Two-hundred and fifty-eight patients treated with high-activity 131I for thyroid cancer and on prolonged follow-up have been reviewed to determine long-term hazards and their relation to the radiation dose received. The expectation of life of those dying from causes other than cancer was slightly reduced in the female patients. A small, significant excess of deaths from cancer of the bladder and from leukaemia was found which, assuming that these were due to radiation, gave inferred risk-rates respectively of 0.4 and 4.9 deaths per 10(4) PYG (patient-year-grays) to the bladder wall and red marrow. Of 31 younger patients (eight male, 23 female), four of the marriages have been infertile. The fertile marriages produced a total of 44 live births. Considerable gonad irradiation (estimated 0.8-2.7 Gy) was compatible with apparently normal fertility. Despite the high level of irradiation of the salivary glands, no malignancies and only one adenoma was found. Impaired pulmonary function occurred in only one of the patients who had diffuse bilateral metastases. In this patient, tumour in the lung was persistent throughout, so that radiation was probably not alone responsible.

Background. The prognostic significance and optimal care of children with differentiated thyroid cancer and pulmonary metastases are not well established. Methods. Of 209 patients younger than 25 years of age who were treated at University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1960 and 1990 and for whom there was sufficient information, 19 (9%) had pulmonary metastases at presentation. Results. All of these patients had regional lymphadenopathy at the time of diagnosis. All but two had intense, diffuse radioiodine uptake in the lungs; there were two false‐negative scans immediately after surgical procedure caused by competing thyroid residual. The chest radiograph (CXR) was normal in 8 of 17 (42%) patients with abnormal radioiodine scans. After therapy with radioiodine (100–499 mCi), CXR appeared normal in 7 of 9 patients with initial abnormal radiographs (within 6–75 months). Radioiodine uptake by the lungs normalized in 3 of 8 patients with initially normal radiographs, and in 3 of 9 patients with initially abnormal radiographs. There have been no deaths in these 19 patients. Conclusion. Pulmonary metastases are not uncommon in children and young adults with differentiated thyroid cancer, especially those who have regional lymphadenopathy. The lung metastases almost always concentrate radioiodine diffusely and may be associated with a normal CXR in almost half of the patients. Pulmonary metastases may be overlooked unless near total thyroidectomy is followed by total body radioiodine scan (TBS) in all children and young adults who have regional lymphadenopathy of the neck.

Purpose To correlate 9-gauge Magnetic Resonance imaging-guided Vacuum-Assisted breast Biopsy (MRVAB) with surgical histology to determine the upgrade rate and to correlate the frequency of MRVAB cancer diagnosis with breast MRI indications and enhancement characteristics of targeted lesions. Materials and Methods The HIPAA compliant study was approved by the institutional review board. A database search was performed of all MRVABs performed from January 1, 2005 to September 31, 2010. The breast MRI indications, history, age, risk factors, lesion size, enhancement characteristics, pathology at MRVAB and at surgery were documented. Fisher's exact test and Analysis of Variance were used for statistical analysis. Results A total of 218 lesions underwent MRVAB in 197 women (mean age 52 years, range 28 - 76 years), of which 85 (39%) had surgical correlation. (R1, #3) There were 48/218 (22%) malignant, 133/218 (61%) benign, and 37/218 (17%) high-risk lesions at MRVAB. Ten (12%) of 85 lesions were upgraded to malignancy at surgery, with a final malignancy rate of 25%. The frequency of malignancy was significantly higher in patients presenting for diagnostic (50/177, 28%) versus screening (4/41, 10%, P<0.05) evaluation, patients with ipsilateral cancer (22/49, 45%, P<0.001), lesions with washout kinetics (34/103, 33%, P < 0.05); and relatively higher in lesions with non-mass-like enhancement (26/76, 34%, P=0.07), which represented ductal carcinoma in situ in the majority (17/26, 65%, P<0.005). Conclusion Patients with ipsilateral cancer who have additional suspicious lesions identified on MRI require careful evaluation and biopsy to exclude additional sites of cancer that may impact surgical management.

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Two hundred sixty-four patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with fludarabine 30 mg/m2 intravenously for 30 minutes each day for 5 days and with prednisone 30 mg/m2 orally each day for 5 days. Courses were repeated monthly. Of the 264 patients. 125 patients (47%) had Rai stage III-IV disease; 169 patients (64%) were previously treated with a median of 3 prior regimens; and 138 of them (82%) were refractory to therapy with alkylating agents. The overall response (OR) and complete response (CR) rates in the 169 previously-treated patients were 52% and 37%; these were 74% and 63%, respectively, in Rai stage O- II patients and declined to 64% and 46%, respectively, in Rai III-IV disease. Among the previously untreated patients, the OR and CR rates were 79% and 63%, these being 85% and 70%, respectively, in Rai O-II patients, and declining to 64% and 46%, respectively, in Rai III-IV disease. The incidence of minor infections or fever of unknown origin was similar in all patient groups and occurred in 22% of courses. The incidence of sepsis and/or pneumonia was significantly correlated with the extent of prior therapy and with Rai stage, and ranged from 3% of courses in the previously untreated Rai O-II patients, to 13% of courses in the previously treated Rai III-IV patients. Listeria sepsis or Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was noted in 14 patients. With therapy, CD4 levels were uniformly depressed from a median 1,015/microL pretreatment to a median 159/microL after 3 months of fludarabine therapy. Median time to progression in previously treated patients was 22 months. In previously untreated patients, median time to progression was 30 months for patients who achieved a partial remission and has not been reached in patients who achieved a CR with a median follow-up of 2 years. The median survival was 18 months for previously treated patients and has not been reached for previously untreated patients. Response rates in previously treated and untreated patients, as well as infection rates, were identical to those seen in 110 patients treated with the same dose schedule of fludarabine alone. Logistic regression analysis selected 4 factors to be significantly associated with worse response: Rai III-IV stage disease, prior therapy, older age, and low albumin levels. The regression equation was used to derive a probability of response based on the 4 characteristics. When the model was applied to the same population, patients could be divided into 4 prognostic groups with different outcomes.