Cutaneous disorders in patients with malignancy

Skin manifestations associated with malignancy is a subject which is relevant general medicine. In this study, we found that among 1112 cancer patients, 60 patients showed skin lesions. Specific lesions such as metastatic nodules, lymphoedema, psendocellulitis [an inflammatory metastatic lesions in the form of intense erythema, warmth and tenderness, occurring when the primary tumor is usually in the breast], and Paget disease of the nipple, were found in 15 cases. Non specific lesions such as skin infection, acquired icthyosis, itching and hyperkeratosis were seen in 60 cases

Scintigraphic study of patients with hyperthyroidism before and after radioactive iodine therapy

This study was carried out on 20 patients with hyperthyroidism. The diagnosis was based on clinical, laboratory, isotopic study and thyroid scan. Thyroid scanning was done at two stages; one before radioactive iodine therapy and one 6 months after treatment. Thyroid scintigraphy before treatment revealed that 16 patients had Gravs' disease [80%] and four patients had toxic nodular goiter [20%]; two patients had hot nodules and two had toxic multinodular goiter. It was useful for calculating the dose of radioactive iodine as it helps in estimation of gland size. After treatment 19 patients showed normal trace uptake accumulation, while one patient still had an increase trace uptake indicating persistent hyperthyroid scintigraphic picture and this was confirmed by clinical manifestations and laboratory tests. Two patients with normal trace uptake had hypothyroid manifestations as confirmed by clinical and laboratory findings. Accordingly, our conclusion is that thyroid scintigraphy is a helpful tool for diagnosis, verification of the type of hyperthyroidism and for estimation of the therapeutic dose of radioactive iodine but not for follow up after treatment

Thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin in hyperthyroidism

This study was carried out on 20 patients with hyperthyroidism. The diagnosis of hyperthyroidism was based on clinical, biochemical and isotopic studies. Sixteen patients were diagnosed as Gravs' disease and four patients as toxic nodular goiter [two had solitary hot nodule and two had multinodular goiter], Thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin estimation revealed normal levels in all patients with toxic nodular goiter; while-13-patients [81%] with Gravs' disease showed high level of thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin. Six months after radioactive iodine therapy, all patients with previously high levels of thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin showed reduction in their serum levels to reach a normal value in 6 of them [46%] and levels above normal range in 7 [54%]. This finding suggests that radioactive iodine therapy may have an immunoregulatory effect in cases of Gravs' disease

Radiotherapy results of bronchial carcinoma

In this study, 145 patients with inoperable histologically proved bronchial carcinoma treated primarily by irradiation were included in a retrospective study. Co60 irradiation was given to a dose of 30 Gy [1078 Rad] in 26 patients, 40 Gy [1298 Rad] in 63 patients 50 Gy [1500 Rad] in 42 patients and 60 Gy [1697 Rad] in 14 patients. Radiotherapy was followed one month later with combination chemotherapy in cases with oat cell carcinoma. The rate of symptom control varied between 59.3% and 83.3% according to symptom category. Objective tumor response [PR and CR] of 57.3% and 24.1% one-year survival was observed. Local recurrence was seen in 17.2%, while distant metastases were observed in 48.3%. The response rate and survival significantly increased with increase of dose. No statistically significant difference was observed in tumor response and survival when continuous or split course techniques were followed. High response rate was noticed in oat cell carcinoma. However, the difference in survival among different histologic types was not statistically significant