Successful treatment of a classic Hodgkin lymphoma-type post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder with tailored chemotherapy and Epstein-Barr virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in a pediatric heart transplant recipient.

CHL type is the least common major form of EBV-related PTLD but rarely occurs in pediatric recipients; development of CHL subsequent to other PTLD subtypes in the same transplant recipient is even more unusual. Because of its rarity, indications on the best treatment strategy are limited. Patients have been mostly treated with standard HL chemotherapy/radiotherapy, and prognosis seems more favorable than other monomorphic PTLDs.

Two-stage phase II study of imatinib mesylate in subjects with refractory or relapsing neuroblastoma.

Background: Cure rate for subjects with refractory or relapsing metastatic neuroblastoma is <5%. In the search for a novel therapy, continuous daily oral administration of imatinib mesylate was evaluated.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-four subjects were enrolled in a two-stage study.

Role of low-cost thyroid follow-up in children treated with radiotherapy for primary tumors at high risk of developing a second thyroid tumor.

Aim: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is uncommon in childhood and data on its prevalence as a second malignant neoplasm (SNM) after radiotherapy (RT) for malignancies are limited. We evaluated: 1) the incidence DTC in pediatric-oncologic patients treated with RT; 2) the relationship between DTC, RT and the features of the first malignancy; 3) the usefulness of thyroid follow-up in irradiated oncological patients.

Methods: We have followed up 252 patients treated with RT out of 966 oncologic pediatric patients.