Attenuated veterinary virus vaccine for the treatment of cancer.

Attenuated (nonpathogenic) avian viruses have been used as a form of nonspecific immunological treatment for advanced human cancer. For this study, we used Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccine MTH-68/N in an open phase II/B, placebo-controlled (26 patients), multicenter clinical trial for the treatment of 33 patients with advanced cancers. NDV (4000 U/day) or placebo was administered by inhalation twice weekly. During the 6-month trial, the size and presence of primary tumors and metastases were objectively monitored at five institutions by radiologists unaware of the type of treatment that was given. Regression of tumor(s) and/or metastases were observed in eight cases treated with virus (vs. none in the placebo group; p < 0.01). Ten additional patients treated with NDV had no further progression of their tumor sizes, whereas tumor stabilization was noted in only two control patients. Objective, favorable responses (regressions plus stabilization) to virus therapy thus occurred in a total of 18 patients (55%) compared to 2 patients in the placebo group (8%; p < 0.01). Two cases of complete remission were noted in the group treated with NDV. Patients receiving virus therapy had a higher rate of survival at 1 to 2 years. Of 33 patients receiving virus vaccine, 22 survived 1 year, compared to only 4 of 26 patients in the control group (p < 0.02). After 2 years, all seven survivors in the study were in the virus therapy group. There were no 2-year survivors in the control group (p < 0.0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Surface potential distribution on the human thoracic surface in left bundle branch block.

The sequences of myocardial excitation in the cases of human LBBB have been studied by the surface mapping technique. Analysis of the surface map patterns of 12 subjects has enabled 4 different types to be described. It is suggested that Type I represents a complete LBBB in the presence of an intact right bundle branch, while Types II and III show different degrees of conduction defect in the right bundle branch, too. The left ventricular activation of these 3 types has a similar pathway in phases II and III which is determined by orientation of the main subepicardial muscle layer coursing through the apex and terminating in the anterobasal region. The terminal anterobasal activation in the cases of LBBB has not only theoretical, but clinical significance, since in the presence of anteroseptal myocardial infarction the signs of necrosis must be hidden not in the early, but in the terminal parts of the QRS complex of conventional ECG. The lack of terminal anterior positivity of surface maps in the case of LBBB may be indicative of chronic anterior myocardial infarction.