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Non-infectious, non-neoplastic cysts of the thymus are rare. Most of them give no symptoms, are located in the anterior mediastinum and are seen in young people. This report deals with a 39-year-old man who had had attacks of precordial pain for 7 years. On admission to hospital he had intense pain in the chest which was attributed to an aortic aneurysm. Retrograde aortography was normal, however. At operation a multilobular thymic cyst was found. The cyst was mostly lined with squamous epithelium.

This paper discusses the response of two B cell-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) clones, 173 and 183, to the phorbol ester TPA combined with a B cell-stimulatory factor (BSF) derived from a T helper cell hybridoma (MP6). Previous studies with 173 and 183 cells have consistently shown that TPA alone induces differentiation but no proliferation. However, when the two clones were exposed to TPA plus BSF-MP6, not only differentiation but also DNA synthesis was observed. Compared with TPA exposure alone, the fraction of cells with induced lymphoblastoid-plasmacytoid morphology increased and Ig secretion was enhanced. By a 1-hr TPA pulse followed by BSF-MP6, the DNA synthesis was further augmented, but less maturation was observed. T cell and monocyte removal, using cell sorting, showed that the DNA synthesis induced was independent of these cell types, also under serum-free conditions. Quantitation of several cell cycle-associated surface Ags showed that the 4F2, Ba, Bac-1, and cD23 Ags increased while the CD37 decreased in expression upon addition of BSF-MP6. We conclude that B-CLLs are inducible by TPA and BSF-MP6 not only to differentiation, but also to DNA synthesis even under serum-free conditions in vitro. The results furthermore suggest that the very low proliferation activity in B-CLL tumors in vivo may reflect a relative deficiency of proper growth and differentiation factors or a subnormal response of B-CLL cells to such factors.

A permanent cell line, MN 60, was established from the peripheral blood of a patient with an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) classified morphologically as being of the L3 type. Cell growth started rapidly in vitro and no feeder cells were needed. Cells of the MN-60 line were identical to the original leukemic cells with respect to surface immunoglobulin (Ig) expression and karyotype, including the presence of four marker chromosomes [1q+, 6q-, t(8;14)]. Continuous proliferation was maintained in stationary suspension culture with a doubling time of 25 h. The cells were tumorigenic in athymic nude mice and had the capacity to form colonies in semi-solid medium in vitro. Monoclonal surface Ig (mu lambda) was demonstrated whereas no cytoplasmic immunoglobulin could be demonstrated. The MN-60 cells were Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) negative as evidenced by EBNA tests and by nucleic acid hybridization studies. The cells expressed HLA-A-C, HLA-DR. beta 2-Microglobulin and cALL, but not Fc gamma. C3, sheep and mouse red blood cell receptors. No reactivity was found with anti-glycophorin A or the anti-BL 38.13 monoclonal antibody. Cell growth was retarded in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle after incubation with leukocyte interferon, hydrocortisone, phorbol myristate acetate and dimethyl sulphoxide.

The histories of two patients with pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis are reported. In the first case a left hemicolectomy was performed because of suspicion of polyposis coli. The other patients was given symptomatic treatment. Conservative treatment is recommended by most authors, but since the disorder is seldom seen, unnecessary surgery is often performed because of incorrect preoperative diagnosis.

3 cases of pernicious anaemia in association with gastric carcinoid (in 1 case multiple) are described. All tumours were rich in argyrophil cells with the Sevier-Munger and Grimelius staining techniques, indicating that they might be of the enterochromaffin-like cell type. The possible causal relationship between pernicious anaemia and this type of argyrophil carcinoid is discussed.

14 patients with HCL were started on alpha-interferon (IFN) treatment. Bone marrow changes were followed in trephine biopsies every 3rd month. Differential counting was performed according to the point counting method and fiber content was evaluated. At the start of treatment all patients had 80% or more of tumor cells in the bone marrow. The reduction of granulopoiesis was more pronounced than for erythropoiesis. During treatment cellularity decreased in 6/13 patients already after 3 months; later, cellularity was normalized in most patients. Only 1 patient showed a complete remission. 12/14 patients showed a significant but slow reduction of tumor cells. Also, between 12 and 18 months an improvement was seen in some patients. The megakaryocytes improved rapidly and the erythropoiesis was normalized before the granulopoiesis. Only 1 patient did not show a bone marrow response. 5/14 patients showed a reduction of bone marrow fibers, first seen after 6 months of treatment. IFN was discontinued in 9/14 patients. 7 of these relapsed during the observation period (18 months).

Low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) constitute a group of tumours with an often long survival time but, at present, with little--or no--chance of cure if the disease is not strictly local. In primarily asymptomatic patients, treatment may either be started immediately after diagnosis or deferred until symptoms occur. The possibility of predicting the symptom-free time was investigated in 64 non-selected initially asymptomatic patients with advanced low grade NHL, all of whom had treatment deferred until symptoms occurred. The most powerful predictor was the histopathological subgroup. Lymphocytic (LC) and follicular centroblastic-centrocytic (fCBCC) lymphomas had a median symptom-free period of 2 years, which was four times longer than that for immunocytoma (IC) and follicular and diffuse CBCC (fdCBCC). In addition, the serum levels of deoxythymidine kinase (S-TK) and lactic dehydrogenase (S-LDH) could predict the symptom-free period. This did not apply to S-Haptoglobin, S-Orosomucoid or stage. In a multivariate analysis, only S-TK gave additional information to histopathology. The only variable that predicted the overall survival time was the length of the symptom-free period.