First-line treatment with irinotecan and raltitrexed in metastatic colorectal cancer. Mature results of a multicenter phase II study.

Objectives: The combination of irinotecan and raltitrexed is safe and active in 5-fluorouracil-refractory, metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC), with the advantage of its convenient three-weekly schedule. The aim of this multicenter phase II study was to assess its efficacy and toxicity in first-line treatment.

Methods: Between May 2000 and March 2001, 62 previously untreated patients received irinotecan (350 mg/m(2)) plus raltitrexed (3 mg/m(2)), with courses repeated every 21 days.

[Non-Hodgkin lymphomas with systemic presentation in patients with HIV infection. Clinical and prognostic factors in a series evaluated before the introduction of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)].

Patients And Method: We studied patients with acquired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection that developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) from January 1985 to October 2001.

Results: 44 patients (36 men, 8 women; median age 34 years) were included. Burkitt's lymphoma was diagnosed in 34%, and diffuse large cell B lymphoma in 29.

Hodgkin's disease. Prognostic value of Gallium-67 scintigraphy.

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the clinical impact of gallium-67 scintigraphy, before and after treatment, in patients with Hodgkin's disease, and to compare the overall survival between the patients whose gallium studies after treatment were negative and those whose studies remained positive.

Methods: We have studied 75 patients (40 women, 35 men) with Hodgkin's disease. All the patients underwent (67)Ga scintigraphy at the moment of the diagnosis (basal study) and in the case that basal study was positive (abnormal hyper-uptake focus) we performed follow-up studies after the treatment.

[Thirteen years' survival in a patient with isolated skin metastases of a gastric carcinoma. What kind of disease is that?].

Gastric adenocarcinoma is a high-lethality tumour and has a great tendency to recur. Liver and peritoneum are the places where the metastases are most frequently localised. We introduce the case of a woman diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma who showed isolated skin metastasis.