[Five year-results of chemoresistance testing in cancer patients]. / Nase pät'rocné výsledky in vitro testovania chemorezistencie u onkologických pacientov.

BACKGROUNDS: Translational medicine is a medical field encompassing basic research and development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for clinical practice. The present scientific paper focuses on our previous experience in the field of chemoresistance testing in patients with oncological diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Since 2005, we sampled 71 patients with a leukaemia (AML, ALL and CML) and 92 patients with a solid tumour (lung and gastrointestinal tract cancer). Malignant cell in vitro drug resistance testing was carried out using cytotoxic methyl-thiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay. RESULTS: Based on the LC50 (lethal concentration of a drug killing 50% of cell population), we found that patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia exhibit a greater degree of resistance than patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. In patients with bronchogenic carcinomas, primary resistance to cisplatin was identified in 28% of tested samples, paclitaxel 36%, vincristine 50%, etoposide 56%, vinorelbine 57%, topotecan 62%, gemcitabine 77% and dacarbazine 86%. CONCLUSION: In vitro tests with gastrointestinal tract cancers also suggested high effectiveness of cisplatin (with the exception of gastric carcinoma) that was comparable with 5-fluorouracil. Even though the MTT assay has some limitations (insufficient number of vital cells, possible contamination by non-malignant cells, etc.), this in vitro method proved very effective in testing malignant cell resistance to clinically used cytostatics.

[The relation between economics and medicine in the implementation of a nationwide cardiovascular program]. / Vztah ekonomiky a medicíny pri realizaci celospolecenského kardiovaskulárního programu.

The health services, being part of the tertiary sphere, must rely as far as material resources are concerned on the results of the economic policy of the state. This has, however, also a feedback effect: economics can have favourable results only when the health status of the population permits the implementation of pretentious economic targets. Thus dialectic relations are involved. Nationwide health programmes must among others promote the health status of the population. It is, however, not possible for the health services to ensure these programmes self-handed. Every section of the population must be responsible for its share. This implies to legal, moral, economic professional, training and finally also political responsibility. The authors discuss the most important problems associated with ensuring mutual relations of these section in the implementation of the cardiovascular programme.