Influence of the culture media composition and pH on the synthesis of mucoid Yersinia factor.

Abstract

of: FORUM Trends in Experimental ancl Clínica! Medicine 5; 599-606. 1996 Disseminated low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas cannot be cured with current standard treatments and there is a growing interest in the use of more intensiva approaches. The rationale for applying myeloablative therapy and stem cell rescue relies on the extreme sensitivity of low-grade lymphoma to both radiation and repeated courses of alkylating agents. Intensiva chemotherapy with or without total body irradiation is usually attempted after first or subsequent relapses. Allogenic bone marrow transplantation is ussually preferred for patients with small lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukaemia with poor prognostic features. Autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are more commonly used in follicular lymphomas. Sorne studies using autologous bone marrow apply different methods of purging in an attempt to elimitate the risk of infusing contaminated tumour cells. Patients receiving bone marrow, which has been purged with anti-B cell monoclonal antibodies and complement and shows no evidence of malignant cells by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to bcl-2 rearrangement, seem to have a markedly improved disease-free survival. However, the actual significance of PCR positivity to bcl-2 rearrangement in bone marrow or peripheral blood is still unclear. Published experience using high-dose therapy and stem cell rescue in low-grade lymphoma indicates that intensiva approaches increase disease-free survival, but the indolent nature and relapsing behaviour of these lymphomas requires longar follow-up. Also new, well designed and controlled studies directed at measuring the impact of different variables such as patient selection, rescue product and purging are still needed befare any definite conclusion can be obtained.