The majority of aggressive forms of the childhood tumor neuroblastoma can with current treatment protocols not be cured and possess a major challenge in pediatric oncology. After initial rounds of chemotherapy, surgery and irradiation, which in most cases result in tumor regression, these aggressive neuroblastomas relapse and frequently develop drug resistance. As approximately 50% of the child...

Arsenic trioxide inhibits growth and promotes apoptosis in many different cancer cell lines. The National Cancer Institute is working cooperatively with research centers across the U.S. to evaluate its clinical activity in hematologic malignancies, such as acute promyelocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodg...

IMPORTANCE Tumor resistance is an emerging problem for Smoothened (SMO) inhibitor-treated metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Arsenic trioxide and itraconazole antagonize the hedgehog (HH) pathway at sites distinct from those treated by SMO inhibitors. OBJECTIVE To determine whether administration of intravenous arsenic trioxide and oral itraconazole in patients with metastatic BCC is asso...

Arsenic trioxide has been shown to be effective in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), with minimal overall toxicity reported to date. A phase I/II study was initiated in June 1998 using arsenic trioxide for relapsed APL to determine the maximum tolerated or minimal effective dose and to determine the efficacy of treatment at that dose. Ten patients received 1 to 4 monthly cycles of tr...

OBJECTIVES To identify and measure any relations between occupational exposure to cadmium compounds (oxide, sulphide, and sulphate) and the risk of mortality from lung cancer. METHODS The mortality experience of 571 male production workers from a cadmium recovery facility in the United States was investigated for the period 1940-82. All study subjects were first employed in the period 1926-69...

Arsenic trioxide has been successfully used as a therapeutic in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Detailed monitoring of the therapeutic arsenic and its metabolites in various accessible specimens of APL patients can contribute to improving treatment efficacy and minimizing arsenic-induced side effects. This article focuses on the determination of arsenic species in saliva sa...

BACKGROUND Notch and Hedgehog signaling have been implicated in the pathogenesis and stem-like characteristics of glioblastomas, and inhibitors of the pathways have been suggested as new therapies for these aggressive tumors. It has also been reported that targeting both pathways simultaneously can be advantageous in treating glioblastoma neurospheres, but this is difficult to achieve in vivo u...

The behavior of arsenic during pyrolysis at temperatures between 135 and 500 degrees C has been widely studied. We examined the release of arsenic during the pyrolysis of chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood, and here we propose two models for the volatilization of arsenic: (a) a reacted arsenic compound, chromium arsenate, in CCA-treated wood was initially decomposed to arsenic pentoxi...

At an acute ingestion of arsenic trioxide, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are early symptoms occurring within 30 min to several hours. Primary target organ is the gastrointestinal tract (GIТ), where hemorrhagic gastroenteritis can occur in serious cases. Among cardiovascular symptoms are tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and heart failure described. Neurological symptoms ca...

The incidence of high concentrations of arsenic in drinking-water has emerged as a major public-health problem. With newer-affected sites discovered during the last decade, a significant change has been observed in the global scenario of arsenic contamination, especially in Asian countries. This communication presents an overview of the current scenario of arsenic contamination in countries acr...