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Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (filgrastim, G-CSF) for maintenance of chemotherapy dose-intensity in patients with stage I or II Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with six cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD). Fifty-six patients with stage I or II Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with ABVD were eligible for secondary prophylactic G-CSF administration because of neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count < 1 x 10(9) /L) causing treatment delay or febrile neutropenia. Patients received 300 microg (total dose) of G-CSF (filgrastim) subcutaneously on days 3 to 7 and 17 to 21 of each cycle in order to prevent dose reduction or delay in subsequent cycles of treatment continuing the G-CSF until completion of chemotherapy. Results showed that 30 (54%) of the patients required the use of G-CSF, 26 (47%) during the first or second cycle. After G-CSF administration delay in chemotherapy did not occur in 25 patients, whereas delays in the fifth or sixth cycle occurred in four patients. Despite treatment with G-CSF, one patient had febrile neutropenia. Dose intensity greater than 90% of that planned was delivered to more the 85% of patients., In Conclusion: Secondary prophylactic G-CSF administration was necessary in more than half of patients with stage I or II Hodgkin's lymphoma during chemotherapy with ABVD. The use of G-CSF allowed maintenance of chemotherapy schedule and dose intensity in the majority of patients.

Introduction: Cerebral metastases and the sequelae of their treatment are the major cause of neurological symptoms in patients with cancer., Objective: In this article we review the oto-neuro-ophthalmological complications of the treatment of metastases with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy., Development: When speaking of the iatrogenic diseases caused by radiotherapy treatment of metastases, it is important to emphasize that the major complications of this form of treatment are seen in the long term, in general, months or years later. When dealing with incurable diseases, such as most metastatic cancers, the benefit/risk balance of each therapeutic option has to be taken into account. Thus we have a population of patients with symptoms secondary to metastatic involvement, and with an overall life expectancy which may be measured in months. The oto-neuro-ophthalmological toxicity of the chemotherapy may present as an infrequent and unexpected complication or as a usual, expected secondary effect of the drug used. A large variety of drugs are used for the systemic control of cancer (cystostatic drugs, hormones and modifiers of the biological response) which, in one way or another, may cause neurological signs., Conclusion: The increasingly frequent use of high dose chemotherapy and of the combined use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy mean that these types of toxicity have become common clinical syndromes in current oncological practices.

Two patients with chronic lymphoproliferative diseases, a splenic marginal zone lymphoma and hairy cell leukaemia variant, were reported. In both diseases a B-immunophenotype was demonstrated but a variable percentage of lymphoid cells (30 and 52%) showed a highly irregular nuclear outline, sometimes mimicking the nuclei of Sézary cells.

The clinical observation of a 74 year old male presenting isolated Wernicke's aphasia due to a temporal left infarction of cardiac embolic origin secondary to paroxysmal auricular flutter is described. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance provided characteristic images which permitted the establishment of the diagnosis of lipomatous hypertrophy of the interauricular septum without requiring the use of invasive techniques. Lipomatous hypertrophy of the interauricular septum is a cardiac tumor of unusual presentation constituted of an abnormal accumulation of non-encapsulated fatty tissue which occupies a thickness greater than 15 mm of the interauricular septum. Wernicke's aphasia as a form of presentation of the lipomatous hypertrophy of the interauricular septum has not previously been described in the literature.