A sizeable percentage of patients receiving conventional medical treatment also use unconventional medicine (UM). Surveys indicate that the prevalence of and motivation for the pursuit of the different approaches of UM is subject to individual, geographical, cultural and disease-related factors. We were interested in the concurrent use of and attitudes towards UM in patients who underwent conventional medical treatment in our oncologically orientated department of internal medicine in a regionally dominant teaching hospital. A representative sample (n = 131) of all inpatients and outpatients receiving treatment in the department or in its oncological/haematological outpatient clinic were asked to participate in a cross-sectional interview study on the use of unconventional therapies. In all, 128 patients (97.7%) agreed to participate in the study, and 65% of these patients were suffering from malignancies. Use of unconventional treatment was reported by 24% of all patients for their current medical problem, and 16% of the remaining patients had been thinking of adjunctive use. The use of UM was significantly higher among oncological patients (32%), and among oncological outpatients in particular (50%), than among patients with acute or chronic non-malignant diseases. Female patients predominated among the users of UM (71%). UM mainly took the form of various pharmacological and dietary approaches. Patients availing themselves of UM most frequently identified physicians (41%) as the source of treatment recommendation. Only 18% of the users of UM relied on these methods as a chance of cure. Use of UM was not generally motivated by dissatisfaction with conventional medical care. Only half the users informed their hospital physician of their adjunctive use of UM. Nearly 2 out of 3 of the users contended that UM had contributed to a mild or distinct improvement in their physical or psychological wellbeing. The use of UM in modern health care systems represents a widespread and intricate phenomenon, which cannot be understood by focusing exclusively on the objective assessment of clinical efficacy. Use of UM may be related more to a disease's unfavourable attribution than to its medically expected outcome. Coherence with individual illness paradigms and perceived efficacy are apparently important factors in patients' use of UM. These subjective aspects need to be recognised in caring patient-doctor communication.

The effects of recombinant thrombopoietin (TPO) alone and in combination with erythropoietin (EPO) and early-acting cytokines such as interleukin 3 (IL-3), stem cell factor (SCF) and GM-CSF on highly purified mobilized human CD34 + progenitor cells were studied in a serum-depleted culture system. Eight leukapheresis samples were cultured for seven days and analyzed; aliquots were replated and re-evaluated on day 12. Three-color flow cytometry was used together with morphologic analysis to determine proliferation and megakaryocytic or erythroid maturation.TPO alone was sufficient for cell survival and proliferation in serum-depleted medium. In the absence of other growth factors, almost all CD34 + cells differentiated along the megakaryocytic pathway within 12 days. Concomitantly, the progenitor cells gradually acquired the morphologic features of mature megakaryocytes. After exposure to TPO for one week, 50% of the cells

SummarySpontaneous remission of cancer (SR) is defined as a complete or partial, temporary or permanent disappearance of all or at least some relevant parameters of a soundly diagnosed malignant disease without any medical treatment or with treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting regression. We report the case of a 61-year-old man who presented with extensive metatastic disease five months after pneumonectomy for poorly differentiated large cell and polymorphic lung cancer. A vast metastatic tumour mass of the abdominal wall was confirmed histolologically and there was clinical and radiographic evidence of liver and lung metastases. Eight months later, the patient was operated on for a hernia, which had developed in the inguinal biopsy scar and the surgeon confirmed complete clinical SR of the abdominal wall metastases. Again five months later there was no longer any radiologic evidence of liver and lung metastases. Complete remission has persisted more than five years. Histology of the primary and of the abdominal metastases were reviewed by several independent pathologists. SR is an extremly rare event in lung cancer. This is the first documented case of clinically evident visceral metastases of a bronchiogenic adenocarcinoma developing after complete resection of the primary and then showing complete SR. The epidemiology of SR is reviewed and possible mechanisms involved in SR are discussed.

rhGM-CSF at 5 to 10 micrograms/kg reduces chemotherapy-associated neutropenia and should be the dose range used in future studies.

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