Incidence of needlestick injuries in hospital personnel: implications for prevention.

A retrospective review of needlestick injuries was conducted for the period January 1979 through May 1981 at a major university teaching hospital. The objective of this review was to determine the needlestick injury rate among employees according to department, occupation, activity, shift, and full- or part-time status. Two hundred eighty-six incidents of needlestick injuries were recorded.

Pilot studies using melanoma tumor-associated antigens (TAA) in specific-active immunochemotherapy of malignant melanoma.

Highly purified melanoma TAA which induce melanoma-related cellmediated immune responses have been further characterized using hyperimmune TAA antisera after affinity chromatography for double immunodiffusion-immunoelectrophoresis and indirect immunofluorescence studies. An additional study of antigenic modulation was performed in 23 nonanergic and seven anergic melanoma patients, tested simultaneously with melanoma TAA prepared from primary and metastatic tumors, which had been obtained from one patient at different time periods. The results of pilot clinical trials are reported, including toxicity, timing and dosage studies in 20 patients and subsequent studies of patients with metastatic melanoma treated at three separate centers, using a single lot of purified, allogeneic melanoma TAA.

Cancer serum index: a useful nonspecific test as a parameter in multimodality screening and assessment of patients with cancer of the prostate.

A satisfactory, simple test for screening and monitoring of patients with prostatic cancer is still being sought. We suggest the use of a nonspecific test in combination with other tests. The ratio of two serum proteins (alpha 1 acid glycoprotein [AGP] and prealbumin [PAB]), may be useful markers for a cancer serum index (CSI).