[Gastrointestinal stromal tumor: individualized treatment for a special class of tumors]. / Gastrointestinaler Stromatumor: individuelle Therapie für eine besondere Tumorklasse.

HISTORY AND ADMISSION FINDINGS: Case 1: A 36-year-old woman was admitted because of dizziness and weakness. Her skin and mucosae were pale. There was rather dark stool on the gloved finger at rectal examination, but the patient had not noticed any tarry stools. Case 2: An 89-year-old man in excellent general condition presented with dyspepsia. Physical examination was unremarkable except for a small epigastric hernia. INVESTIGATIONS: Endoscopy in Case 1 revealed, at the lesser curvature of the gastric antrum, a submucous tumour covered by a slightly haemorrhagic mucosal erosion. In Case 2 endoscopy similarly revealed an antral submucous tumour. There was no evidence of metastasis in either case. TREATMENT AND COURSE: Exploratory laparotomy was performed in both patients. A subtotal gastric resection with gastrojejunostomy was undertaken in Case 1, a submucous excision via an anterior gastrostomy in Case 2. In both cases histology showed a gastrointestinal stromal tumour, but its benignity could not be firmly established even after detailed immunohistological examination. CONCLUSION: Gastrointestinal tumours are rare. Although they have particular immunohistological characteristics their benignity cannot usually be definitively established even on the excised specimen. Because more extensive resection does not increase survival time, a resection margin of 1-2 cm is considered adequate. Neither radio- nor chemotherapy are successful. Life-long follow-up is indicated because the tumor's uncertain benignity.

Growth inhibition in clonal subpopulations of a human epithelioid sarcoma cell line by retinoic acid and tumour necrosis factor alpha.

Epithelioid sarcoma is a highly malignant soft tissue tumour that is refractory to conventional chemotherapy and irradiation. Since permanent cell lines of this tumour are extremely rare, in vitro data on compounds with significant antiproliferative effects are still lacking. Therefore, we investigated the effects of retinoic acid (RA) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) on tumour cell proliferation of three different clonal subpopulations (GRU-1A, GRU-1B, GRU-1C) derived from the same human epithelioid sarcoma cell line, GRU-1. In GRU-1A both RA (P=0.01) and TNF-alpha (P=0.002) exhibited highly significant and dose-dependent growth inhibitory effects, which could further be increased by a combined application of both compounds (P<0.006). GRU-1B proved to be sensitive to RA (P=0.006), whereas no response to TNF-alpha was observed. GRU-1C was resistant to both RA and TNF-alpha. The antiproliferative effect of TNF-alpha was mediated by TNF receptor 1(TNF-R1) and correlated positively with both the number of TNF-R1 per cell and receptor affinity. No correlation was detected between RA-induced growth inhibition and the expression pattern of the RA receptors (RARs) RAR-alpha, RAR-beta, and RAR-gamma. Plating efficiency, however, could exclusively be reduced by RA in GRU-1B, the only cell line expressing RAR-alpha. Taken together, these data are the first showing significant antiproliferative effects in human epithelioid sarcoma by RA and TNF-alpha. Whereas the TNF-alpha response seems to depend on the expression of TNF-R1, no simple correlation could be found between RA sensitivity and the expression pattern of RARs.

[Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. erinacei infection contracted from a hedgehog]. / Trichophyton-mentagrophytes-var.-erinacei-Infektion vom Igel.

Occasionally the hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is infected by Trichophyton mentagrophytes (Robin) Blanchard var. erinacei. This zoophilic dermatophyte may cause a difficult human phlegmatic trichophytia infection. The thread-fungus grows on the usual culture-medium with a clear-white surface without radius-folding. The lower surface of the culture shows a typical brillant-yellow colour. Microscopically the fungus presents abundant microconidia formation and a few distinct macroconidia. Cross-breeding with the tester strain Arthroderma simii "+" was negative, with "-" showed an increased growth and a formation of cleistothecium-primordia in the combination zone.

[Study on a Trichophyton quinckeanum species with a distinctly marked fluorescence of the scutulum in animal experiments]. / Studie Uber Trichophyton-quinckeanum-Stamm mit asgeprägter Fluoreszenz des Scutulums im Tierversuch

A vesicular skin lesion which existed since 1 week in the lower part of the leg of a 45-year-old woman appeared to be caused by fungus which was identified as Trichophyton quinckeanum (Zopf) MacLeod & Muende. The patient could not state to have had contact with animals. Peroral administration of griseofulvin and local application of 2% salicyl--5% sulfur--vaseline alternate with tonoftal cream healed the lesion completely. The fast growing fungus produced white, convoluted colonies with a brown, lat er wine-red reverse. Globose and club-shaped, one- and two-celled microconidia were formed especially 'en thrse'. The majority of the thin-walled macroconidia had rounded apices but a fusiform type of spore was also seen. Germination of the macroconidia was frequently observed. Experimental infection into the dorsal skin of white laboratory mouse produced a scutulum with a bright yellow later green fluorescence in Wood's light. The taxonomy of Trichophyton quinckeanum is briefly discussed.