The purpose of this study was to evaluate fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for the detection of soft tissue and bone infections. Forty-five PET examinations in 39 patients (26 male, 13 female, age range 27-86 years) with suspected infectious foci were examined with whole- or partial-body PET scans using FDG. Twenty-seven scans were done in patients with soft tissue and 18 in patients with bone infections. Corrected and uncorrected transaxial PET images were acquired. Seven hundred and twelve body regions in these 45 PET scans were evaluated. Pathological findings were graded using a confidence scale from A to E (A, definitive infection; E, no infection). Disease status was defined in all patients by culture, biopsy or surgery and clinical follow-up. In 45 PET scans there were 40 true-positive, four false-positive and one false-negative findings. Twelve foci suspected to be infectious in nature on the basis of other imaging examinations were identified as negative by PET, thus representing true-negative findings. Sensitivities for the patients with soft tissue (STI) and bone infections (BI) and for the pooled data were 96%, 100% and 98%, respectively. As the calculation of specificity is not straightforward, it was calculated on a per lesion as well as on a per body region basis to permit estimation of an upper and a lower limit. On a per lesion basis, specificities were 70% (STI), 83% (BI) and 75% for the pooled data and on a per body region basis (dividing the body into 22 regions) they were 99% (STI), 99% (BI) and 99% for the pooled data. One false-negative result was found in a patient with cholangitis. It is concluded that PET appears to be a highly sensitive method to detect infectious foci. Specificity is more difficult to estimate, but is probably in the range from 70% to above 90%.

Summary The expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) in 34 formalin fixed paraffin embedded specimens of malignant mesothelioma was examined using the F4 antibody. Eight samples of reactive pleura showed homogenous cytoplasmic staining with the antibody. EGF-R positive cells (> 5%) were found in 68% of the mesotheliomas examined. EGF-R positivity was more commonly seen in the epithelial histological subtype than in the sarcomatous or mixed subtypes. Patients with <5% of mesothelioma cells staining positive for EGF-R had a significantly shorter survival (median 299 days) compared with patients whose tumours had a greater number of cells positive for EGF-R (median 446 days) (P = 0.04). However, when the histological subgroup was also taken into consideration (epithelial type had a significantly longer survival than the sarcomatous or mixed) the survival difference in relation to EGF-R positivity was no longer significant (P = 0.08). EGF-R could not be used to distinguish between malignant and benign mesothelial tissue and was not an independent prognostic factor for survival.There has been a four-fold increase in deaths from mesothelioma over the period 1967 to (Jones & Thomas, 1986. In 1986 there were 695 deaths from the disease and given the strong relationship with asbestos exposure it is highly likely that the death rate will continue to increase over the next decade (Britton, 1989).Three different histological subtypes of mesothelioma can be identified: the epithelial, sarcomatous and mixed cell type. Published data show an advantage for survival in patients with the epithelial subtype of mesothelima compared with patients with mixed or purely sarcomatous cell types (Wanebo et al., 1976;Griffiths et al., 1980;Antman et al., 1981;Law et al., 1982;Chahinian et al., 1982;Hillerdal, 1983;Martensson et al., 1984).Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a small polypeptide with diverse effects on growth characteristics of cell lines, it is known also to enhance the growth of epithelial cells in vivo. (Cohen et al., 1982;Gusterson et al., 1984;Ozanne et al., 1986). The effect of the growth factor is mediated by the specific receptor and epidermal factor receptor (EGF-R) is expressed in a variety of normal cells of non-haematological origin and overexpression is seen in some malignancies. In bladder and breast carcinoma overexpression of EGF-R had clinical importance (Neal et al., 1985;Sainsbury et al., 1987). The F4 antibody is a monoclonal mouse antibody of the IgGI subclass and is directed to the cytoplasmic domain of the EGF-R. The monoclonal antibody was produced to a synthetic peptide consisting of residues 985-996 from the complete EGF-R sequence of 1,206 amino acids (Gullick et al., 1986). The F4 antibody is capable of identifying the receptor using paraffin embedded specimens (Berger et al., 1987).The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of EGF-R in benign and malignant mesothelium and to examine the staining patterns with1in different histological subgroups of malignant mesoth...

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A phase-I/II study of recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL-2) was performed in 31 melanoma patients. The first dose of rIL-2 was given intrasplenically followed 4 hr later by an i.v. dose and 3 further i.v. doses on alternate days. Three courses of treatment were planned at 3-week intervals. The maximum tolerated single dose was 11 x 10(6) Cetus U/m2. Haematological and immunological data were available on 20 patients. Post-treatment response to rIL-2 therapy was evident from (i) a rapid depletion of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) with a rebound at 4-7 days (2 times pre-treatment values); (ii) an increase in the number of IL-2 receptor-positive lymphocytes (4-15 times pre-treatment values); (iii) an increase in the number of "positive" patients with cytotoxic (anti-K562) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 30% to 80%; (iv) amplified killing of K562 by positive patients in relation to pre-treatment values; and (v) the induction of PBMC cytotoxicity (in 45% of patients) against the NK-resistant, LAK-sensitive target, Mel I. Partial clinical responses to rIL-2 treatment were observed in 4 patients, but these were not reflected in the PBMC LAK activity or the other parameters examined.