Cardiac malignant lymphoma successfully treated with chemotherapy

We report the case of an 83-year-old woman with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma located in the right cardiac ventricle revealed by acute congestive heart failure. Complete and long-lasting disappearance of the cardiac tumor was observed with monochemotherapy (cyclophosphamide).     

5-fluorouracil-resistant colonic tumors are highly responsive to sodium butyrate/interleukin-2 bitherapy in rats

Advanced colorectal cancer is generally refractory to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) chemotherapy. This is linked to the emergence of resistant cell populations, probably due to a selection process. The identification of molecular markers and the improvement of alternative therapies thus remain important. We have used as an experimental model a rat colon cancer cell line (PROb), which exhibits features similar to those of the human situation. 5-FU treatment of rats bearing PROb tumors enhanced their survival but did not lead to cure. A PROb 5-FU-resistant subline (PRObR1) was obtained by continuous in vitro exposure to 5-FU. Resistance to 5-FU was accompanied by a 2-fold increase in thymidylate synthase activity and a substantially higher incorporation of thymidine in the presence of 5-FU, compared with parental PROb cells. Unexpectedly, in syngeneic rats, PRObR1 tumors exhibited delayed growth when compared with parental PROb tumors. This was ascribed to an increased sensitivity of PRObR1 cells to host immune response since no growth delay was observed in immunocompromised nude mice and since there was no detectable difference in proliferation rates between PROb and PRObR1 cells. 5-FU treatment was inefficient in prolonging the survival of rats bearing PRObR1 tumors. In contrast, an immunotherapeutic protocol combining sodium butyrate and recombinant interleukin-2 (NaBut/rIL-2) cured 80% of the rats bearing established PRObR1 tumors. Our results suggest that NaBut/rIL-2 treatment is efficient against 5-FU-chemoresistant rat colon cancer. Int. J. Cancer 73:924–928, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Studies in the BALB/c mouse of the efficiency of spraying as compared to other inoculation ways for immunostimulant (author's transl)]

The of efficiency of spraying as compared to intranasal and digestive ways was tested on Balb/c mouse by using on the one hand an immunostimulant product and on the other various types of test : Myxovirus influenzae by aerosol, Streptococcus pyogenes intranasally, Klebsiella pneumoniae intraperitoneally. Results showed that in the case of influenza virus the immunostimulant inhaled as liquid aerosol or powder aerosol, or deposited on the nasal mucosa was very active. When the test germ was Streptococcus and the contamination intra-nasal, only the homologous way was efficient. When the test germ was Klebsiella pneumonia all inoculation forms except powder aerosol were effective. The comparative study of aerosols granulometry helps grasping this phenomenon.