Over the last 25 years, significant advances have been made in supportive care of the immunocompromised patient. One significant advance is the use of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ) in the prevention of Pneumocystic carinii pneumonia (PCP). Although TMP-SMZ remains the drug of choice for PCP prophylaxis, children who develop or have a history of adverse reactions must be prescribed an alternative treatment. In these instances, medications such as dapsone, aerosolized pentamidine, or atovaquone are prescribed. This report discusses four children with sulfa allergy who were prescribed dapsone and later developed methemoglobinemia. Although methemoglobinemia is associated with dapsone, there was no reference found regarding this link in the pediatric oncology literature. The purpose of these clinical examples is to alert the pediatric nurse and advanced practitioner to the association of dapsone and methemoglobinemia.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Further studies on the serological effects of C. parvum immunotherapy in cancer patients.

Previous serological studies undertaken in our laboratory have shown that the repeated administration of small doses of C. parvum to a small group of cancer patients resulted in a consistant increase in the levels of IgG (especially the IgG2b subclass), the development of antibodies to C. parvum and the transient appearance of 'rheumatoid factor like' substances in the serum (Br. J. Cancer, 32, 310, 1975). In the present paper we report the results of similar studies in small numbers of (a) inoperable bronchogenic carcinoma patients receiving combined C. parvum and cyclophosphamide therapy, and (b) brain glioma patients receiving intracerebral injection of C. parvum. As might be expected some of the serological changes observed in these patients were not as marked as previously noted. Nevertheless a number of the patients developed autoantibodies which were detectable by the latex and Ripley procedures but not by the Rose-Waaler test. There was no evidence of antinuclear factors by the fluorescence procedure.

Aged↗