[High-dose treatment with autologous stem cell support in a Norwegian region].

Background: The introduction of high-dose treatment with autologous stem cell support (HMAS) in Norwegian regional hospitals in the early 1990s was controversial. Concerns that low numbers of patients would lead to unacceptably low quality were expressed.

Material And Methods: We present treatment results in the health region of Middle Norway, based on nearly 10 years of experience and 100 treated patients.

Age-adjusted chemotherapy for primary central-nervous system lymphoma--a pilot study.

Patients with primary central-nervous-system lymphoma (PCNSL) are treated with chemotherapy and cranial irradiation, which increase the risk of late neurotoxicity. The aim of this phase II trial was to investigate whether chemotherapy alone could induce durable remissions. Thirty non-immunocompromised patients were enrolled in two treatment groups, according to age.

[New diagnostic methods in non-Hodgkin lymphoma].

We describe five patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in which immunohistochemical investigation (IH) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were important for diagnosis and choice of treatment. One patient got the diagnosis follicular NHL after PCR showed t(14;18) in a fine needle biopsy from a tumour in the abdomen. Two small and partly traumatized biopsies from two patients were diagnosed as low grade NHL of B-cell type after PCR showed monoclonality for B-lymphocytes and IH showed B-cell phenotype and low proliferation rate.

[Medullary compression in metastatic cancer].

Cancer patients with spinal cord compression may develop irreversible neurological deficit. The clinical picture implies back pain and subsequent neurological deficit. There is always a danger of rapid deterioration of the patient's condition.

ChlVPP is as effective as alternating ChlVPP/ABOD in advanced stage Hodgkin's disease.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy and tolerability of two cytostatic regimens-chlorambucil, vinblastine, procarbazine and prednisone (ChlVPP) vs. ChlVPP alternating with doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincristine and dacarbazine (ABOD). One hundred eligible patients with stage IIIA-IVB Hodgkin's disease were randomized to either ChlVPP or ChlVPP alternating with ABOD.