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The number of patients with scar carcinoma of the oesophagus developing on the basis of a corrosive stricture seems to have been rising in the past two decades. 36 patients of this kind were treated surgically between 1965 and 1984; this is the second largest series in the literature. The patients with scar cancer comprised 7.2% of the overall oesophageal carcinoma cases; this ratio is currently the highest of all in the literature. The interval between the caustic burn and the diagnosis of scar carcinoma was found to be 46.1 years; this is higher than the 30-35 years generally accepted so far. It was 50.9 years in those patients who drank lye before the age of 12, but 14 years less when it happened in adulthood. The long-term survival time proved to be excellent: 45.6% of the resected cases were alive after 5 years and 14.4% after 10 years. The explanation of the good prognosis lies in the fact that carcinoma developing in a lye stricture is at first surrounded by a rigid scar which allows only its intraluminal growth, and it causes early dysphagia through luminal obstruction. Early dissemination is prevented for the same reason. One-stage resection and replacement is suggested in the radically operable cases. In patients with oesophageal corrosive stricture which needs operation, both a by-pass procedure and resection can be adopted, but it should be pointed out that malignancy may develop even years after the operation in the remaining part of the gullet. Total oesophagectomy is therefore suggested instead of bypass.

To indicate the immunotoxic potential of chemicals the examinations prescribed by OECD Guideline 407 were extended by the following additional toxicological, haematological, histopathological, and immune function examinations: absolute and relative organ weight of spleen, thymus, popliteal lymph nodes, lung and brain; histopathology of thymus, mesenteric lymph nodes, popliteal lymph nodes, bone marrow (femur), Peyer's patches (ileum), lungs and colon; PFC assay (spleen), T cell proliferation and NK cell assay. Two well known immunosuppressants Azathioprine (AZA) and Cyclosporine A (CysA) were chosen as model compounds at a dose range which do not cause visible toxic signs on the animals during a 28 days treatment period. The results show that the applied experimental system is much more sensitive in detection of the immunotoxic potential of these two compounds in a low dose range than the examination required by OECD Guideline 407 are.

We investigated the HLA-DRB, and DQB polymorphism and haplotypes in RA subjects of Hungarian origin by PCR typing using sequence-specific primers. Molecular subtyping of HLA-DRB1*04 alleles in RA patients showed strongest association with highest relative risk with DRB1*0404. A significantly decreased frequency of DRB1*0403 was observed in patients compared to controls. A significant number of patients carried DR4 haplotypes on DQB1*0302 (54%) relative to DQB1*0301 which was present on 36% of the haplotypes. When compared to controls, the frequency was higher in the latter allele only. Few unique DRB-DQB haplotypes were observed in Hungarian RA patients. In spite of the fact, that the Hungarian population has been isolated linguistically over centuries, a considerable racial admixture has occurred following immigration and invasions, thus the present study confirms in Hungarian patients with RA, previous findings for RA and HLA in European countries.

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