British Society for Rheumatology guideline on management of adult and juvenile onset Sjögren disease.

Sjögren disease (SD) is a chronic, autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology with significant impact on quality of life. Although dryness (sicca) of the eyes and mouth are the classically described features, dryness of other mucosal surfaces and systemic manifestations are common. The key management aim should be to empower the individual to manage their condition-conserving, replacing and stimulating secretions; and preventing damage and suppressing systemic disease activity.

The management of Sjögren's syndrome: British Society for Rheumatology guideline scope.

The guideline will be developed using the methods and processes outlined in Creating Clinical Guidelines: Our Protocol [1]. This development process to produce guidance, advice and recommendations for practice has National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) accreditation.

Drug cross-resistance and therapy-induced resistance in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia by an enhanced method of individualised tumour response testing.

Previous results with individualised tumour response testing (ITRT) in vitro in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) have consistently shown good correlation with patient response and survival. We describe here an improved test and report its use with samples from the Leukaemia Research Fund CLL4 randomised clinical trial and previously treated patients. ITRT was performed by the tumour response to anti-neoplastic compounds (TRAC) assay, a modification of the differential staining cytotoxicity (DiSC) assay.

Eradication of minimal residual disease in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia after alemtuzumab therapy is associated with prolonged survival.

Purpose: To test whether eradication of minimal residual disease (MRD) in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by alemtuzumab is associated with a prolongation of treatment-free and overall survival.

Patients And Methods: Ninety-one previously treated patients with CLL (74 men and 17 women; median age, 58 years [range, 32 to 75 years]; 44 were refractory to purine analogs) received a median of 9 weeks of alemtuzumab treatment between 1996 and 2003. Regular bone marrow assessments by MRD flow cytometry were performed with the aim of eradicating detectable MRD (< 1 CLL cell in 10(5) normal cells).

Chemotherapy for cancer patients who present late.

Doctors should not overlook the potential benefits of chemotherapy in patients with incurable cancer

Thalidomide is highly effective in a patient with meningeal acute myeloid leukaemia.

We report a case of secondary acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) following high dose therapy for diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who developed meningeal leukaemia. This was refractory to systemic and intrathecal chemotherapy and cranial irradiation. Thalidomide has been reported to have anti-AML activity and appears to cross the blood brain barrier (BBB).

Thromboembolism in patients on thalidomide for myeloma.

Seven cases of thromboembolism were found amongst 23 patients treated with thalidomide for myeloma over a total of 141.5 patient treatment months. Five thromboembolic events were venous (two severe) and two arterial.

Spontaneous remission of low-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma following withdrawal of methotrexate in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis: case report and review of the literature.

A 69-year-old woman, who had suffered from deforming rheumatoid arthritis since the age of 40 years, had been treated with methotrexate for 3 years. She presented with a 7 week history of neck lymphadenopathy. Biopsy revealed low-grade marginal-zone B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.