Isolated limb perfusion with biochemotherapy and oncolytic virotherapy combines with radiotherapy and surgery to overcome treatment resistance in an animal model of extremity soft tissue sarcoma.

The management of locally advanced or recurrent extremity sarcoma often necessitates multimodal therapy to preserve a limb, of which isolated limb perfusion (ILP) is a key component. However, with standard chemotherapeutic agents used in ILP, the duration of response is limited. Novel agents or treatment combinations are urgently needed to improve outcomes.

Adenovirally delivered enzyme prodrug therapy with herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase in composite tissue free flaps shows therapeutic efficacy in rat models of glioma.

Introduction: Free flap gene therapy exploits a novel therapeutic window when viral vectors can be delivered into a flap ex vivo. The authors investigated the therapeutic potential of an adenovirally-delivered thymidine kinase/ganciclovir prodrug system expressed following vector delivery into a free flap.

Methods: The authors demonstrated direct in vitro cytotoxicity by treating a panel of malignant cell lines with the thymidine kinase/ganciclovir system and demonstrated significant cell kill proportional to the multiplicity of infection of adenoviral vector expressing thymidine kinase.

Breast sarcoma--a review of diagnosis and management.

Sarcoma of the breast is a rare condition. The biological differences from other primary breast tumours necessitate a corresponding difference in approach to diagnostic and management strategies. The rarity of the condition has made clinicopathological study difficult, with most series limited to less than 50 patients.

Conservative treatment of an early aortic graft infection due to Acinetobacter baumanii.

Acute infection of an aortic graft is a devastating complication. While resection of the infected prosthesis and extra-anatomic bypass is the established treatment, this carries a high mortality. We describe a case of early aortic graft infection with the unusual organism Acinetobacter baumanii, which was eradicated by a combination of surgical drainage and antibiotics, allowing preservation of the graft.