Sentinel node biopsy for melanoma in the head and neck region.

Background: Lymphatic drainage in the head and neck region is known to be particularly complex. This study explores the value of sentinel node biopsy for melanoma in the head and neck region.

Methods: Thirty consecutive patients with clinically localized cutaneous melanoma in the head and neck region were included.

Identification and biopsy of the sentinel lymph node in breast cancer.

Aims: To examine the hypothesis that lymphatic dissemination in breast cancer occurs sequentially.

Methods: Thirty patients with clinically localized adenocarcinoma were studied. Patent blue dye was administered into the tumour at the beginning of a modified radical mastectomy or segmental mastectomy with en bloc axillary lymph-node dissection (ALND).

[Nothing gained from the determinations of plasma lactate levels in the evaluation of a patient with acute abdomen].

Objective: To establish the diagnostic value of laboratory tests, especially the plasma lactate concentration, for determination of the indication for acute surgery in patients with an acute abdomen.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Kennemer Gasthuis, location Elisabeth Gasthuis, Haarlem, the Netherlands.

Localizing the sentinel node in cutaneous melanoma: gamma probe detection versus blue dye.

Background: Sentinel node (SN) biopsy can be used to select patients with melanoma for therapeutic lymphadenectomy. We investigated the value of two methods to locate the SN: patent blue dye (PBD) and gamma probe detection of 99mTc-nanocolloid.

Methods: One hundred ten patients with cutaneous melanoma were studied.

Validation of gamma probe detection of the sentinel node in melanoma.

Unlabelled: In melanoma, the presence or absence of metastasis in the first lymph node (sentinel node, SN) has a predictive value for the entire lymph node basin. This study explores the efficacy of lymphoscintigraphy with 99mTc-nanocolloid and a gamma-ray detection probe in tracing SNs.

Methods: Sixty patients with clinically localized melanoma were studied.

[Identification of the sentinel node in patients with breast carcinoma].

Objective: To investigate the hypothesis that lymphatic metastasis of breast cancer progresses in a sequential fashion, and whether the first lymph node on a direct drainage pathway (first-echelon node, sentinel node) can be identified in a mastectomy specimen.

Design: Descriptive analysis.

Setting: The Netherlands Cancer Institute (Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital), Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Reproducibility of lymphoscintigraphy for lymphatic mapping in cutaneous melanoma.

Unlabelled: One of the indications for lymphoscintigraphy in patients with melanoma is to determine the lymphatic drainage pattern and position of the first draining lymph node--the sentinel node. Metastasis in the sentinel node indicates the need for therapeutic lymph node dissection. The purpose of the present study was to examine the reproducibility of lymphoscintigraphy in assessing the location and number of sentinel nodes.

The role of alpha 4 beta 1 integrin in cell motility and fibronectin matrix assembly.

The alpha 4 beta 1 integrin has been suggested to play important roles in embryogenesis and pathogenesis of many diseases which involve both cell adhesion and cell migration. Previous studies using anti-alpha 4 beta 1 antibodies and fibronectin (Fn) fragments have suggested that alpha 4 beta 1 integrins may be involved in cell motility on Fn and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1). However, the cells used in these studies also express other Fn integrin receptors including alpha 5 beta 1 integrin, which is known to function in cell motility on Fn.

Results of regional isolated perfusion for locally inoperable melanoma of the limbs.

In the period 1978-1990, 49 patients with locally inoperable melanoma of the limbs were treated with regional isolated perfusion according to four different perfusion schedules. Perfusion resulted in a complete remission in 28 patients (57%), with a median duration of 10 (1-55+) months, and a partial remission in 10 (21%), with a median duration of 3 (1-9) months. In patients treated with a double (normothermic or sequential hyperthermic) perfusion schedule the complete remission rate was higher.