas and four who had mixed germ-cell tumors containing seminomas. At follow-up, of the 17 patients with pure anterior mediastinal seminoma, nine had no evidence of disease and eight had died of metastatic disease. Of the four patients with mixed germ-cell tumor containing seminoma, two were alive at follow-up and two had died of metastatic disease.