Biologic mesh spacer placement facilitates safe delivery of dose-intense radiation therapy: A novel treatment option for unresectable liver tumors.

Introduction: Patients with unresectable liver tumors who fail initial treatment modalities have a poor prognosis (<1 yr). Although effective, delivery of high dose radiation therapy to these tumors is limited by proximity of radiosensitive bowel. We have previously reported that placement of a biologic mesh spacer (BMS) can effectively displace the bowel allowing for dose-intense radiation to be delivered with low short-term toxicity.

The toxicology of chemokine inhibition.

The dividing line between essential physiological inflammatory processes and excessive pathological inflammation is often very thin - in some circumstances, indeed, it may be non-existent. Devising anti-inflammatory medications that effectively target only the pathological component therefore remains a central challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. At present, the general rule is that the more powerful the anti-inflammatory effect of a drug, the greater the side-effects that accompany it.

Group A streptococcal puerperal sepsis with retroperitoneal involvement developing in a late postpartum woman: case report.

Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci cause a wide range of infectious diseases such as pharyngitis, impetigo, rheumatic fever, and even septic shock. Group A streptococcal puerperal sepsis is uncommon today, but recent reports indicate a reemergence of virulent strains can cause toxic-mediated shock and multiple organ failure. We present a case report of a 29-year-old postpartum woman after cesarean section who presented group A streptococcal puerperal sepsis.

186Re-labeled antibodies to p185HER2 as HER2-targeted radioimmunopharmaceutical agents: comparison of physical and biological characteristics with 125I and 131I-labeled counterparts.

Overexpression of the HER2/neu protooncogene has been shown to correlate with poor clinical prognosis. A murine monoclonal antibody (4D5) directed against the extracellular domain (ECD) of p185HER2 has been shown to inhibit in vitro and in vivo growth of carcinomas overexpressing HER2 and has been humanized (rhuMAb HER2). The objective of the study was the identification of an agent which might be useful for in vitro studies, tumor imaging and/or radioimmunotherapy by linking beta-emitting radionuclides to these HER2-targeted antibodies.