Boosting Antioxidant Defense: The Effect of Astaxantin on Superoxidase Dismutase and Malondialdehyde Reduction in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Receiving Cisplatin Chemotherapy.

Background: Superoxide dismutase (SOD) can be decreased and malondialdehyde (MDA) can be increased in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) as a result of reactive oxygen species (ROS) brought on by cisplatin. Astaxanthin is one of the external antioxidants required to combat ROS by raising SOD and lowering MDA. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that astaxanthin can raise SOD and lower MDA in patients with HNC caused by cisplatin.

[Retrospective studies on the relation between fibrocystic disease and cancer of the breast with therapeutic conclusions].

On the basis of 597 cases of benign and malignant tumoral, respectively dysplastic diseases of the breast, operated at the IInd Surgical Clinic of Tirgu-Mureş during the period 1977-1983, the authors consider the fibrocystic disease (FCD) of the II and III degree as a facultative precancerous lesion. The extremely high frequency of FCD associated to the mammary cancer in young women, as well as of intense epithelial proliferations and intermediate forms, of transition from typical epithelial hyperplasias to the atypical forms observed in some of these cases, is pointed out. The 4 cases (1.

[5-fluorouracil treatment of acute pancreatitis and of pancreatic and duodenal fistulae].

In acute pancreatitis the mechanism involved in the auto-amplification of morbid phenomena can be suppressed in most of the cases by inhibiting the pancreatic secretion. This can also enhance the repair of pancreatic, duodenal and jejunal fistulae. On the basis of experimental studies carried out by Johnson, and on the clinical studies of Guttmann, as well as on original studies done by the authors, Ftorafur was included in the complex therapy of acute pancreatitis, and of pancreatic and duodenal fistulae.

[An experimental study of the action of 5-fluorouracil on the function and cytomorphology of the exocrine pancreas].

The authors have taken up previous studies by Martin (1969), and by Johnson (1973), and carried out an experimental study on white rats aimed at evaluating the morpho-functional changes of cells from the exocrine pancreas under the influence of 5-fluorouracil (Ftorafur), a cytostatic drug which is a general inhibitor of protein synthesis by cells. Ftorafur was injected in amounts of 2.3 mg/100 g of body weight, and a significant reduction was noted in the secretion of bicarbonates, amylase and lipase by the pancreas of the animals.

[Prevention of postsurgical thromboembolism with small doses of heparin].

The study includes 390 patients of different age, operated for various conditions during the last quarter of 1975, and systematically treated post operatively with heparin (the cases in which heparin was contraindicated were not included). None of the patients developed signs of thromboembolism after the operation. The drawbacks of the method are virtually inexistent as compared to the gravity of postoperative thrombolic complications.