Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0032285 (pneumonia)
 54,520 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Five children treated for acute myeloid leukemia according to the BFM protocol AML 83 experienced first bone marrow relapse after 7, 10, 14, 18, and 30 months and were retreated for second remission induction. The chemotherapy consisted of mAMSA (100 mg/m2 per day i.v., days 1-3), ARA-C (100 mg/m2, twice daily, days 1-6), and VP 16 (150 mg/m2 per day, days 4-6). Four of the children achieved a complete second remission after one course of chemotherapy, and the fifth child died of pneumonia during bone marrow aplasia. All surviving children received an identical second course within 4-5 weeks, followed by maintenance chemotherapy. Remission duration was 0, 3, 4, 5, and 5 months. Toxicity was confined to heavy bone marrow depression with thrombocytopenia (nadir 2-7000, days 7-13) and leukocytopenia (nadir 0-400, days 8-14). Bleeding episodes could be prevented by substitution with platelets. Four patients experienced infections (pneumonia, septicemia). We conclude that combination chemotherapy using mAMSA, ARA-C, and VP 16 is effective in inducing a second remission in patients with early bone marrow relapse. The main side effect was considerable bone marrow toxicity.
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PMID:Effective remission induction in children with recurrent acute myeloid leukemia by mAMSA, Ara-C, and VP 16. 347 74

Four patients with acute leukemias resistant to various ARA-C containing regimens and one patient with rapidly progressive malignant nonseminomatous tumor of the testis, who failed to conventional therapy were treated with HD ARA-C from december 1979 to september 1980. The drug was monitored by HPLC in plasma and in CSF. The first patient received only one course of HD ARA-C, developed fever and died of septicemia ten days later. The leucocyte count of her AML (FAB 2) decreased from 120,000/microliter to 30,000/microliter on the third day after HD ARA-C. Patient 2 reached CR criteria of the bone marrow for 23 days, then resistant AML (FAB 2) recurred. A male patient of 30 years was treated for recurrent acute undifferentiated leukemia (AUL) with a high cumulative dose of 176 gs of ARA-C. The repeated courses of treatment included a period of 50 days of CR. Toxicity was remarkable including pulmonal and cerebral dysfunction. A fourth patient with monocytic leukemia did not respond to HD ARA-C, neither did the patient with the malignant teratoma. Adverse reactions were tolerable. Only the third patient suffered from severe toxicity, pneumonitis, blurring vision, cerebral dysfunction and dermatitis. His pretreatment regimen had included X-ray prophylaxis to the skull. Since there was no possibility to prolong the remission duration in 1980, we decided not to treat further patients with HD ARA-C. Nowadays bone marrow transplantation offers some patients a capability of eradication of the leukemic disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Results of therapy with high-dose cytosine arabinoside]. 388 22

Viridans streptococci (VS) are an increasing cause of bacteraemia in neutropenic patients with cancer. Case-control studies of predisposing factors for acquisition of this infection in children are not published. Between January 1989 and December 1999, 168 episodes of bacteraemia in 161 children with fever and neutropenia of haemato-oncology origin were analysed. 15 cases (9%) in 15 patients were caused by VS. Each case patient was compared with 6 matched control patients; 2 with other Gram-positive cocci (group 2), 2 with gram-negative bacilli bacteraemia (group 3) and two children with fever and neutropenia without bacteraemia (group 4). The median age of patients was 4.1 years (range: 2-15 years). 87% of children had acute leukaemia or lymphomas. Pneumonia was the predominant clinical focus (70%). Shock was observed in 13% of patients. ARDS was observed in one child who died of this complication. Multivariate analysis of risk factors for the development of VS bacteraemia showed that two factors were independent predictors: high doses of cytosine-arabinoside (ARA-C) as part of the chemotherapy treatment (Odds Ratio (OR): 9.3; Confidence Interval (CI) 1.56-55.5) (P<0.014) and the presence of pneumonia (OR: 1.36: CI 2.27-81.9) (P<0.0043). We propose that further studies are warranted to confirm these results.
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PMID:Viridans streptococci bacteraemia in children with fever and neutropenia: a case-control study of predisposing factors. 1276 18

Pneumocystis carinii (P. carinii) is an organism which was previously considered as a protozoan but recently it was shown to be more related to fungi. P. carinii increasingly causes opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. In this study, we detected P. carinii oocysts by indirect immunofluorescence test in 33 specimens obtained from 31 patients with haematological malignancies who had symptoms of pneumonia and investigated probable risk factors (corticosteroid usage, neutropenia duration, severe or mild neutropenia and type of haematological malignancy) for P. carinii pneumonia in P. carinii (+) patients. Although not statistically significant, PCP incidence was higher in relapsed acute leukemia (AL) patients (62.5%), patients with prolonged neutropenia (57.1%), and who received high dose ARA-C therapy (62.5%). P. carinii (+) patients were treated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Six patients with PCP did not respond to therapy and died (50%). In conclusion PCP is not infrequent in AL (especially relapsed AL) and, indirectly we can suggest that chemoprophylaxis may be considered for these patients when they were in severe and prolonged neutropenia after high dose ARA-C therapy.
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PMID:The Frequency of Pneumocystis carinii in Patients with Haematologic Malignancies and Pneumonia. 2726 69