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J Bartkowiak

Publications and source records attributed to J Bartkowiak.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Plasmablastic lymphoma in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia heavily pretreated with cladribine (2-CdA): an unusual variant of Richter's syndrome.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may develop a large-cell transformation known as Richter's syndrome (RS). RS usually presents as diffuse large-cell lymphoma (DLCL) or its immunoblastic variant, and it can be recognized simultaneously with CLL or even 23 yr after its diagnosis. We describe an unusual case of CLL treated with cladribine (2-CdA) in whom DLCL of the plasmablastic type (PBL) developed 4 yr after CLL (Rai IV) diagnosis and 1.5 yr after the 10th course of 2-CdA treatment. Immmunologic, cytogenetic, and molecular studies performed at the time of CLL and PBL coappearance indicated that both tumors originated from different B-cell progenitors. Both malignancies were refractory to VAD (vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone)-based chemotherapy, and only partial response was achieved with CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) salvage treatment. However, the patient died 6 months after the occurrence of RS due to rapid progression of PBL. This is the first description of a CLL patient who developed an unusual plasmablastic variant of RS. Recently, the PBL entity has been identified among DLCL associated with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We suggest that in our CLL patient heavily pretreated with 2-CdA, PBL arose as a second clone due to the prolonged and severe state of the host's immunosuppression. Overall survival with current strategies is poor, and further insight into the natural history, biology, and treatment of PBL are needed.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Loss of heterozygosity of WT1 gene in the prognosis of sporadic Wilms' tumour in children.

The aim of this report was to evaluate the prognostic value of allele loss of the WT1 gene in children with sporadic Wilms' tumour. Allele loss of the WT1 gene was evaluated using microsatellite polymorphisms in the 3' untranslated region of WT1 in a radioactive PCR assay. The study comprised 66 children (30 girls and 36 boys), aged from 2 days to 13 years, treated for Wilms' tumour according to the SIOP-09 and PGGL scheme. We have used DNA isolated from the neoplastic versus normal kidney tissue from the paraffin embedded sections using microdissection procedure. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the WT1 gene was found in 12 children (19.6%), 5 cases were non-informative. No significant correlation could be found between the LOH of WT1 gene and sex and age. Significantly more frequent occurrence of LOH in tumor in low stage of advancement and low degree of malignancy was found. However, no significant effect of LOH of WT1 gene was observed on frequency of recurrences, metastasis and deaths. Study of allele loss of the WT1 gene may be recommended in difficult cases as an additional factor useful for the diagnosis and in the assignment of the tumour to the appropriate risk group.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Microsatellite instability and expression of DNA mismatch repair genes in malignant astrocytic tumors from adult and pediatric patients.

Microsatellite instability (MSI) is used as a molecular marker for defective DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. We report here alterations of MSI in 15 malignant astrocytomas (WHO grade III) and glioblastomas (GBM; WHO grade IV) of pediatric patients (2 - 21 years) and 12 GBM from adults (44 - 68 years) by comparative analysis of BAT25/BAT26 loci and 10 other microsatellite markers. High-level microsatellite instability (MSI-H) occurred in 4 of the 15 pediatric cases (26.7%) and in 1 of the 12 adult GBM cases (8.3%). Low-level microsatellite instability (MSI-L) was observed in 6 pediatric cases (40%) and 8 adult GBM (66.7%). Unstable BAT-25 locus was found in 1 of the MSI-H pediatric cases. Thus, 2 unstable cases showed no instability of this marker. For BAT-26, such a discordance was even more profound: in 1 of MSI-H cases, we obtained no PCR product and the remaining 3 showed no alterations of this marker. MSH2 (Human MutS, Homologue2) protein was detected in all but 3 pediatric cases (1 highly unstable and 2 low-level unstable) and in all adult cases. MLH1 (Human MutL, Homologue 1) protein was detected in all but 2 pediatric cases (1 highly unstable and 1 low-level unstable). Thus, 2 highly unstable pediatric cases showed no detectable MLH1/MSH2 proteins. Our data support earlier observations that MSI occurs predominantly in malignant astrocytic tumors of young patients, which lends support to the hypothesis of different molecular mechanisms of pediatric brain tumors. Surprisingly, we found no significant correlation between the status of 10 microsatellite markers and that of either BAT25 or BAT26 loci or with the expression of MMR genes.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Ferritin levels in blood serum and mononuclear cells of peripheral blood in lymphatic neoplasms of low and medium degrees of malignancy].

Ferritin levels in blood serum and mononuclear cells of the peripheral blood were determined in 60 patients with chronic lymphatic leukemia (group I), and 31 patients with other lymphomas of the low and medium degree of malignancy (group II). Significantly higher blood serum and mononuclear cells ferritin was found in the examined patients than in 54 healthy individuals. Particularly high ferritin levels were seen in blood serum of patients of group II in whom clinical stage of the disease was high. Moreover, moderate correlation of ferritin content in mononuclear cells and absolute leucocytosis was found in group I. This parameter correlated well with the percentage of poorly differentiated cells (group II).

Aged↗