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The role of massive therapy followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) in pediatric tumours is reviewed. The rationale of such an approach based on dose-response relationship in clinical oncology, the usefulness of total body irradiation (TBI) as a part of conditioning regimens, and phase I and II trials with high dose drug combinations are discussed. The results of ABMT in lymphomas, sarcomas, neuroblastomas and other tumours are critically analyzed with special emphasis on prognostic factors, differences among conditioning regimens, intensive therapy morbidity and marrow purging procedures. Finally future perspectives and questions still unsolved are briefly summarized.

Response to treatment with daily intramuscularly administered crude calf thymic extract (Suppressin) in 11 patients with Langerhan's histiocytosis (L.H.) is reported. In ten patients, T-lymphocytic subsets were studied before starting immunotherapy: OKT3 positive and OKT4 positive cells were reduced in four patients; OKT8 positive cells were reduced in two patients; three patients were normal. After immunotherapy, one patient entered complete remission, four patients had stationary disease, and six had marked clinical progression. Subsequently eight patients underwent conventional chemotherapy, and only three entered complete remission. This study has demonstrated the heterogeneity of immunological patterns in L.H. and justifies the necessity for investigations on the immunoregulatory mechanism of L.H.

A case of angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia (AILD) in infancy is reported. The disease had a mild onset with generalized lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, thrombocytopenia, polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia, and T-cell deficiency. The AILD course lasted more than 100 months, alternating clinical remission to recurrent relapses. Hepatitis B viral infection suddenly evolving to hepatic failure was the cause of death. From a rapid survey of the present knowledge, the nosology, immunological features, and therapy of AILD are discussed and a possible presumptive pathogenetic pathway is proposed.