A. Akdas

The role of delay in stage III testicular tumours

Twenty-nine patients with stage III testicular tumours seen between 1979 and 1984 were analysed for the relation between delay in both diagnosis and chemotherapy, and prognosis. The complete response (CR) rate was 40% for patients who were treated within 6 months from onset of symptoms, and 26.3% for patients who had an interval longer than 6 months.We believe that delay in diagnosis and chemotherapy may affect the response to treatment. Health education of the male population for self-examination of the testes is an important factor to minimize this delay.

Prognostic factors in superficial bladder cancer

A retrospective analysis of 91 patients with superficial transitional cell carcinoma (stages Ta and T1) is reported. In all of the patients transurethral resection was the treatment of choice. With the recurrence rate as the primary endpoint of interest it appeared that the number of tumours at presentation, invasion of the lamina propria, and histological grade were to be of prognostic importance. The frequency of tumour progression in our group was found to be 10 per cent. All of the patients who developed muscle invasion had lamina propria invasion at presentation.

The effect of ergobromocriptine on serum testosterone and prolactin levels in patients with carcinoma of the prostate

The effect of Ergobromocriptine treatment on serum testosterone and prolactin levels in 15 patients with prostatic carcinoma and 15 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia was examined. The prolactin levels which were elevated in patients with prostatic carcinoma showed a significant decrease after suppression with Ergobromocriptine. The selective effect of Ergobromocriptine on prolactin levels of patients with prostatic carcinoma may control the progression of the disease.

Biopsy of apparently normal bladder mucosa in patients with bladder carcinoma and its prognostic importance

A total of 100 cold cup biopsies were obtained from apparently normal vesical mucosa of 25 patients admitted to Hacettepe University Hospital between 1980 and 1981. Dysplasia was found to occur in 40.49, hyperplasia in 17.35, squamous metaplasia in 9.91 per cent. Dysplasia was shown to be increasing parallel with the increase in the grade and stage of the tumour. The frequency of dysplasia and hyperplasia in the recurrent and non-recurrent groups differed significantly (p<0.001). In other words, recurrence was seen more frequently in patients with positive random biopsies. Although recurrence phenomena cannot be explained on the basis of mucosal abnormalities alone, this study shows that these subendoscopic lesions do have some prognostic role in recurrences.