Impact of chemoreduction for conservative therapy for retinoblastoma in Argentina.

Background: Few studies were reported from developing countries regarding patient outcome and ocular survival in children with bilateral retinoblastoma treated with chemoreduction compared to external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).

Procedure: We undertook a retrospective study of three treatment eras: (1) (1988-1995) n = 68 when EBRT was used as primary conservative therapy; (2) (1995-2003) n = 46 when carboplatin-based systemic chemoreduction was introduced and (3) (2003-2009) (n = 83) when additional periocular chemotherapy was added for advanced tumors and pre-enucleation chemotherapy was given for those with massive buphthalmia.

Results: The probability of 5-year disease-free survival was 0.

Outcome of patients with retinoblastoma and postlaminar optic nerve invasion.

Purpose: To evaluate the outcome of patients with retinoblastoma and postlaminar optic nerve invasion (PLONI).

Design: Retrospective interventional case series.

Participants: Sixty-one consecutive patients included in 3 successive protocols were analyzed.

A proposal for an international retinoblastoma staging system.

Background: Although intra-retinal tumor has long been staged presurgically according to the Reese-Ellsworth (R-E) system, retinoblastoma differs from other pediatric neoplasms in never having had a widely accepted classification system that encompasses the entire spectrum of the disease. Comparisons among studies that consider disease extension, risk factors for extra-ocular relapse, and response to therapy require a universally accepted staging system for extra-ocular disease.

Procedure: A committee of retinoblastoma experts from large centers worldwide has developed a consensus classification that can encompass all retinoblastoma cases and is presented herein.

Experience with chemoreduction and focal therapy for intraocular retinoblastoma in a developing country.

Background: Chemoreduction is used for the treatment of retinoblastoma in industrialized nations; however, there are fewer data from developing countries. Before the implementation of this program, radiotherapy was used in almost all preserved eyes.

Methods: Retrospective evaluation from 1995 to 2001 at the Hospital Garrahan (Argentina).

Activity of topotecan in retinoblastoma.

Purpose: To report our experience with topotecan in children with relapsed/refractory metastatic and intraocular retinoblastoma.

Patients And Methods: Topotecan was administered intravenously as a 30-min infusion at a dose of 2 mg/m2/d for five consecutive days and repeated after three weeks. If obvious progression was detected by physical examination in patients with overt extraocular disease or if progressive disease was noted after fundoscopic examination in patients with intraocular disease, a second cycle was not administered.

Results of a prospective study for the treatment of retinoblastoma.

Background: The objectives of this prospective study were to avoid adjuvant treatment for patients with intraocular disease and patients with postlaminar optic nerve invasion (PL-ONI) without full choroidal or scleral invasion. Adjuvant chemotherapy (Regimen 1) was given to patients with scleral invasion, PL-ONI without cut section, and full choroidal and/or scleral invasion. A more intensive regimen of higher dose intravenous chemotherapy (Regimen 2) and local radiotherapy was given to patients with PL-ONI and compromise at the cut end and to patients with overt extraocular disease.

Treatment of overt extraocular retinoblastoma.

Background: Overt extraocular retinoblastoma is common in developing countries and little information about its treatment is available. The aim of this study is to report our experience in the treatment of these cases using a uniform approach.

Procedure: Patients with overt extraocular retinoblastoma including orbital extension, preauricular lymph node invasion and/or metastatic disease on diagnosis or after extraocular relapse admitted to the Hospital JP Garrahan from August 1987 to December 2000 were retrospectively reviewed.

Retinoblastoma with low risk for extraocular relapse.

Objective: To define a subgroup of patients with retino-blastoma and low risk of extraocular relapse through histopathological and clinical variables.

Patients And Methods: Inclusion criteria consisted of stage I (intraocular disease), stage IIb1 (without concomitant choroid and/or scleral invasion), and nonenucleated patients (according to the Grabowski-Abramson classification). A total of 112 consecutive patients admitted to Hospital JP Garrahan from 1987 to 1997 were evaluable.

Late diagnosis of retinoblastoma in a developing country.

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic process of retinoblastoma in a developing country.

Study Design: Prospective survey of 95 consecutive parents of patients with retinoblastoma.

Results: Fifty six parents consulted initially with a paediatrician.

Randomized trial of CVPP for three versus six cycles in favorable-prognosis and CVPP versus AOPE plus radiotherapy in intermediate-prognosis untreated Hodgkin's disease.

Purpose: To evaluate in a randomized trial the impact of three versus six cycles of cyclophosphamide, vinblastine, procarbazine, and prednisone (CVPP) chemotherapy in favorable-prognosis and CVPP versus doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone, and etoposide (AOPE) plus involved-field radiotherapy (RT) in intermediate-prognosis previously untreated Hodgkin's disease.

Patients And Methods: Of 256 patients evaluated, 80 with a favorable prognosis according to a prognostic index designed by the Grupo Argentina de Tratamiento de Leucemia Aguda (GATLA) were randomized to three versus six cycles of CVPP without RT and 176 with intermediate risk to CVPP versus AOPE, both for six cycles with RT between the third and fourth cycles of 30 Gy to the involved areas at diagnosis. CVPP consisted of intravenous (I.

Results of a stage-based protocol for the treatment of retinoblastoma.

Purpose: To describe the treatment of retinoblastoma at a single institution using a prospective protocol based on histopathologic staging.

Patients And Methods: We included 116 consecutive patients (101 eligible, 46 bilateral) from August 1987 to December 1993. Treatment was enucleation or conservative therapy for intraocular disease (stage I patients).

Treatment of retinoblastoma. Results obtained from a prospective study of 51 patients.

During 4 years, 51 patients with retinoblastoma were studied (unilateral 32, and bilateral 19). Treatment consisted of enucleation of those eyes which showed massive involvement followed by radiotherapy when there was optic nerve and/or orbit involvement. Systemic chemotherapy was administered to all patients who underwent nonsurgical treatment and when the histologic examination showed choroidal optic nerve head and/or optic nerve involvement or residual tumor after enucleation.

Comparison of two consecutive trials for treatment of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Two consecutive trials for the treatment of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were evaluated, carried out by the same cooperative groups. Group A: From June, 1973 to December, 1975, 50 evaluable patients under 16 years of age participated in a study that included vincristine and prednisone plus surgery and/or radiotherapy as induction. This was followed by 2400 rad of cranial radiotherapy plus 5 doses of intrathecal methotrexate-dexamethasone and anti-leukemia (6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide) or anti-lymphoma (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone) maintenance treatment.

[Association of Wilms' tumor, pseudohermaphroditism and glomerular nephropathy. Partial and complete forms of the syndrome].

Four patients, followed at the Buenos Aires Cildren's Hospital are reported: one with a nephrotic syndrome and male pseudohermaphroditism, the second with nephrotic syndrome, male pseudohermaphroditism and Wilms' tumor, the third with pseudohermaphroditism and Wilms' tumor and the fourth with a nephrotic syndrome and Wilms' tumor. The cases presenting nephrotic syndrome, all had an early onset and a rapid and fatal course leading to death in renal failure or secondary to a related bacterial infection. The renal histology in all of the cases with nephrotic syndrome, was very similar: diffuse involvement of all glomeruli consisting in a severe increase of the mesangial matrix, with scarce mesengial proliferation.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in children: an analysis of 122 cases from Argentina.

One hundred twenty two children with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were studied from January 1966 to December 1975. The first group (1966-1972) did not receive an uniform treatment. The second group (1973-1975) entered in a G.