Normal tissue tolerance to intraoperative radiotherapy.

Much experimental evidence has been accumulated assessing the tolerance of various tissues to IORT, and much of the tolerance data have resulted from the use of canine models. Guidelines of IORT tissue tolerance established in experimental models have been used in the clinical application of IORT at numerous institutions. Although the radiotolerance of differing tissues can vary among species, sufficient clinical experience has accumulated to validate the canine tissue tolerance model as representative of human tissue responses to IORT.

Spontaneous acceptance or rejection of orthotopic liver transplants in outbred and partially inbred miniature swine.

Background: Results of clinical liver transplantation have shown that rejection and loss of human liver allografts occurs despite immunosuppression. Because genetic disparity and liver immunogenicity remain a matter of controversy, we reexamined the fate of outbred liver allografts without immunosuppression and used partially inbred miniature swine, in which the genetics of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens have been characterized and can be controlled.

Methods: Orthotopic liver transplantation was performed between pairs of outbred domestic farm pigs and between pairs of inbred miniature swine with genetically defined major histocompatibility (SLA) loci.

Studies of intraoperative radiotherapy in carcinoma of the pancreas.

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) involves the administration of therapeutic radiation to malignancies during surgical procedures. IORT permits high dose delivery to tumors with the simultaneous reduction of radiation exposure to normal tissues, which may be directly shielded or operatively mobilized from the treatment volume. IORT has been investigated in various intra-abdominal malignancies, including carcinoma of the pancreas.

Randomized prospective study of the benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas of the extremity.

Purpose: This randomized, prospective study assesses the impact of postoperative external-beam radiation therapy on local recurrence (LR), overall survival (OS), and quality of life after limb-sparing resection of extremity sarcomas.

Patients And Methods: Patients with extremity tumors and a limb-sparing surgical option were randomized to receive or not receive postoperative adjuvant external-beam radiotherapy. Patients with high-grade sarcomas received postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy whereas patients with low-grade sarcomas or locally aggressive nonmalignant tumors were randomized after surgery alone.

A phase I/II study of dose-intense paclitaxel with cisplatin and cyclophosphamide as initial therapy of poor-prognosis advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer patients with bulky residual tumor have a poor response to therapy and limited survival. We investigated the addition of dose-intense paclitaxel to cisplatin and cyclophosphamide for patients with FIGO III/IV epithelial ovarian cancer. Paclitaxel dose was intensified from 135 to 250 mg/m2 and administered in combination with cisplatin at > or = 75 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide at 750 mg/m2.