Chemotherapy in NSCLC: historical review.

The use of chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC has been under investigation for several years. It has evolved from administration in the palliative care setting to integration into combined-modality curative therapy settings in patients with locoregionally-advanced disease. Following the largest meta-analysis in 1995 it was suggested that platinum-based chemotherapy was effective in treating patients with advanced disease.

Diagnostic investigation using vital capillary microscopy and dynamic capillaroscopy.

The procedure for studying skin capillaries using vital capillary microscopy is described. Capillary changes take place in patients with reduced arterial circulation, and these are examined in the lower and upper (nailfold) extremity. Dynamic capillaroscopy is a technique for measuring capillary blood cell velocity.

Facial and acoustic nerve preservation during excision of extracanalicular acoustic neuromas using the suboccipital approach.

The results are presented from a consecutive operative series of 62 acoustic neuromas in 60 patients following the introduction of improved neurophysiological monitoring techniques. Twenty-two patients had usable preoperative hearing. Thirty tumours were less than 2.