Ein seltenes genitales Ulkus

We report the case of a young girl who presented with acute severe pain from a genital ulceration. The diagnosis of ulcus vulvae acutum or Lipschütz??s acute ulcer of the vulva, a self-healing, acute genital ulceration of unknown origin but characteristic clinical picture was established. The patient recovered fully with symptomatic treatment, mainly appropriate analgetics within 14 days. A review of the scarce literature is discussed and the importance of non-invasive diagnostic procedures is stressed.     

Current status of immunotherapy in B cell malignancies

Conventional treatment of hematologic malignancies mainly consists of chemotherapeutic agents or a combination of both, chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies. Despite recent advances, chemotherapeutic treatments often remain unsatisfying due to severe side effects and incomplete long-term remission. Therefore the evaluation of novel therapeutic options is of great interest. B cell malignancies, in particularly follicular lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma, represent the most immune-responsive types of all human cancer. Several immunotherapeutic strategies are presently employed to combat these B-cell malignancies. Active immunotherapies include vaccination strategies with dendritic cells (DCs) and genetically-modified tumor cell preparations as well as DNA and protein vaccination. Most of these vaccines target the tumor-specific immunoglobulin idiotype and have already demonstrated some anti-lymphoma activity in early phase clinical trials while their definitive impact is evaluated in ongoing phase III randomized trials. In contrast to these active immunizations, T cells transduced with chimeric antigen receptors and donor leukocyte infusions (DLI) represent adoptive (passive) immunotherapies. Recent advances of gene transduction technologies enabled improvement of immunotherapeutic strategies based on genetic modification of malignant cells or adoptive T cells. Current early phase clinical trials are investigating the potential of these innovative approaches. At the moment it remains unclear if the novel immunotherapeutic strategies will be able to play a similar role in the treatment of B cell malignancies than the already established antibody-based immunotherapy.     

Clinical and immunological studies with OK-432 (Streptococcus pyogenes) on immunotherapy in cancer patients]

In a phase I study, the bacterial vaccine OK-432 (streptococcus pyogenes) was investigated in eight patients with advanced malignant tumors. Besides a fever reaction after i.v. application no toxic side effects were observed. Additionally, its therapeutic effectiveness could be demonstrated by i.v. and local therapy. There was also observed an increase of lymphocyte blastogenesis response in patients under treatment with OK-432.     

Hepatitis C virus and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: Findings from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study

Infections with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and, possibly, hepatitis B virus (HBV) are associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in the general population, but little information is available on the relationship between hepatitis viruses and NHL among people with HIV (PHIV). We conducted a matched case-control study nested in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS). Two hundred and ninety-eight NHL cases and 889 control subjects were matched by SHCS centre, gender, age group, CD4+ count at enrollment, and length of follow-up. Odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed using logistic regression to evaluate the association between NHL and seropositivity for antibodies against HCV (anti-HCV) and hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc), and for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Anti-HCV was not associated with increased NHL risk overall (OR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.63-1.75), or in different strata of CD4+ count, age or gender. Only among men having sex with men was an association with anti-HCV found (OR = 2.37; 95% CI: 1.03-5.43). No relationships between NHL risk and anti-HBc or HBsAg emerged. Coinfection with HIV and HCV or HBV did not increase NHL risk compared to HIV alone in the SHCS.