Nd: YAG interstitial laser thermotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: "Minimal treatment strategy" is desirable in certain breast cancer patients. The main objective of the present study is to examine the use of interstitial laser thermotherapy (laserthermia) for this purpose. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five patients with primary breast cancer were treated with laserthermia using the Nd:YAG (1,064 nm) pulse-wave laser. In 28 patients, laserthermia was performed before radical resection, and in seven patients it was the only invasive treatment. RESULTS: One gaseous rupture of tumor occurred at 3 Watts. The diameter of single focus of laser-induced damage after 1-2 Watts was less than 1 cm, and after 2.5-6 Watts it reached 1.5-2.5 cm. Of seven patients treated without surgery, local tumor control was achieved in five, and in three stage I-III patients disease-free survival followed for 19-60 months. After laserthermia plus surgery, 3-year disease-free survival was 27% in premenopausal and 92% in menopausal patients. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that laser destruction of relatively small primary breast cancer is possible. Provisionally, laserthermia should not be used in premenopausal patients.

[Ultrastructure of the microcirculation bed of the stomach and duodenum in the bleeding ulcer zone]. / Ul'trastruktura mikrotsirkuliatornogo rusla zheludka i dvenadtsatiperstnoi kishki v zone krovotochashchei iazvy.

According to the data obtained by electron-microscopy investigation of endotheliocytes from the bleeding ulcer zone there was noted the dominance of catabolic processes over synthetic, the creation of folds of endotheliocytes processes, what causes the capillaries lumen narrowing, the basal layer lysis. These factors are the starting mechanism of gastrointestinal bleeding occurrence.

[An electron microscopic study and the morphofunctional status of the lungs in an experimental reproduction of acute pneumonia]. / Elektronno-mikroskopicheskoe issledovanie i morfofunktsional'noe sostoianie legkikh pri éksperimental'nom vosproizvedenii ostroi penvemonii.

An analysis of the ultrastructural organization of alveocytes (types I and II), endotheliocytes, interstitium alveolar, macrophages and aerohematic barrier in rabbits with experimental acute pneumonia revealed disorders of synthesis and release of surfactant on the alveolar surface. The observed in pneumonia edema and swelling of the aerohematic barrier components as well as the interstitium reduces the protective mechanism of alveols favouring transition of the disease to a protracted form.