Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Hydrogel Rectal Spacer in Prostate Cancer Radiation Therapy

Purpose

A hydrogel rectal spacer (HRS) is a medical device that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to increase the separation between the prostate and rectum. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of HRS use for reduction in radiation therapy (RT) toxicities in patients with prostate cancer (PC) undergoing external beam RT (EBRT).

Variant Philadelphia chromosome translocations in two patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia

Two patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia and new variant Philadelphia chromosome translocations are reported. In one case, a 41-year-old male, a 10;22 translocation was found in all bone marrow cells examined. Furthermore, the Y chromosome was missing in 90% of the analyzed metaphase cells. In the second patient, a 22-year-old male, all the marrow cells contained a complex rearrangement involving chromosomes No. 2, 9, and 22.     

Body temperature is elevated in the early postmortem period

During the collection of specimens at autopsy for biochemical analysis, it was observed that body temperatures were higher than expected. To evaluate this observation further, rectal temperatures were determined at the earliest feasible time after death in 20 adult patients for whom recent premortem rectal temperatures were available for comparison. The average premortem temperature was 37.6 degrees C (range, 34.9 to 41.1 degrees C) and had been obtained 19 to 240 minutes (average, 107 minutes) before death. The average postmortem temperature, also 37.6 degrees C (range, 35.5 to 41.3 degrees C), was obtained 116 to 401 minutes (average, 202 minutes) after death. In the 11 patients in whom the postmortem interval was less than three hours (average, 155 minutes), there was an average postmortem temperature increase of 0.5 degree C (range, +1.3 to -0.7 degree C). The results suggest that there is usually an initial postmortem elevation in body temperature as measured rectally, probably as a result of continuing tissue and bacterial metabolism in the absence of the usual heat-dispersal mechanisms. This phenomenon should be considered when postmortem materials are used for analysis or when postmortem interval is determined by body temperature.     

Amyloidosis and multiple myeloma. A reevaluation using a control population

To explore the possible influence of multiple myeloma on age-related amyloid accumulation, the frequency, extent and distribution of amyloid deposition in 35 patients who died of multiple myeloma was compared to that observed in 138 patients of comparable age but without myeloma (controls). The presence of multiple myeloma did not appear to enhance the development of age-related amyloid.Amyloid deposition in the patients with myeloma could be distinguished from that in the patients without myeloma by the occasional finding of amyloid in the bone marrow. In addition, material having the tinctorial and ultrastructural characteristics of amyloid was found in the renal tubular casts of 15 patients with myeloma but in none of the controls.The results suggest that although the appearance of amyloid in certain locations appears to be characteristic of multiple myeloma, the presence of amyloid in the heart or vascular system, even in considerable amounts, in a patient with multiple myeloma does not necessarily imply that the two conditions are related.