[Cladribine treatment of repeatedly-relapsed Langerhans cell histiocytosis: a case report and literature review].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the salvage therapy for a child with refractory and ( or) repeatedly-relapsed Langerhans cell histiocytosis. METHOD: Data of a patient with Langerhans cell histiocytosis whose disease relapsed repeatedly treated with cladribine was collected and analyzed and the related literature was reviewed. RESULT: The initial symptoms developed 3 months after his birth, multiple systems (skin, skeleton, lung, liver) were involved; he was sequentially treated with LCH-III-Group I, JLSG-96, DAL-HX90 chemotherapeutic regimens. The patient got relapses for more than 3 times, but the disease got completely controlled after being treated with cladribine when the patient was 6 years old. The dosage was 10 mg/(m2 · d) for 4 days, and one course lasted for 28 days, the third to fifth courses of treatment used Arac in combination, the whole treating time lasted for 5 months. The patient remained in persistent remission for 8 months since discontinuation of treatment. "Langerhans cell histiocytosis" "refractory" "cladribine" were used as the key words to search in the data bases CNKI, Wanfangdata and Pubmed, 11 articles were picked. According to the literature, the effective rate of cladribine in treatment of repeatedly relapsing Langerhans cell histiocytosis was 44%-100%, with a good response of 22%-86%, the dose was 5-13 mg/(m2 · d). The main side effects were hematological system damages and infection. CONCLUSION: The effect of commonly used chemotherapeutic regimens is limited for children with refractory and (or) repeatedly-relapsed Langerhans cell histiocytosis and cladribine can be used as an alternative therapeutic option of the salvage therapy.

Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome:a case report and literature review / 北京大学学报(医学版)

SUMMARY We described 1 case of autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome ( ALPS) , first diagnosed in our hospital, and reviewed the recent literature. The 11-month old male patient presented with a histo-ry of splenomegaly and hepatomegaly since 1 month after birth. He suffered recurrent infectious diseases including cytomegalovirus infection, parvovirus B19 infection and chronic diarrhea disease. Besides, his symptoms included hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. The laboratory abnormality indicated an ex-panded population of alpha/beta double-negative T cells (DNTs) (27. 18% of lymphocytes, 35. 16% of CD3 + T lymphocytes) in peripheral blood, and autoantibodies including antinuclear antibody, double-stranded DNA and rheumatic factor were positive. Hyper gamma globulinemia and positive direct Coombs tests were seen in the patient. His parents were both healthy and denied autoimmune diseases. We iden-tified a heterozygous point mutation in exon 3 of the FAS gene carrying c. 309 A>C, resulting in a single base pair substitution in exon 3 of FAS gene which changed the codon of Arg103 to Ser103 . Unfortunate-ly, we were unable to obtain the gene results of the child' s parents. The patient was treated with glu-cocorticoids in our hospital and with mycophenolatemofetil in other hospital. And we were informed that his anemia condition relieved through the telephone follow-up, but he still suffered recurrent infections, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly still existed. As we all know ALPS is characterized by defective lympho-cyte apoptosis, and thus cause lymphoproliferative disease and autoimmune disease, and increase the risk of lymphoma. It is more likely to be misdiagnosed as other diseases. ALPS should be suspected in the case of chronic lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly and autoimmune features. Flow cytometry approach is helpful for the diagnosis. Immunosuppressive drugs are the necessary treatment.

Comprehensive treatment of neuroblastoma in children associated with opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the efficacy of combined modality therapy for neuroblastoma in children associated with opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS-NB).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>From May 2011 to December 2013, 6 consecutive patients (4 boys and 2 girls) diagnosed as OMS-NB underwent surgery and chemotherapy in the First Hospital, Peking University. The median age of onset was 19.5 months (range 13-24 months) and misdiagnosis occurred 7.5 months (range 2-14 months) ago. A retrospective analysis for the location, stage, pathological type, treatment way and outcome of neuroblastoma was done.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>(1) All patients were misdiagnosed as simply opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) at the time of onset. They had been receiving treatment with adrenocorticotropic hormone and intravenous immunoglobulin within 1-13 months.OMS-NB was diagnosed by means of enhanced abdominal CT image which was delayed to be given after the poor efficacy or relapse. (2) The primary tumors were almost all small, stage I-II, located in adrenal, retroperitoneal or pelvis. The pathology of tumors included ganglioneuroblastoma (5/6) and neuroblastoma (1/6). (3) All these cases underwent surgery, 4/6 cases with complete tumor resection, 2/6 cases with tumor around the aorta and induced local residue. Preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy was given to 2 and 5 cases, respectively. (4) The patients were followed up for 3-31 months, except 1 patient lost, the other 5 are currently surviving disease-free (3 having been at the end of chemotherapy, 1 still in chemotherapy, and another had local recurrence and is receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy after the second operation and now also stopped taking the medicine). The symptoms of nervous system have been significantly improved during postoperative chemotherapy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>To reduce the misdiagnosis, regular CT imaging of the abdomen or pelvic should be ordered for all cases with OMS. The children with OMS-NB need to be actively treated with the combined modality therapy including surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, to reduce recurrence and reduce the symptoms of nervous system.</p>