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Biomedical subjects

L Weissbach

Publications and source records attributed to L Weissbach.

220 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

Experimental and clinical efficacy of 2', 2'-difluorodeoxycytidine (gemcitabine) against renal cell carcinoma.

Preclinical and clinical studies have been performed to evaluate the efficacy of gemcitabine (2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine; dFdC) in human renal cell carcinoma. Experimental data corroborated dFdC as an effective drug against cell lines from renal cell carcinomas (ACHN, A-498, SN12C) at concentrations much below clinically achievable doses. ACHN-bearing nude mice showed an overall response rate of 27% to dFdC (3 mice with complete response, 1 with partial response, 3 with stable and 8 with progressive disease). Objective response from 37 evaluable patients was 8.1% (1 patient with complete response and 2 patients with partial response). Gemcitabine was well tolerated thus, although gemcitabine at the dosage and schedule chosen had only small activity, the observed toxicity may permit further dose escalation or a more frequent administration of the drug.

Adolescent↗

Inhibition of tumor growth by plasminogen-related protein-B.

BACKGROUND: Various fragments of the fibrinolytic protein plasminogen can act as antiangiogenic factors and inhibit the growth of primary and metastatic tumors in mice. Plasminogen-related gene-B encodes a putative 9 kDa protein virtually identical to the plasminogen N-terminal activation peptide, a 77-amino acid motif that is liberated from the parent plasminogen molecule during conversion to the serine proteinase plasmin. Previous data have documented enhanced transcription of plasminogen-related gene-B in neoplastic tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have tested the effects of recombinant versions of plasminogen-related protein-B and the plasminogen N-terminal activation peptide on the growth of tumors in mice, employing murine tumor cell lines implanted subcutaneously. RESULTS: The recombinant plasminogen-related protein-B significantly inhibited the growth of primary tumors in mice, while recombinant plasminogen N-terminal activation peptide elicited only a slight inhibition of tumor growth. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that plasminogen-related protein-B may have utility as a novel cancer therapeutic.

Angiogenesis Inhibitors↗

[Psychosomatic aspects of treated testicular neoplasm patients].

We examined 26 patients who were semicastrated, lymphadenectomied and cytostatic treated because of a maligne testicular tumor to find out the secondary psychic manifestation of this organic illness. Somatic caused consequences of operation were a unilateral loss of testis and a loss of ejaculation and therefore a generative impotency. We found no evidence for a primary psychic influence on the origin of tumor illness. We could subdivide the secondary psychic manifestation in two stages: 1. The psychodynamik at the time of diagnostic and operation, 2. the specific personal mechanism of conflictmanagement in the following time, the phase of rehabilitation. In the first stage we subdivided three different states during the acute crisis with regard to regression, to mobilisation of infantil drives and to defence: 1. Disavowal, 2. Helplessness, 3. Fight. We discussed the psychodynamic and the attachment of these affective states to the psychology of neurosis. In the second stage of the secondary psychic manifestation we could find different more or less durable strategies of conflictmanagement: So called normal conflictmanagement, conflictmanagement by disavowal, by different mechanism of compensation as oral symbiotic dependences, narcissistic increasing of potency, intensified productivity, forming of religious ideal and by secondary hypochondric processes. The sexual disorders which we could state in about 1/3 of the patients existed mostly in an avoid of sexual partnership because of anxiety concerning narcissistic grief and injury of selfesteem. In older patients with special liability to crisis we found also an erective impotency. All patients with sexual disorders showed also psychoneurotic and psychosocial disorders. We discussed the results with regard to forming of hypothesis in psychosomatics, to personal and interpersonal conflictmanagement and to supportive psychotherapeutic possibilities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗