Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Lattuada.
Complications at the level of the thoracic wall during biliary drainage are rare. Two cases of rib erosion manifested more than 15 months after insertion of a percutaneous drainage catheter are reported. The contact of the catheter with the ribs and the extension to the periosteum and bony tissue of granulomatous processes are discussed as pathogenetic mechanisms.
Local surgical failures of rectal and rectosigmoidal cancer are often observed and represent a heavy clinical problem from the viewpoint of quality of life. After having referred bad results of radiotherapy in a group of 55 patients locally relapsed after radical surgery, the authors analyse causes of therapeutic failure, underlining that ineffectiveness of radiation treatment comes mainly from late and, frequently, not complete diagnosis. Computed tomography must be currently considered the best way for monitoring these patients in order to get an earlier detection and the most correct radiation treatment plan.
From 1970 to 1980, 171 consecutive cases with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) of Waldeyer's ring were admitted to this Institute. The cases were reviewed to evaluate whether involvement of Waldeyer's ring might represent a distinct clinicopathologic entity. Adequate pathologic staging was performed in 86% of cases. All slides were reviewed, and the histologic diagnosis given according to the Rappaport classification, the Kiel classification, and the recent Working Formulation of NHL for Clinical Usage. Waldeyer's ring alone was involved in 12.3% of the cases at presentation; regional nodes were positive in one-third (35.7%), and distant involvement was detected in half of the patients (52%). The tonsils represented the most frequent site of involvement by NHL within Waldeyer's ring. Treatments employed were heterogeneous, but most of the patients with stage I-II received radiotherapy alone. The present series shows that the association of involvement of Waldeyer's ring and the stomach by NHL occurs in less than 10% of the cases. Treatment results and patterns of recurrence fail to differentiate NHL involving Waldeyer's ring from those of other sites. Prognosis remains related to the classical variables and is independent of the site of onset.
Seventy-nine consecutive children with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with a uniform intensive radiotherapy-chemotherapy program including high-dose MTX and CNS prophylaxis. Burkitt-type NHL was diagnosed in 44% and convoluted cell-type NHL in 33%. Complete remission rate was 97.5%. Forty-eight of 79 children (61%) remain progression-free after 18-78 months of follow-up. Patients belonging to the Burkitt type subgroup showed a peculiar clinical behavior as well as a significantly shorter survival than the other NHL patients (3-year overall survival rates of 50% vs. 72%, respectively). Clinical stages were related to the progression-free survival. It is concluded that treatment should be tailored according to the histology (Burkitt-type NHL vs. other histologic types) and the clinical stage.
Data on 56 patients with pure dysgerminoma are discussed. Forty-nine patients were classified as having new disease or were to have reassessment of disease, and seven cases were to be restaged (one with and six without clinical evidence of disease). Of new and reassessment cases, 44 patients underwent lymphography, 16 underwent peritoneoscopy with diaphragmatic inspection and 30 had peritoneal cytologic testing performed. Positive lymphography resulted in restaging in 31.6% of patients. Diaphragmatic inspection was always negative. Peritoneal cytologic testing was positive for malignant cells in three patients and worsened the stage in one. Pathologic staging of disease was as follows: Stage IA, 24; Stage IB, one Stage IC, one; Stage III peritoneal disease, two. Stage III retroperitoneal disease, 12; Stage III peritoneal and retroperitoneal disease; four. The 5-year relapse-free survival rates were 91% in patients with pathologic Stages IA, IB, and IC; 74% in those with Stage III retroperitoneal disease, and 24% in patients with Stage III peritoneal disease or peritoneal plus retroperitoneal disease. The results indicate that the prognosis is excellent for patients with Stage I and Stage III retroperitoneal disease whereas peritoneal involvement is associated with a poor prognosis.
Sequential half-body irradiation (HBI) to be delivered in two sessions was used in 18 consecutive patients with metastatic Ewing sarcoma who relapsed after radiotherapy and multidrug chemotherapy. The HBI program to both upper and lower hemi body was completed in 11 patients (61%). The remaining 7 patients received only one single treatment of HBI because of relapse before the completion of the treatment program. In 20 of the 29 sessions HBI was employed to treat overt metastases. The overall objective response rate was 50%. Six of 18 patients (33%) are alive from 4 to 27 months, 3 of them without evidence of disease. No severe toxicity was observed. HBI as systemic treatment was more effective in patients who relapsed while off chemotherapy, with metastases confined to the lungs or to one single bone segment.
One hundred and fifty-five consecutive previously untreated adult patients with supradiaphragmatic pathologic stage IA (71) and IIA (84) Hodgkin's disease treated only with radiotherapy (RT) at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milano from 1970 to 1978 were reviewed. Staging procedures included lymphangiography and laparotomy in all cases. Most patients were irradiated with a conventional cobalt machine. Mantle fields were adopted for 36.8% of cases, mainly at stage I, whereas 63.2% received mantle plus paraaortal irradiation. Doses were above 40 Gy for involved sites and 35-40 Gy for prophylactically irradiated nodes. Minimum and median follow-up were 30 months and 6 years, respectively. All patients achieved complete remission at the end of RT. As of June 1981, 89 of 155 patients (57.5%) were alive and free from progression, 60.6% at stage I, and 54.8% at stage II. Relapses occurred in 54 of 155 cases (35%) after a median free interval of 21 months. Marginal recurrences accounted for 5.8%, true recurrences for 9%, nodal extensions for 8.4%, and extranodal extensions for 11.6%. Males older than 40 years and mediastinal involvement were correlated with higher relapse rates. Salvage treatment consisted of RT alone in 8 patients and chemotherapy plus or minus RT in 44, whereas 2 patients died before a new treatment could start. As of June 1981, 38 of 54 relapsed patients (70.4%) were alive and disease free, whereas 2 were alive with evidence of disease. Actuarial overall survival at 6 years was 90.3% for all cases, 97.1% for stage I, and 84.8% for stage II. Treatment toxicity was analyzed, and problems concerning surgical staging procedures, optimal RT and role of chemotherapy as primary or salvage treatment were discussed.
Xeroradiography was performed on 38 cases of bone or soft tissue tumors submitted to radiotherapy. The examination was done before, during and after the radiological treatment and at longer intervals after the completion of its course. The indications and the drawbacks of xeroradiography for the follow-up of irradiated cases and for the search of recurrences are discussed, taking also into account the other radiological techniques used in this field. Xeroradiography is held to be very useful in planning the treatment of malignant bone tumors with extraosseous spread, since it allows to establish the real limits of the tumor to be irradiated. Moreover, xeroradiography is helpful to recognize the radiotherapeutic sequelae on superficial soft tissues, as oedema, fibrosis and necrosis of the subcutaneous fat and skin.
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Between 1968 and 1975, 44 evaluable children under 16 years of age with the histologic diagnosis of non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma (ML) were treated at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan. Histologic diagnoses were reclassified as follows: 13 lymphoblastic (others) ML, 15 convoluted cell type lymphoblastic ML, 9 Burkitt type ML, and 7 immunoblastic ML. Only 36% of the patients had stage I and II disease. At diagnosis 25% showed malignant cells in the bone marrow smears. Bone marrow infiltration was particularly frequent in the convoluted cell type lymphoblastic ML and in the lymphoblastic (others) ML subgroups. Burkitt type ML frequently was associated with abdominal lesions and subsequently a high incidence of central nervous system involvement. Patients with stage I and II ML were encountered mostly in the immunoblastic ML subgroup. After 1973 more intensive chemotherapy plus radiotherapy seems to have slightly improved the survival of the patients, except in the Burkitt type ML Subgroup.
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From January, 1973, to June, 1976, 226 patients with palpable ovarian masses were evaluated preoperatively by lymphography. Histology showed 166 cases of malignant epithelial tumors, 26 benign tumors, and 34 malignant special tumors (not included in this report). Furthermore, the group of patients included 99 recurrences of ovarian epithelial cancer and 24 patients who underwent restaging diagnostic procedures without clinical evidence of disease. Lymphography was negative in all patients with benign tumors. In the 289 cases of epithelial cancer, lymphangiography gave evidence of nodal metastases in 88 (30%). When the histological subtype was considered, the highest incidence of metastases was in undifferentiated carcinoma (50%) and the lowest, in mesonephroid carcinoma (14%). According to the stage before lymphography, nodal metastases were found in 8% of Stage I, 0% of Stage II, 29% of Stage III, and 53% of Stage IV cases. The incidence of metastases was 46% in patients studied for recurrent disease and 17% in patients studied for restaging. Fifty-four percent of patients had metastases only in the pelvic nodes and 18% only in the para-aortic chains; in 28% both chains were involved simultaneously. Bilateral involvement was found in 63% of the positive cases. Retroperitoneal node biopsies were performed in 68 patients (36%). The radiologic/histologic correlation was 100% in the lymphangiographically positive cases; 81% in the negative cases, with nine false-negative reports; and 87% in all cases.
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The results obtained with intensive chemotherapy and intensive chemotherapy plus radiotherapy in non-Hodgkin's lymphomata are reported. A quintuple drug regimen (mechloretamine, adriamycin, bleomycin, vincristine and prednisone) in histiocytic lymphomata (Stage III and IV) yielded complete remissions in 53% and complete plus partial remissions in 77%. These figures were 44% and 64% respectively in lymphocytic lymphoma. In Stage III complete responders after combination chemotherapy were subsequently irradiated (involved field irradiation). The median duration of complete remission after completion of radiotherapy was 9-5 months in histiocytic and 12-0 months in lymphocytic lymphomata. At 2 years actuarial survival in Stage III and IV was better in patients with the lymphocytic type and with nodular pattern than with histiocytic and diffuse patterns. A more recent trial compares, in Stage IV patients, cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone (CVP) versus adriamycin, bleomycin and prednisone (ABP). Although the number of evaluable patients is still limited, there appears to be no difference in the response rate between CVP and ABP. In Stages I and II, 6 cycles of CVP were given as adjuvant treatment after radiotherapy. At the present moment, there is no statistical difference in the relapse rate between the group of patients treated with radiotherapy alone and that with radiotherapy plus CVP.
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