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Objective: The end-point of this survey was to evaluate the number of patients in advanced or terminal phase of a life-threatening disease and hospitalised in the university hospital in Grenoble on a given day. The secondary end-points were determination of the profile of patients undergoing palliative care and the therapeutic charge they represented for the hospital in order to develop optimal medico-psycho-social responses adapted to the needs of this population, their family and friends and the teams of health professionals who treat them., Methods: The survey was based on a questionnaire including 106 items and one open question, filled-in by a physician and the nurses of the hospital, together with the interviewer., Results: Out of the 1495 patients hospitalised in the hospital centre (84% occupation), 114 patients were included in the study, i.e., 8% of the total number of patients present. Patients' mean age was of 70 (21

Desmoplastic tumours with divergent differentiation are principally located in the abdomen and develop locally or regionally. They occur in adolescents or young adults and are characterized at histology by a proliferation of undifferentiated small cells surrounded by a dense stroma. Only immuno-histo-chemistry provides the diagnosis. Since their chemosensitivity is rare and often partial the outcome is usually lethal. Six new cases of this recently described entity are presented here. The authors are in favour of a multidisciplinary and aggressive management, combining intensive polychemotherapy, extensive surgical exerisis and total abdominal radiotherapy.

The renal toxicity of antitumoral drugs is an increasingly disturbing problem. These drugs are now prescribed in an ever wider variety of cases, and delayed renal reactions, previously unknown, are revealed by the longer survivals obtained. For a number of years, patients whose cancer had been cured have been placed under haemodialysis on account of drug-induced renal failure. The renal toxicity of cisplatinum, nitrosoureas and methotrexate is well-known, but mitomycin C is also capable of inducing permanent renal failure; the delayed toxicity of this drug explains that it has long been underestimated. This example emphasizes the need for close co-operation between oncologists, nephrologists and pharmacologists in order to determine, for each patient, the most effective treatment with the minimum of side effects.