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Catalytic CO oxidation on the RuO2(110) surface was studied at 300 K by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (HREELS), and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Upon repeatedly exposing the surface to several 10 L of CO and O2 at 300 K, STM shows that unreactive features accumulate with each CO and O2 titration run. HREELS and TDS show formation of increasing amounts of H2O, retarded formation of O-cus atoms and incomplete removal of CO-bridge molecules during O2 dosing, and a changing ratio of single- and double-bonded CO-bridge molecules. It is concluded that H2O (presumably from the residual gas) is accumulating at the Ru-cus sites thus blocking them, so that the dissociative adsorption of oxygen is prevented and the CO oxidation reaction is suppressed. Some 10% CO- bridge remains on the surface even during oxygen exposure. Consistent with this interpretation, deactivation of the surface is suppressed at 350 K, at the onset of H2O desorption.© 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer causes a high economic burden. The purpose of this study is to determine and compare the direct, indirect and societal costs of illness for Hodgkin's Disease (HD), Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL), Plasmocytoma and Chronic Lymphatic Lymphoma (CLL). We used a database of 1.9 million individuals enrolled in a statutory sickness fund in Germany to identify 4172 patients treated for malignant lymphoma in 2000. Direct, indirect and societal costs were calculated using a case-control design and the human capital approach. Direct cost (in Euro) for patients with HD was 3604, for NHL patients 6149, for Plasmocytoma 8400, and for CLL patients 3226. Total indirect cost for HD was 69 million, for NHL patients 404 million, for Plasmocytoma 144 million, and for CLL patients 52 million. Totalling 1.7 billion Euro in economic cost for Germany in 2000, with 44 000 productive years lost, malignant lymphomas are a relatively costly disease group. As life expectancy increases, costs for malignant lymphoma are likely to rise due to the high prevalence among the elderly. Further research employing disaggregated, incidence-based cost is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Onkologe is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Onkologe is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents information related to patients with relapsed Hodgkin's disease. The objective of the radomized trial of chemotherapy is to compare efficacy and toxicity of a sequential HDCT and a standard HDCT in patients with histologically confirmed relapsed Hodgkin's disease. Primary endpoint of the study is freedom from treatment failure in both treatment arms. Secondary endpoints are complete remission, complete remission unconfirmed rates 3 months after end of protocol, relapse-free survival overall survival, frequency of severe toxicities and secondary neoplasia.

Liver biopsy is an invasive diagnostic method for detecting liver involvement (LI) in Hodgkin's disease (HD). The aim of this retrospective study was to determine and evaluate a method for restricting liver biopsy to a subset of patients. Between 1988 and 1994, a total of 2,016 patients with HD were treated within the HD4-6 study protocol of the German Hodgkin's Lymphoma Study Group (GHSG). We investigated the predictive power of abdominal ultrasound (US) and computed tomography (CT), as well as of various clinical factors related to LI, using univariate and multivariate methods. LI occurred in 4.9% of all patients (99/2,016) and in 3.0% of those who, if LI were disregarded, would have been included in clinical stages I and II. In multivariate analysis the presence of LI was significantly associated with splenic involvement or infradiaphragmatic involvement, absence of mediastinal involvement, serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) level over 230 units/l, and age over 40 years. We used these factors to define a risk score for LI. LI is very rare in patients who would otherwise be in clinical stages I or II, but knowledge of LI is important because it has therapeutic consequences. With our risk score, liver biopsy is indicated for approximately one quarter of these patients otherwise in clinical stages I or II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autologous PBPC transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). As the autografts are frequently contaminated with large numbers of tumor cells, we have studied double purging of PBPC using immunomagnetic CD34+ cell selection (Isolex 300i) followed by negative depletion with anti-CD19/20/23/37-labeled immunomagnetic beads. In four small-scale experiments using PBPC from patients with CLL or leukemic low-grade lymphoma, double purging resulted in CD34+ enrichment from 0.9–4.4% to 95.8–99.4%. Lymphoma cells were always undetectable by FACS and PCR (CDR3 or t(14;18)) after negative depletion. Next, seven heavily contaminated full grafts from five patients with CLL or lymphoplasmocytoid immunocytoma were subjected to the double purging procedure, resulting in a CD34+ enrichment from 1.6% (0.7–5.6) to 98.5% (96–99.8). The CD34+ yield after double purging was 1.3–6.3 × 106/kg, according to a median recovery of 32%. The overall reduction of lymphoma cells was 5.6 (>4.6–6) log. Although CLL cells were completely absent after purging in five cases as assessed by FACS, all grafts remained PCR positive. The first two patients have been reinfused with double selected products after myeloablative radiochemotherapy and showed prompt and uneventful hematopoietic engraftment. We conclude that without significant loss of CD34+ cells, negative depletion adds 2 log of CLL cell depletion to CD34+ selection, resulting in an overall purging efficacy of more than 5 log. This combination of positive and negative selection can be successfully applied even to heavily contaminated PBPC grafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic-phonon like low-energy long-wave length collective excitations are shown to exist in the charge density wave (CDW) ground state of a two-valley model for n-type inversion layers. The dispersion of the collective modes are obtained by calculating the two-particle Green's function within the random phase approximation, and the 'sound velocity' is investigated as a function of interaction parameters and temperature. Physically the modes represent the phase oscillation of the CDW and the fluctuation of the population difference between two valleys; these two modes are coupled to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Breaking Records in Blood Transfusion Safety," by Cohen and colleagues.