1,721,012 research outputs found
Role of clinical oncology pharmacist in determination of pharmaceutical care needs in patients with colorectal cancer
Full text linkObjective To determine and evaluate the pharmaceutical care needs and quality of life of patients with colorectal cancer. Methods 36 Patients with colorectal cancer eligible for chemotherapy after surgery were included in the study. The patients were followed up during 3 courses of chemotherapy and individual pharmaceutical care plans were developed. The quality of life of patients was evaluated before and after the third course of chemotherapy. Results The incidence of drug-related problems (DRPs) in chemotherapy-treated patients was reduced in the 3rd course as compared with 1st course (63.9% vs 75%, respectively; n = 36; p > 0.05). The clinical oncology pharmacist gave 147 recommendations to patients, which were followed in 98% (n = 144) of cases. 91.7% (n = 132) of the recommendations of clinical oncology pharmacists solved the drug-related problems; however, the remaining 8.3% (n = 12) did not solve the problems and the patients were referred to a doctor for further investigations. The symptom-related quality of life of patients related to anaemia, diarrhoea and neurotoxicity was reduced after the third course of chemotherapy (p < 0.05). Conclusions The pharmaceutical care provided by the clinical oncology pharmacist has an important role in the identification and resolution of DRPs. Evaluation of symptom-related quality of life is important for the monitoring of patients receiving chemotherapy
Personality Traits in Cancer Patients
No full textBackground: This study was planned to investigate the personality traits of cancer patients in different treatment settings, and to correlate the demographics with the personality features. Materials and Methods: A total of 237 patients referred either to Marmara University School of Medicine (MUSM) Oncology Outpatient Unit or to the private office of the faculty between March 10th and April 22nd, 2010 were enrolled in the study. The Big Five Mini Test was used to evaluate the 40 personality traits of the patients. Results: The study group consisted of 98 males (41.35%) and 139 females (58.65%) with a mean age of 51. Out of the 237, 73.9% had an educational level beyond the junior high school, and 47.3% of all patients reported a positive family history for cancer. A significant difference in terms of reconcilability, extraversion, and responsibility was observed between patients admitting to the university outpatient clinic and the private office (p<0.05). Reconcilability and extraversion were found to differ between genders significantly (p<0.05). The description of the patients by him/herself or by relatives displayed a significant difference in terms of openness (p<0.05). Parameters such as educational level, family history of cancer, age and marital status showed no relevance to their characters. No discordance was observed between the self-analysis of the patient and the patient's relatives. Conclusions: Patients with cancer are typically highly reconcilable and responsible, moderately stable, open and extraverted
PTEN loss is not associated with trastuzumab resistance in metastatic breast cancer
No full textPurpose: Although the clinical benefits of trastuzumab are well known, intrinsic or acquired resistance is a commonly encountered clinical condition. A potential resistance mechanism is aberrant downstream signal transmission due to loss of phosphatase and tensine homologue (PTEN). This study investigated the relationship between trastuzumab response and loss of PTEN in metastatic breast cancer patients. Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive metastatic breast cancer, who were treated with trastuzumab were enrolled into the study. PTEN expression was immunohistochemically evaluated. Results: The patient median age was 50 years. Of 38 patients, 6 (15.8%) showed PTEN loss. No statistically significant difference was found between trastuzumab response, overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) and PTEN loss (p=0.538). Conclusion: The activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway resulting from PTEN loss was not found to be correlated with trastuzumab response and survival. PTEN loss should not lead to exclusion of patients from the potential to benefit from trastuzumab administration
p95-HER2 and trastuzumab resistance in metastatic breast cancer; is immunohistochemistry appropriate?
Full text linkPurpose: Unraveling the mechanisms underlying the resistance to trastuzumab is important for amending the prognosis of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive metastatic breast cancer. Experimentally, it has been shown that p95-HER2 positive breast tumors are resistant to trastuzumab. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive and prognostic importance of p95-HER2 expression by immunohistochemistry in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab. Methods: Only patients who had a histological diagnosis of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and who had received first line therapy containing trastuzumab were enrolled in the study. Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze p95-HER2 expression in the tissue blocks of the patients. Results: The study was performed on 38 patients aged between 30 and 84 years. In 14 patients (36.8%), p95-HER2 was positive, whereas it was negative in the remaining 24 patients (63.2%). There was no significant correlation between p95-HER2 expression and overall survival, response to trastuzumab, and progression-free survival (PFS). Conclusion: Unlike previous reports, there was no correlation between the p95-HER2 expression and resistance to trastuzumab. It may be argued that an analysis using immunohistochemistry is inadequate for determining p95-HER2. In order to ascertain whether immunohistochemistry is an appropriate method, studies with larger patient groups are needed.
Metastasis to Paranasal Sinuses and Orbita of Breast Cancer With a Rare Metachronous Tumor of the Uterine Cervix
No full textBreast cancer metastases are rarely seen in paranasal sinuses or orbit with a poor prognosis, and these cases were published as case reports. Moreover, metachronous tumors following breast cancer diagnosis are somewhat common, but uterine cervix is infrequent in them. In the present case, we report a 61-year-old female patient who had a biopsy-proven metastatic breast cancer to paranasal sinuses and orbita. She also had a cervical uterine cancer which is also unusually diagnosed following breast cancer. Palliative radiotherapy to paranasal sinuses (30 Gy) achieved a good response. However, she died due to leptomeningeal progression
An international survey of practice patterns and difficulties in cancer pain management in Southeastern Europe: A Turkish & Balkan Oncology Group common initiative
No full textPurpose: While pain is highly prevalent in cancer patients and its management is universally challenging, it is more commonly undertreated in the developing world. Southeastern European countries have limited resources and manpower to allocate for delivery of effective care for cancer-related pain. The purpose of this study was to explore the practice methods and the barriers to effective pain management in Southeastern Europe. Methods: We conducted a Web-based survey using a specially designed questionnaire among physicians practicing in member countries of the Balkan Union of Oncology (BUON). Results: A representative from each of the member countries of BUON (including Armenia and Georgia) and close to 100 physicians from 8 countries responded. The majority (89%) of respondents were medical oncologists and had been practising for 10 years on average. For pain assessment, only 35.4% of the physicians used a formal pain scale. Of the respondents 34.1% were not able to reach the optimal doses of narcotic medications while managing cancer pain, mostly due to concerns about toxicity, such as constipation and nausea. Most physicians listed their inability to consult sub-specialists to seek assistance for improving pain management cases as one of the major difficulties in day-to-day clinical practice, along with lack of time. Conclusions: The limitations faced by our respondents seem to be related mostly to the shortcomings of the respective health care systems, along with the need for more experience and knowledge about the titration of pain medications and dealing with toxicities
Weight gain after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer in Istanbul Turkey
No full textWeight gain is a well-known and unwanted complication of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. We observed that the female Turkish cancer patients frequently gain weight with adjuvant treatment of breast cancer and planned to examine the magnitude of this problem in early breast cancer patients treated at our hospital. A total of 176 early breast cancer patients who received their adjuvant systemic therapy in Marmara University Hospital between 2003 and 2007 are included in the study. We recorded their weight before and after chemotherapy and also a year after chemotherapy to find out whether the change with weight is transitory. We have also recorded demographic information, including the educational level, menopausal status, the type of chemotherapy or hormonal treatment administered stage of disease, marital status, occupation and the underlying diseases to analyze the relationship between change in weight and these parameters. Median age of patients was 53 and 72% of patients were postmenopausal. Educational level was equally distributed for primary education (27%), high school (40%), and university (33%). The majority of the patients (76%) was married, had two children (69%) and was housewife (60%). Family history of any cancer was high (32%). Most of the patients had stage II cancer (56%), received anthracyclines+/- taxane based chemotherapy (98%) and had no underlying disease (68%). The majority also did not smoke (73%) or drink alcohol (93%). A total of 67% and 72% patients gained weight upon completion and one year after completion of chemotherapy. Mean weight before the chemotherapy, upon completion of chemotherapy and one year after completion of chemotherapy were 68.9 kg, 70.6 kg (P = 0.000) and 71.9 kg (P = 0.000) respectively. Mean body mass index was 27.1 at baseline, 27.8 upon completion of chemotherapy (P = 0.000) and 28.3 one year after completion of chemotherapy (P = 0.000). Age, menopausal status, multiparity and presence of comorbid diseases had statistically significant impact on weight gain following adjuvant therapy in breast cancer patients (P = 0.000, P = 0.008, P = 0.015 and P = 0.017 respectively). This study shows that Turkish women with early breast cancer gain weight after adjuvant systemic therapy, in line with European and American counterparts. This increase in weight is maintained at least one year after adjuvant therapy. Given the adverse consequences of weight gain in terms of both breast cancer prognosis and general health, it is necessary to inform patients about this change and to develop strategies for weight maintenance during and after systemic therapy
Concomitant chemoradiotherapy with low-dose weekly gemcitabine for nonmetastatic unresectable pancreatic cancer
No full textBackground/aims: This study aimed to demonstrate the efficacy and tolerability of low-dose weekly gemcitabine as a radiosensitizer in unresectable pancreatic cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy. Methods: Twenty-four histologically confirmed pancreatic carcinoma patients (female/male: 10/14, median age: 60) were evaluated. Seven (29%) patients received gemcitabine either as a single agent or in combination prior to chemoradiotherapy. Concurrent 75 mg/m(2) gemcitabine was infused weekly. Radiotherapy was delivered to the primary tumor and positive lymphatics with 3D-conformal radiotherapy to a total dose of 4500 cGy. Local progression-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival and overall survival were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method. Results: Median follow-up was 36 weeks. Median local progression-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival and overall survival were 22 weeks (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5-59 weeks), 19 weeks (95%CI: 6.9-31 weeks) and 36 weeks (95%CI: 28-43 weeks), respectively. All patients completed radiotherapy as scheduled. Concurrent gemcitabine was given fully in 58.3% of patients. Gemcitabine was terminated in four (16.6%) patients due to grade 3 neutropenia (n=1), grade 3 nausea/vomiting (n=2) or patient's reluctance (n=1). Patients with local response and stable disease to chemoradiotherapy revealed a median survival of 39 weeks (95%CI: 30-47.9 weeks) compared to 36 weeks (95%CI: 9.7-62.2 weeks) in patients with locally progressive disease (p=0.52). Pain was improved in 50% of patients. Conclusions: Weekly low-dose radiosensitizing gemcitabine is effective and safe in unresectable pancreatic cancer patients
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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