Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Neuroblastoma
T. Philip and C. P. Reynolds, Chairmen
DR. T. PHILIP: I want to thank everybody first, and ask specific questions
of each of the speakers. We'll begin with Dr. August. Any questions? Yes,
Ross (Dr. Pinkerton).
DR. R. PINKERTON: Dr. August, you mentioned your plans to incorporate
an 125 l-meta-iodobenzylguanidine in a future regimen. Was this intended to
be a replacement for total body irradiation (TBI) or an adjunct to it and, if so,
what exactly are your plans?
DR. C. AUGUST: It will probably occur before surgery so that there will be
an interval of, I would guess, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months
between that therapy and the ablative therapy and bone marrow rescue.
DR. PHILIP: Dr. Seeger, one point was not clear to me. In 10 of 17
patients you found tumor cells with immunologic screening and cytology was
normal. Can you give us some details?
DR. R. SEEGER: Those patients all had bilateral aspirates and bilateral
biopsies that were normal. They were all done at the same institution, UCLA,
at the time of the autologous harvest.
DR. M. FAVROT: First, we do not so often find a difference between
immunologic detection and morphology. What might the explanation be?
Second, can you give us some objective criteria of what you call a tumor cell?
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