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Biomedical subjects

A M Lowy

Publications and source records attributed to A M Lowy.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Clinical and preclinical trials of isolated liver perfusion for advanced liver tumors: primary liver tumors.

Preclinical serum and tissue pharmacology studies have played a key role in the development and testing of this novel system designed to treat liver tumors. Pharmacologic evaluation confirmed that the CVHI-CF system significantly limited systemic serum and tissue exposure to chemotherapy drugs given by HAI. By reducing systemic drug exposure and, thus, limiting systemic toxicity, higher doses of antitumor agents can be administered to enhance intratumoral drug levels and increase tumor cell kill. The CVHI-CF system will likely prove increasingly valuable as more active chemotherapeutic agents are developed to treat hepatic malignancies.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Significance of peritoneal cytology in patients with potentially resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head.

BACKGROUND: Recurrence in the peritoneum occurs in up to 50% of patients after a potentially curative pancreaticoduodenectomy. Previous authors have implicated preoperative fine-needle aspiration (FNA) as a cause of intraperitoneal tumor dissemination, although prior studies of peritoneal cytology findings have largely involved patients with locally advanced disease. METHODS: A consecutive series of patients referred to our institution between 1991 and 1993 with suspected or biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head was studied prospectively. All patients fulfilled criteria for resectability as assessed by computed tomography: no metastatic disease, no encasement of the superior mesenteric or hepatic arteries, and a patent superior mesenteric-portal venous confluence. Peritoneal washings were obtained at the time of staging laparoscopy and/or at subsequent laparotomy. Data regarding peritoneal cytology results, previous FNA, preoperative chemoradiation, eventual resection, pattern of disease recurrence, and survival were collected. RESULTS: A total of 80 peritoneal washings from 60 consecutive patients were prospectively examined. Forty-nine (82%) of 60 patients underwent FNA before peritoneal washings were obtained. A total of four patients (7%) had positive peritoneal cytology findings: three (6%) of 49 who underwent prior FNA and one (9%) of 11 with no prior FNA. Similarly, no differences in eventual peritoneal failure or short-term survival were observed for patients who underwent prior FNA compared with patients who did not. All four patients with positive peritoneal cytology findings had metastatic disease (liver, three; peritoneum, one) at a median of 4.8 months after diagnosis; three of the four died of disease at a median of 8 months. CONCLUSIONS: Positive peritoneal cytology findings are rare in patients with radiologically resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. When found, positive peritoneal washings are an indicator of advanced disease characterized by unresectability, early metastasis, and short survival. Computed tomographic-guided FNA does not appear to increase the risk for positive peritoneal washings and represents a valid approach to the pretreatment diagnosis of patients with suspected pancreatic malignancy.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1995

Adjuvant therapy for resectable gastric adenocarcinoma: preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy trials.

Survival rates for patients undergoing resection of gastric adenocarcinoma remain poor. Even following successful removal of all gross disease, high rates of local-regional and systemic recurrence are observed. During the past twenty-five years, multiple trials have been undertaken to evaluate the possible benefit of either preoperative or postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in this disease. This report reviews the rationale, design, and outcome of these trials, and further updates the status of preoperative chemotherapy protocols currently employed at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1994

Laparotomy in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus: indications and outcome.

Four distinct disease processes account for the majority of surgically correctable intra-abdominal pathologies associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection: cytomegalovirus infection, Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and mycobacterial infection. Affected patients may also develop acute cholecystitis and appendicitis with significant frequency. Thorough investigation, when possible, will obviate the need for laparotomy in most HIV-infected patients with abdominal symptoms and signs. In those who require surgical intervention, the outcome varies greatly according to the nature of the diagnosis.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed1985

Discrimination learning requiring different memory components in rats: age and neurochemical comparisons.

The performances of young (8-9 months) and aged (22-24 months) male ACI rats were compared in a T-maze requiring two discriminations, each of which placed different demands on memory processing. A spatial discrimination in the stem of the T-maze required long-term reference memory; a discrete-trial, alternation discrimination in the arms of the T-maze required working memory. Following acquisition training in one maze, rats were also trained in a second maze at a different location in the room. The correct response in the stem of this maze was opposite to that in the first maze. In two experiments with slightly different pretraining procedures, similar results demonstrated that aged rats made more errors in all phases of maze training than did their young counterparts. The results suggest that all components of memory processing were affected equivalently because the age-related impairment was not selectively greater in any component of the task. In a third experiment, aged rats were unimpaired in the ability to perform in a T-maze task involving a brightness discrimination with intramaze cues. This result suggests that the age-related impairment in the two-component T-maze task was restricted to the cognitive demands of the task. Neurochemical analyses were performed to determine whether regional neurotransmitter synthetic enzyme activities could be used to identify neurochemical systems associated with performance in these tasks and with any age-related impairments observed. Choline acetyltransferase and glutamic acid decarboxylase were assayed as markers for cholinergic and GABAergic systems, respectively, in the hippocampi and the following cortical regions: frontal, sensorimotor, auditory, cingulate, occipital, and pyriform-perirhinal. A slight (8%) but significant age-related decline was observed in the activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase but not of choline acetyltransferase. Although the correlation between maze performance and regional enzyme activities generally supported several previous observations, the only significant correlation to emerge was between working memory performance and glutamic acid decarboxylase activity in the cingulate cortex.

Aging↗