Hydrazine sulfate in cancer patients with weight loss. A placebo-controlled clinical experience

Hydrazine sulfate was evaluated using 24-hour dietary recalls and body weight determinations before and after 30 days of either placebo or hydrazine (60 mg, 3 times/d) oral administration in 101 heavily pretreated cancer patients with weight loss. After 1 month, 83% of hydrazine and only 53% of placebo patients completing repeat evaluation maintained or increased their weight (P less than 0.05). In addition, appetite improvement was more frequent in the hydrazine group (63% versus 25%, P less than 0.05). Although caloric intake was only slightly greater in hydrazine-treated patients, an increased caloric intake was more commonly associated with weight gain in patients receiving hydrazine compared with those receiving placebo (81% versus 53%, respectively). Hydrazine toxicity was mild, with 71% of patients reporting no toxic effects. Hydrazine sulfate circulatory levels were obtained from a subset of 14 patients who completed 30 days of treatment, with a single sample obtained in the morning at least 9 hours after the last dose. Mean maintenance hydrazine sulfate levels, determined using a spectrofluorometric assay, ranged from 0 to 89 ng/ml (mean 45 +/- 16 ng/ml). These data, which demonstrate an association between 1 month of hydrazine sulfate administration and body weight maintenance in patients with cancer, suggest future clinical trials of hydrazine sulfate are indicated to definitively assess its long-term impact on important clinical outcome parameters in defined cancer populations.

Pathophysiology of malnutrition in the adult cancer patient

A number of common metastatic cancers are associated with marked weight loss at the time of diagnosis. Cancer patients with weight loss at the time of diagnosis have decreased mean survival compared to similar cancer patients without weight loss. Provision of excess calories alone does not appear to change median survival in patients with advanced cancer and many patients either maintain body weight or lose weight while receiving calories which would be predicted to result in weight gain. The authors recently have extended their studies to head and neck cancer patients without detectable metastatic disease in order to detect systemic metabolic effects of a localized tumor. These patients failed to gain weight despite the administration of apparently adequate calories by continuous enteral alimentation. Abnormalities of carbohydrate metabolism with secondary effects on fat and protein metabolism have been identified in several populations of patients with common cancers. These abnormalities offer potential points of intervention which may enhance nutritional therapy as rehabilitation and as a potential biological modifier of the response of specific cancers to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery.

Serum immunoglobulin levels in Indonesians with bancroftian filariasis

Serum immunoglobulin (Ig) levels (IgA, IgM, IgG, IgE) were determined on 185 Indonesians mostly males with and without microfilaremia and with and without clinical disease (hydrocele and elphantiasis). No significant differences were found in IgA and IgE levels in any of the groups but significantly higher IgG levels were found in microfilariae positive persons than those without microfilaremia. Persons with microfilariae alone and symptoms alone, but not both, had higher levels of IgM. There were no correlations between disease category and Ig levels.

Transformation of chicken chondrocytes by Rous sarcoma virus

Chicken chondrocytes isolated from 11-day-old chicken vertebrate cartilage were transformed by Rous sarcoma virus ts LA24 of the Prague strain as well as by the wild-type Prague strain of Rous sarcoma virus. The morphology of chondrocytes transformed by Rous sarcoma virus ts LA 24 was dependent on the temperature, and the change was reversible. A similar but irreversible change in morphology was observed with chondrocytes transformed by wild-type virus. Hyaluronic acid production and deoxyglucose transport were markedly increased in the transformed chondrocytes. A marked increase of labeled acetate incorporation was observed with the transformed chondrocytes. In contrast to the normal chondrocytes, the labeled hyaluronic acid synthesized by the transformed chondrocytes was mostly released into the culture medium.

Lineages, quantal cell cycles, and the generation of cell diversity

Most theories of determination or differentiation assume that embryonic cells differ from mature cells. Embryonic cells are thought to have metastable control mechanisms. These labile controls are believed to become progressively more stabilized as the cells differentiate. Zygote, blastula, neural plate, limb bud, somite, or ‘stem’ cells are conceived of as undifferentiated, totipotent, or multipotential cells. As such, these cells supposedly have available for activation a larger repertoire of phenotypic programmes than their progeny. A necessary corollary to this view is that the activation of one particular phenotypic programme out of the many available is a function of instructive exogenous inducing molecules.