Eighty basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) in 21 patients, 10 lesions of Bowen's disease in three patients, and four lesions of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in two patients, were treated with photodynamic laser therapy (PDT), using topical application of the haem precursor delta-amino levulinic acid (ALA). The diagnoses were confirmed histologically prior to treatment. Fifty-five of the BCCs were superficial lesions, and 25 were nodular. Of the 80 BCCs, 39 (49%) were located on the trunk, 36 (45%) on the head and neck region, four (15%) on the leg and one on the arm. The two principal locations of the 10 Bowen's disease lesions were the leg (50%) and the trunk (40%). The T-cell lymphoma lesions were located on the shoulder and on the arm. A water-in-oil based cream containing 20% ALA was applied to the lesions, with a margin of about 10-20 mm beyond the visible tumour border, 4-6 h before the laser procedure. During this period of time the highly fluorescent and photodynamically active substance protoporphyrin IX (Pp IX) is synthesized via the haem cycle. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was used for real-time monitoring of the Pp IX distribution in the tumour and in the normal surrounding skin, before and after treatment in all patients. Before laser treatment the Pp IX distribution demonstrated by LIF showed a demarcation between tumour and normal skin of about 15:1 for BCC and Bowen's disease, and 5:1 for T-cell lymphomas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Measures of the proliferative activity of tumor cells have prognostic value in patients with node-negative breast cancer. We studied 367 women in southern Sweden who had undergone surgical resection for such cancer. Tumor specimens were analyzed with DNA flow cytometry in order to estimate both the DNA content (ploidy) and the fraction of cells in the synthetic phase of the cell cycle (S phase). The median duration of follow-up was four years; 28 percent of the patients received adjuvant therapy, usually with tamoxifen (n = 83). A multivariate analysis based on complete data on 250 patients included the following covariates: age (greater than or equal to 75, 50 to 74, and less than or equal to 49 years), tumor size (less than or equal to 20 vs. greater than 20 mm), concentration of estrogen and progesterone receptors (less than 10 vs. greater than or equal to 10 fmol per milligram of protein), ploidy (diploid vs. nondiploid), and S-phase category (fraction of cells in S phase: less than 7.0 percent, 7.0 to 11.9 percent, and greater than or equal to 12 percent). The S-phase fraction yielded the most prognostic information, followed by progesterone-receptor status and tumor size. A prognostic model based on these three variables identified 37 percent of the patients as constituting a high-risk group with a fourfold increased risk of distant recurrence. In the remaining 63 percent of the patients, the five-year overall survival rate (92 +/- 4 [+/- SE] percent) did not differ from the expected age-adjusted rate for Swedish women. We conclude that a prognostic index that includes indicators of the proliferative activity of tumor cells may be able to identify women with node-negative breast cancer in whom the risk of recurrence is sufficiently low that adjuvant chemotherapy can be avoided.

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