, 72 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease underwent high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplant conditioned with either cyclophosphamide, etoposide, carmustine (CEB) or carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan (BEAM) at a single institution. In all, 52 patients received CEB and 20 patients received the BEAM regimen. Patient characteristics that were significantly different between the two groups are tumor grade and extranodal involvement (P ¼ 0.0196, 0.0341, respectively). Regimen-related toxicities examined yielded only diarrhea occurring at a higher rate in the BEAM group (81 vs 51%, P ¼ 0.0026), although cases were milder (92 vs 57%). Patients treated with CEB developed mucositis at a slightly higher rate (79%) than patients treated with BEAM (75%), but this difference did not reach statistical significance. However, the mucositis that occurred within the BEAM group was predominately mild (67%) in contrast to the predominance of moderate to severe cases in the CEB group (74%). In addition, patients treated with CEB required growth factor support for a longer time than patients treated with BEAM (P ¼ 0.0399). Response rates were high in both groups, with trends favoring the BEAM group. Overall survival was higher after treatment with BEAM than with CEB (84 vs 60%). A subset of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's disease (HD) have been treated with highdose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplant (HDC-ASCT). HDC regimens used include cyclophosphamide, etoposide, carmustine (BCNU) (CEB) or BCNU, etoposide, cytarabine (Ara-C), and melphalan (BEAM). In the past, CEB has been more commonly used at our institution; however, in recent years, oncologists are increasingly choosing BEAM to treat patients. The increased use of BEAM emerges from the belief that reduced toxicities are associated with this regimen, namely less mucositis, infection, and BCNU pulmonary fibrosis. A higher dose of BCNU (600 mg/m 2 ) is given as part of the CEB regimen than that given in the BEAM regimen (300 mg/m 2 ). Doses greater than 600 mg/m 2 are not well tolerated with a higher risk of development of posttransplant noninfective pulmonary complications, marked mucositis, and increased cases of infection. [1][2][3][4][5][6] In terms of efficacy, whether CEB or BEAM produces better survival outcome is unclear. There is a wide range of percentages of patients achieving complete remission in both the CEB and BEAM. 2,3,[7][8][9] Overall survival at 5 years seems comparable at 44-53% for CEB patients and 41-55% for BEAM patients. 3,[8][9][10][11] Progression-free survival ranges from 38 to 450% for the CEB group and from 35 to 69% for the BEAM group in various studies. [2][3][4][7][8][9]11 Data directly comparing CEB and BEAM regimens are scarce. In this paper, we present the results of a retrospective study on the toxicity, efficacy, and cost issues associated with the use of CEB and BEAM in patients with NHL or HD. Patients and methods Patient selectionA total of 86 patien...

We report here our preliminary experience with percutaneous endoscopic polypectomy of gallbladder polyps. Five patients with a total of 17 cholesterol polyps (size: 4-6 mm) and one patient with two gallbladder adenomas (size: 5 mm), four of whom were symptomatic and all of whom refused cholecystectomy, underwent a single-stage procedure under epidural anesthesia. All patients had functioning gallbladders, as assessed by oral cholecystography after stimulation. Following a small incision, the gallbladder was pulled out of the abdominal wall, incised, and a cholecystoscope introduced. The polyps were coagulated at their stalk using microwave irradiation (70-80 mA, 9 sec) and removed for histopathological evaluation thereafter. A catheter was left in situ for ten days. Follow-up for a mean of 11.6 months (8-16 months) showed all patients to be symptom-free and without recurrence of polyps on ultrasonography. Gallbladder function was assessed in five cases by meal-stimulated oral cholecystography, and in one by hepato-iminodiacetate acid (HIDA) scan and was found to be well preserved. The preliminary results warrant further evaluation of this method of removing indeterminate gallbladder polyps.