BNCT for skin melanoma in extremities: updated Argentine clinical results.

As part of phase I/II melanoma BNCT clinical trial conducted in Argentina in a cooperative effort of the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the Oncology Institute Angel H. Roffo (IOAHR), 7 patients (6 female-1 male) received eight treatment sessions covering ten anatomical areas located in extremities. Mean age of the patients was 64 years (51-74). The treatments were performed between October 2003 and June 2007. All patients presented multiple subcutaneous skin metastases of melanoma and received an infusion containing approximately 14 gr/m(2) of (10)borophenyl-alanine (BPA) followed by the exposition of the area to a mixed thermal-epithermal neutron beam at the RA-6 reactor. The maximum prescribed dose to normal skin ranged from 16.5 to 24 Gy-Eq and normal tissue administered dose varied from 15.8 to 27.5 Gy-Eq. Considering evaluable nodules, 69.3% of overall response and 30.7% of no changes were seen. The toxicity was acceptable, with 3 out of 10 evaluable areas showing ulceration (30% toxicity grade 3).

First BNCT treatment of a skin melanoma in Argentina: dosimetric analysis and clinical outcome.

A Phase I/II protocol for treating cutaneuos melanomas with BNCT was designed in Argentina by the Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica and the medical center Instituto Roffo. The first of a cohort of thirty planned patients was treated on October 9, 2003. This article depicts the protocol-based procedure and describes the first clinical case, treatment regime and planning, patient irradiation, retrospective dosimetric analysis and clinical outcome. Considering the low acute skin toxicity and the complete response in 21 of the 25 subcutaneous melanoma nodules treated, a second irradiation was performed in a different location of the extremity of the same patient. The corresponding clinical outcome is still under evaluation.

[The effect of treatment with human recombinant erythropoietin on the functional status of patients on maintenance hemodialysis]. / Vliianie lecheniia rekombinantnym chelovecheskim éritropoétinom na funktsional'noe sostoianie bol'nykh na podderzhivaiushchem gemodialize.

As many as ten patients with terminal uremia on maintenance hemodialysis (MH) performed from 11 to 52 months (28 +/- 4 on the average) were treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (rhERP) manufactured by Cilag (Switzerland). The preparation was injected i.v. in the initial dose 65 U/kg bw thrice a week after each session of MH. If the effect was lacking for 2 weeks, the doze was augmented by 25 U/kg (maximally up to 218 U/kg). Provided the Hb content increased to 100-120 g/l, the maintenance therapy was initiated (108 +/- 13 U/kg). The treatment lasted 17 +/- 2 weeks. As a result, the Hb content in the patients rose from 63.0 to 102.0 g/l, the hematocrit index from 21.2 to 34.4%, the red blood cell count from 2.09 to 3.18 x 10(12)/l; there was a transitory increase of the reticulocyte and platelet counts (from 2.2 to 3.3% and from 172.0 to 284.0 x 10(9)/l) whereas the leukocyte count remained unchanged. It has been demonstrated by the bicycle ergometry data that in addition to the amelioration of the hematological parameters, the patients showed an increase of oxygen consumption at rest, rise of the economy of energy losses at exercise, and a decline of oxygen "cost" of work. According to echocardiography, the patients manifested a reduction of the size of the left heart, of the minute and stroke volumes. In men, the treatment with rhERP brought about libido elevation in the absence of significant alterations in the blood gonadotrophin and testosterone concentrations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Role of electrical interference between adjacent portions of the myocardium in the origin of arrhythmias]. / Rol' vzaimnogo élektricheskogo vliianiia sosednikh uchastkov miokarda v vozniknovenii aritmii.

Excitation propagation was studied in the papillary muscle of cat's heart and on a mathematical model of homogenous fibre, considerable inhomogeneity being created in the duration of the action potential (DAP) in the left and right part of the object studied. Gradual changes in DAP were observed during excitation propagation period, therefore rough differences in DAP of neighbouring myocardial areas may be excluded. No arrhythmia was observed. It is shwon that the arrhythmia which occurred previously [7] with an increase of DAP in one part of the preparation after EDTA addition was not connected with DAP differences in the neighbouring myocardial areas.