I read with great interest the recent article by Yasumatsu et al. [1]. Interestingly, recent data suggests that orotate phosphoribosyl transferase (OPRT) may significantly influence tumor prognosis and response to 5-fluorouracil therapy in a number of systemic malignancies besides head and neck carcinomas. For instance, a close association exists between OPRT levels and prognosis in esophageal ...

Introduction: Administration of chemotherapy in a wide variety of cancers is associated with various side effects, with structural affection of gastrointestinal tract being a major clinical concern and a major cause of cancer treatment-related morbidity. Aim of the work: This current study was performed to assess the light and scanning electron microscopic changes of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) induc...

We read with great interest the recent study by Gavin and colleagues (1), who evaluated the prognostic and predictive value of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) status for oxaliplatin-containing adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage II and III colon cancer from National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project clinical trials C-07 and C-08. Of note, C-07 showed that the addition of oxaliplatin...

Correspondence: Fabio Guzzini, M.D., Department of Emergency Medicine, Ospedale, piazzale Borella 1, 21047 Saronno, Italy. Tel. international +39-2-9613251 • Fax international +39-2-9613214. Although overt clinical abnormalities are present, brain CT scans may be normal in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Nonetheless a study form a large series at the Mayo Clinic showed ...

editorial Management of neuromuscular dose limiting toxicity at the early stage of drug development Non-hematological toxicities, including neuromuscular toxicity, occurring during phase I trials may prevent novel compounds from undergoing further drug development. Toxicity may also result in the recommendation of low doses and inappropriate schedules with no antitumor activity, rapidly reducin...

M.B. is a 71-year-old male who presented in January 2001 with renal cell carcinoma metastatic to paraesophageal, peri-aortic, hilar, and mediastinal lymph nodes. He was started on interleukin-2 (IL-2, aldesleukin) 18 million units, interferon alpha 10 million units, and 5-fluorouracil 1 g, all administered by IV continuous infusion for 96 hours every three weeks. No significant complications oc...

During the past few years, several laboratories reported that actinomycin D blocked the antiviral activity of interferon (E. Heller, Virology 21:652, 1963; J. Taylor, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 14:447, 1964). This finding suggests that de novo synthesis of cellular ribonucleic acid (RNA) is required for the functioning of interferon, because actinomycin D is known to block the synthesis of ...

Introduction Head and neck cancers are a common group of malignancies. They rank sixth among the cancers, and accounting for 6% of all cancer cases globally1. In early stages the disease is highly curable with either radiotherapy or surgery, and these modalities offer equivalent survival outcomes. However, most patients up to 60% present with advanced disease which confers a poor prognosis2. Th...

INTRODUCTION In an African setting surgery is generally accepted as the treatment of first choice for glaucoma. A problem with trabeculectomy surgery for the glaucomas is the frequent co-existence and exacerbation of cataract. We report a randomized controlled trial to compare the use of beta radiation with 5FU in combined cataract and glaucoma surgery. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS Consenting adu...

The method for measuring polyglutamate forms of CH2-H4PteGlu and ILtPteGlu, by entrapment in ternary complexes with |6-'H|5-fluoro-2'deoxyuridylate and Lactobacillus casei thymidylate synthase has been characterized. Results demonstrated that (a) the relationship between concentration of ( 11 -1U'M ,ln and complex isolated on nondenaturing gels was dependent upon the number of glutamyl residues...