[The nature of the respiratory tract microflora and the immunity indices in a severe form of bronchial asthma in children].

65 children with the severe course of bronchial asthma (BA) were examined. The character of respiratory tract microflora, humoral immunity characteristics, mediators, of inflammation and pathomorphological features of the bronchial tree during the severe course of BA in children at the period of remission were studied. The specific features of the colonization of the bronchial tree by microflora in the severe form of BA were established.

[Dietary intake of Cs-137 and Sr-90 by the population of the Gomel region, Byelarus, 1986-1989].

The authors provide the results of measuring the content of radionuclides in foods in the first 4 years after the Chernobyl accident and the data on the diet of the population. Pollution of foods was demonstrated to decrease with time. The supply of 137Cs to the body fell 3-fold from 1986 to 1989.

[20 years of experience in using high-energy electron accelerators].

The authors summed up their 20-year experience in the clinical use of a linear accelerator of electrons and a Siemens betatron (42 MeV) in the Research Institute of Oncology and Radiology, Ministry of Health of the Byelorussian SSR. Comparative advantages and shortcomings of both accelerators and the results of their technical modifications were considered. A section in the paper, devoted to the clinical aspects of tumor therapy, is concerned with the description of a number of methods of irradiation with various types of therapeutic beams, energies, field sizes, directions, various regimens of dose fractionation in time and irradiated volume.

[Immune status of patients with malignant melanoma during combined therapy including local ultra-high frequency hyperthermia].

Immune status was evaluated in patients with clinical stage I malignant melanoma randomized to receive either preoperative irradiation (27 Gy) alone or in combination with local microwave hyperthermia (before or after it). Mononuclear, total T-lymphocyte, T-helper, T-suppressor, B-lymphocyte and blood-immune complex levels were assayed. The analysis of immunologic parameters dynamics pointed to beneficial changes occurring in immunoregulating T-lymphocytes in patients receiving hyperthermia as a component of combined treatment.

[Experience in the development of an automated information retrieval system in roentgenoradiology].

The first version of an automated data retrieval system in radiology, radiobiology and oncology has been developed in the Research Institute of Oncology and Medical Radiology of the Ministry of Health, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The system is realized on the basis of a packet of applied programs of an automated document processing system, computerized data-bases of the All-Union Scientific and Technical Information Institute and the ES-1022 computer. The system functions in the following modes: 1--selective propagation of information on 194 fixed requests of users; 2--personal search in the dialogue mode; 3--updating of data files.

[Results and prospects for the clinical use of hyperthermia in oncology].

Artificial controlled local and total hyperthermia combined with radio- and/or chemotherapy was used for the treatment of 1211 patients with malignant tumors of different sites. A study of the long-term results of 750 patients showed that the incorporation of hyperthermia in the schemes of combined and multimodality therapy resulted in a significant increase in the 5-year survival of the patients with melanoma, soft tissue sarcoma, breast and rectal cancer.

[Prognostic factors in megavolt radiotherapy of central epidermoid carcinoma of the lung].

Radical program radiotherapy was provided to 403 patients with inoperable central epidermoid lung carcinoma that does not extend beyond one half of the thoracic cavity. Long-term therapeutic results depend on numerous factors the interrelationships of which cannot be revealed without present-day methods of data analysis. The use of computers (a method of parameter grouping and semi-automatic classification--"teaching without a teacher") made it possible before treatment to approach the level of group prognosis by symptoms; taking into account the time course of symptoms in the process of radiation therapy and after its termination--to reach the level of individual prognosis for 22% of the patients.

[Cell immunity factors in patients with lung cancer treated by the split-course schedule method].

The status of immune reactivity was studied dynamically in 42 patients with inoperable lung cancer, given radiotherapy after the split-course schedule. Twenty patients were followed up for over a 1 year period. The patients survival was found to depend on the degree of immunodepression during radiotherapy.

[Split-course radiotherapy of squamous cell cancer of the lung].

The results of a continuous (110 patients) and split course (117 patients) radiotherapy for inoperable central squamous cell cancer of the lung are reported. The study comprised only patients treated radically. A 3-year follow-up showed the following rate of survival in the first and second series: 1 year--52% and 54%, 2 years--29% and 26%, 3 years--18% and 14%, the average survival--16.