Hoffman.ElSegundo@Xerox.com (Rodney Hoffman) (08/14/90)
This is taken, with the author's permission, from the August 1990
Newsletter of BEING ALIVE, the Los Angeles People With HIV/AIDS Action
Coalition.
The author, Dr. Robert S. Jenkins, M.D., is the Medical Director of the
Immuno Suppressed Unit at the Hollywood Community Hospital. He can be
reached at (213) 962-0144.
I have no connection with the author nor do I have any further information
about hyperthermia. (Nor can I interpret the numbers cited in the note
about liver function.)
-- Rodney Hoffman
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FOLLOW-UP ON HYPERTHERMIA
By Robert S. Jenkins, M.D.
In July's issue of the Newsletter, I wrote an article on the hyperthermia
treatment done in Atlanta. As a follow-up to that, the first patient (Carl
C.) has had no clinical change in the past 2 months. His current T-cells
from mid-July are 693. His T-cells in June were 720, and his Kaposi's
lesions are still in remission.
The second patient (Toni M.) is back in Chicago and being followed by his
physician there and by Dr. Alonso in Atlanta. Toni's most recent T4 count
was 23 with a P-24 Antigen of 38; this was done in mid-July. The
pretreatment T-cells were 13 and a P-24 antigen of 93. Toni continues to
have an abnormal chest x-ray consistent with pulmonary Kaposi's Sarcoma.
He may also have a chronic pneumonia post-operatively. Toni currently has
elevated liver function tests with an SCPT of 450 and an SGOT of 1000.
These have gone up since the hyperthermnia [sic] treatment. He has also
been on fluconazole which can cause an elevation of liver enzymes, although
I have not personally seen fluconazole cause this degree of liver
abnormality.
As for further plans, Dr. Alonso is leaving for Mexico City on July 28 to
perform the hyperthermia procedure on 8 patients (most of them U.S.
citizens). He will be doing them at Landres, an 'elite' cardiopulmonary
hospital. To my knowledge there are four locations in the United States
planning to do the procedure: Baptist Hospital in Miami, Northwestern
University in Chicago, University of Arizona in Tucson and here in Los
Angeles. Dr Hiam I. Bicher at the Valley Cancer Institute in Panorama City
is planning a privately funded treatment protocol. (Dr. Bicher can be
reached (818) 895-1378.)
By the time this Newsletter is published, the eight patients in Mexico City
should have been treated and clinical information on them will be
forthcoming. This procedure is still very experimental and I think people
whould be cautious before committing their life's savings to this
treatment.
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Opinions expressed in various articles in the BEING ALIVE Newsletter are
not necessarily those of BEING ALIVE's membership. With regard to medical
information, BEING ALIVE recommends that any and all medical treatment you
receive or engage in be discussed thoroughly and frankly with a competent,
licensed, and fully AIDS-informed medical practitioner, preferably your
personal physician.