Adjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin-containing regimen for 326 stage II breast cancers: 15-year results.

Between 1975 and 1986, 326 patients with stage II breast cancer were treated with an adjuvant combination of doxorubicin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and 5-fluorouracil (AVCF) following regional therapy (232 modified radical mastectomy, 94 lumpectomies, 304 irradiations). The AVCF regimen consisted of 4-week cycles of doxorubicin (30 mg/m2 day 1, modified radical mastectomy), vincristine (1 mg/m2 day 2), 5-fluorouracil 400 (mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2) days 3-6. Two hundred twenty-four patients (pts) had six cycles and 102 pts 12 cycles; 90 pts also received 30 mg daily tamoxifen for 1 year after chemotherapy. As of March 1994, the median follow-up was 130 months (range 86-221). One hundred eighteen pts developed recurrences (7 local, 19 controlateral, 92 metastatic) and 104 died. Estimated disease-free survival (DFS) was 5 years, 76 +/- 5%; 10 years, 64 +/- 5%; 15 years, 54 +/- 9%. Overall survival (OS) was 5 years, 85 +/- 4%; 10 years, 70 +/- 5%; 15 years, 58 +/- 10%. Survival was affected by the number of involved lymph nodes (258 pts were N+), menopausal status (OS at 15 years: 53% for MP+ and 65% for MP-) and Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grading, but not by hormonal receptors, number of courses, or associated hormonotherapy. Minimal cardiac toxicity was induced by doxorubicin either during or subsequent to treatment completion.

[Myocobacterium tuberculosis endomyocarditis. Apropos of a case in a patient with a mitral valve prosthesis]. / Endomyocardite à Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A propos d'un cas chez un patient porteur d'une prothèse valvulaire mitrale.

A case of lethal cardiac tuberculosis with myocardial and endocardial involvement is reported in a 46 year old man with a Starr-Edwards mitral valve prosthesis inserted two years previously for severe mitral regurgitation, secondary to ruptured chordae of the posterior mitral leaflet. Apart from tuberculous pericarditis, cardiac involvement is extremely rare; it occurs in "tuberculous septicemia" whose characteristic features--tuberculinic anergy, hematological abnormalities especially pancytopenia,--lead to delay in diagnosis, which is usually fatal. The case presented is an example.

[Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome caused by association of atrio-hisian fibers and Mahaim's fibers. Comparison between the electrophysiology and histology]. / Syndrome de Wolff-Parkinson-White par association de fibres atrio-hissiennes et de fibres de Mahaïm. Confrontation entre l'électrophysiologie et l'histologie

A child of six who had had several losses of consciousness died suddenly during a spell of tachycardia. The EKG showed at times a type B Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, at times a Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome. Intracavitary electrophysiological explorations had been carried out. The interest of this case lies in the comparison between these electrophysiological explorations and the histological examination of the normal and accessory conduction pathways. The short PR interval, which did not lengthen under the effect of premature atrial stimulation, was accounted for by the presence of atrio-His bundle tracts. The intermittent delta wave was due to Hissio-ventricular Mahaim fibres. These two accessory conduction pathways are considered as abnormal.