Delayed resection in the management of non-orbital rhabdomyosarcoma of the head and neck in childhood.

This retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of delayed resection on outcome of head and neck rms in a single institution which has experience in cranial base surgery. Since 1988, patients with primary non-orbital rms of the head and neck following treatment at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, were evaluated by the Department of Otolaryngology, Eye and Ear Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center either at the time of presentation or when response to chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy was thought to have been optimized for the possibility of definitive surgery. Medical records of patients who did or did not have delayed surgery were reviewed and compared with respect to demographics, tumor stage, response to therapy, survival, and cosmetic results.

Progressive varicella presenting with pain and minimal skin involvement in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Purpose: Here we report the experience at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) with varicella zoster virus (VZV) in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This record review was prompted by a patient with ALL who died suddenly of varicella hepatitis within 24 hours of presentation with a single skin lesion.

Methods: We reviewed the medical records of children diagnosed with ALL at the CHP from January 1984 through December 1993, who subsequently developed VZV infection.

Cytogenetic features of infants less than 12 months of age at diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia: impact of the 11q23 breakpoint on outcome: a report of the Childrens Cancer Group.

Cytogenetic analyses of pretreatment bone marrows were performed at local institutions as part of Childrens Cancer Group (CCG) protocol CCG-107 for infants less than 1 year of age with previously untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Cytogenetic analyses from 39 patients (17 males and 22 females) were accepted after review. Several unique cytogenetic features were observed.

Improved therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and unfavorable presenting features: a follow-up report of the Childrens Cancer Group Study CCG-106.

Purpose: On past Childrens Cancer Group (CCG) trials, children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and unfavorable presenting features had obtained an event-free survival (EFS) rate of no better than 50%. Following promising pilot experience, this study was conducted to determine the benefit and morbidity of two intensive experimental regimens, Reg A, based on the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (BFM) 1976 regimen, and Reg B, the New York regimen.

Patients And Methods: Between February 1983 and November 1984, 217 eligible children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and unfavorable presenting features were entered and randomly assigned to receive Reg A, Reg B, or Reg C, the control regimen.

Reduction of allogeneic transplant morbidity by combining peripheral blood and bone marrow progenitor cells.

One case has been reported of a patient undergoing allogeneic transplantation with peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) rather than bone marrow. We now report the first case of a patient who underwent an allogeneic transplant with bone marrow combined with PBPCs.