Risk of acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome in trials of adjuvant epirubicin for early breast cancer: correlation with doses of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide.

Purpose: We reviewed follow-up of patients treated in 19 randomized trials of adjuvant epirubicin in early breast cancer to determine incidence, risk, and risk factors for subsequent acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Patients And Methods: The patients (N = 9,796) were observed from the start of adjuvant treatment (53,080 patient-years). Cases of AML or MDS (AML/MDS) were reported, with disease characteristics.

Effect of caerulein in patients with biliary colic pain.

A randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial was carried out in 24 patients with biliary colic pain in order to evaluate the analgesic effect of caerulein (CRL). Caerulein (1 ng/kg . min infused intravenously over 15 min) showed an analgesic effect that was significantly higher than placebo (p less than 0.

Ceruletide increases dose dependently both jejunal motor activity and threshold and tolerance to experimentally induced pain in healthy man.

The effects of ceruletide on jejunal motility and experimentally induced pain were studied in 16 healthy men, who participated each in four experiments and received in random double blind fashion 5, 10, or 20 micrograms ceruletide intramuscularly or placebo. Jejunal pressures were recorded by three perfused catheters with orifices between 10 and 20 cm aboral of the ligament of Treitz. Ceruletide dose dependently diminished phase I and increased phase II type activity and tended to reduce the number, but not the duration, of activity fronts.

Metergoline in the management of hyperprolactinemic amenorrhea and anovulation.

84 patients with elevated serum PRL levels, ranging from 25 to 253 ng/ml, were treated with an antiserotonin agent, metergoline, at the dose of 12 mg/day for 90 days. The clinical complaint was of amenorrhea in 70 cases (plus galactorrhea in 44 cases) and of anovulation in 14 cases (plus galactorrhea in 6 cases). Hyperprolactinemia was due to a pituitary adenoma in 18 cases; in 53 cases it was of unknown origin, while in 7 cases it followed treatment with neuroleptics or with oral contraceptives and in 6 cases it followed a puerperium.

Selective mitochondrial alterations induced by a single dose of daunorubicin or 4-demethoxydaunorubicin in mouse ventricular myocardium.

The ventricular myocardium of CD1 mice given a single high dose (LD50) of daunorubicin (DNR) or its derivative, 4-demethoxydaunorubicin (4DD), was studied under the electron microscope. Severe degenerative alterations were observed, but only in the mitochondria in myocardial tissue samples taken 3 and 7 days after treatment. This suggests that mitochondrial lesions might play an important role in the pathogenesis of anthracycline myocardipathy.

Cardiac toxicity from antitumor therapy.

A review is made concerning cardiac toxicity from antitumor agents. The pattern, clinical course and fate of cardiac drug-related phenomena are considered. Special attention is drawn to new attempts to better understand, and possibly prevent, such a treatment limiting side-effect.

Adriamycin cardiotoxicity: a survey of 1273 patients.

Valuable information was collected on the medical history and clinical course of 1273 patients entered in clinical trials with Adriamycin (ADR) carried out in 12 European cancer centers. A coded patient form was used for the data collection carried out in each center by a qualified physician following a guideline which was discussed and accepted by all of the participants. The aim of the study was to define the incidence, characteristics, and possible co-factors of the cardiomyopathy (CMP) in patients treated with combination chemotherapy regimens including ADR.

[Nicergoline and platelet aggregation. A review of experimental and clinical studies (author's transl)].

10-Methoxy-1,6-dimethyl-ergoline-8 beta-methanol-(5-bromonicotinate) (nicergoline, Sermion), an ergoline derivative in clinical use for syndromes related to cerebral and peripheral vascular insufficiency, displays a platelet antiaggregating effect which may be important for its therapeutic effect. This paper reviews the present experimental and clinical evidence relating to the platelet antiaggregating activity of nicergoline and its mechanisms of action is discussed in detail. Since the platelet antiaggregating effect of nicergoline is mainly related to its alpha-adrenolytic activity, the importance of catecholamines for the behaviour of both human platelets and endothelium as well as their interference with the prostaglandin/prostacycline system is also discussed.

Ultrastructural alterations of atrial myocardium induced by adriamycin in chronically treated animals.

The clinical use of adriamycin (AM) is limited by a possible dose-dependent myocardiopathy. Severe lesions of ventricular myocardium widely described by electron microscopy have been correlated to irreversible congestive heart failure. On the other hand, the atrial contractile elements which differ from the ventricular ones because of the presence of the so-called specific granules have rarely been considered.

Anti-heparin activity of a macroglobulin from a patient with breast adenocarcinoma.

We describe a case of IgM paraproteinemia, whose macroblogulin reacted anomalously with heparin. Anti-heparin activity of the paraprotein was suggested by insensibility of the patient's plasma to heparin in heparin-thrombin clotting time. Moreover, the presence of heparin in the medium markedly reduced the inhibitory effect of the paraprotein on platelet aggregation by ADP.

Human platelet aggregation by mixed cryoglobulins.

Glomerulonephritis in idiopatic mixed cryoglobulinemia represents perhaps a glomerular damage by immune complexes. In this study, a sigmoidal-like curve was obtained after addition of 13 different mixed cryoglobulins to both autologous and isologous platelet-rich plasma, tested in platelet aggregometer. The lag phase of the curve corresponds to platelet phagocytosis of cryoglobulin-binding ferritin, as shown in electron microscopy and the optical density decrease phase corresponds to the aggregation of platelets that shows the same ultrastructural characteristics of ADP-induced platelet aggregation.

Platelet aggregometry and anti-platelet isoantibodies.

102 sera from polytransfused patients have been screened in platelet aggregometry. Anti-human platelet isoantibodies, tested against 'responsive' human platelets in PRP, give in the aggregometer a decrease in optical density recorded as a sigmoidal curve. In the first step of reaction PF3 availability suggests that the primary action of antibody is to damage the platelet membrane.