Weekly OXA, at doses potentially active systemically, can be combined with full-dose, infused FUra and radiotherapy. Given the low toxicity and promising activity, this regimen is being compared to standard FUra-based pelvic chemoradiation in a randomised study.

The designed FISH protocol for the analysis of severe OAT and TESE sperm samples is reliable, implying that the studied sample is representative of the original population. In view of the high incidence of aneuploidy in most severe OAT and TESE sperm, the FISH analysis of pathological sperm samples can be routinely performed in order to estimate the chances of the paternal contribution to aneuploidy in the resulting embryos.

Various histologic factors correlated to survival were studied in 124 patients radically operated on for rectal carcinoma in order to establish valid prognostic criteria. The total survival rate after five years was 63 percent, while in stage B1 it was 89 percent, in B2, 61 percent, and in C1, 47 percent (P less than 0.05). With regard to histotype, the survival was 83 percent in the papillary subtype of adenocarcinoma, while in the tubular subtype it was 62 percent, and 29 percent in the mucinous type (P = not significant). Vascular invasion negatively affected survival (41 percent); however, when there was no invasion, the prognosis was better (71 percent) (P less than 0.01). In evaluating histologic grading and lymphoglandular reactivity, the difference in survival rates was not statistically significant. The marked peri- and intratumoral lymphocytic infiltration gave a very good prognosis (92 percent) contrary to when reactivity was moderate (59 percent) or even absent (51 percent) (P less than 0.01). Finally, the expanding type tumor, with reference to Ming's classification of gastric carcinoma, had a much better prognosis (75 per cent) than the infiltrative type (40 percent) (P less than 0.01).

Using power Doppler sonography it is possible to investigate the functional anatomy of the cavernous helicine arterioles during the various phases of the erectile cycle. Our preliminary study suggests that the helicine arterioles are functionally inactive during penile flaccidity while they are activated during penile tumescence and continue to supply blood to the corpora also during maximum penile rigidity.