1,721,193 research outputs found
Senza paura : vincere il tumore con la medicina della persona
No full textA life-threating experience such as cancer triggers changes that most of the time we are not ready to deal with. Changes in the body, changes in the mind, in the daily habits, in life priorities and in social relationships. Such an experience implies a passage from a quite stable personal state to an uncertain condition, where though choices need to be made at different levels: from the clinical treatments to the new roles we have to acquire in the society.
In this framework, the Book describes what happens in patients’ mind and inner intimate world after a cancer diagnosis and through the illness trajectory from a psychological and cognitive science perspective: the moment of diagnosis delivery, the creation of new, important relationships inside and outside the familial world, the meeting with surgery and its sequelae, medical treatments such as chemo, radiation and hormonal therapy, the survivorship phase are milestones during patients’ journey to reach a new health status.
Each phase is thoroughly understood by the real words of cancer patients who are all cancer survivors in their way of founding their own subjective manner to deal with this still overwhelming illness.
The synergic union between patients’ voice and the authors’ competence gives the reader the opportunity to see how personal and contextual resources can be used and transformed in order to make the happening change the opportunity for a new wellbeing
Intraoperative electrons
No full textIntraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has been used for many years for treating patients with various locally-advanced malignancies, usually combined with external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Long-term results confirm that IORT improves local control, which is generally associated with increased survival. Recently, electron-beam IORT has been used as the sole treatment for patients with earlier-stage cancers, especially for breast tumors, with extremely promising results. Most of this work has been done at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. We report the rationale and techniques of the use of electron intraoperative treatment (ELIOT) and the results of our different clinical studies. In our opinion, ELIOT may be an excellent alternative to EBRT for the treatment of patients with early-stage breast cancer. However, intensive long-term follow-up is needed to fully evaluate local control and possible side effects
Breast conservation : current results and future perspectives at the European Institute of Oncology
No full textIn the recent 10 years breast cancer treatments' scenario is radically changed. Extraordinary new surgical approaches give more and more conservative solutions both for the breast and especially for the axilla avoiding dissection in more than 80% of early cases. Instrumental early diagnosis and clinical prediction are now able to identify very initial cases often in premalignant stage. Technology arrived in the operating theatre for the intraoperative radiotherapy treatments giving to the patients the better quality of life with the help also of the plastic surgeons. There are still near horizons to reach: modern neo-adjuvant and adjuvant treatments are going quickly from the laboratory to patient's bed
Prevention of breast cancer with tamoxifen: the Italian study in hysterectomized women.
No full textTamoxifen is one of the most successful and studied anticancer drugs. In patients with breast cancer it helps prolong survival, and there is persuasive evidence that it can reduce the incidence of contralat- eral new primaries. Inhibition or reversal of breast carcinogenesis with tamoxifen appears currently to be the most potentially successful chemopreventive strategy for this important disease. To assess the efficacy of the drug in this respect and to evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of its use in healthy women, three major studies have been designed, in the UK, in the USA and in Italy. In all of them the participants receive either 20 mg/day tamoxifen or placebo, in a double blind study, for 5 years. While the US and the UK trials are enrolling high-risk women only, the Italian study will accept any woman between 35 and 70 years of age, provided she has had a hysterectomy for benign conditions. This is to avoid the risk of endometrial cancer caused by tamoxifen, which appears to be t..
Tamoxifen for Breast cancer among Hysterectomised women.
No full textAbstract
Tamoxifen is a candidate drug for prevention of breast cancer, although findings from trials have not been consistent. In our extended follow-up (median 81.2 months, IQR 66.0-87.2) of the Italian Tamoxifen Trial, this drug did not significantly protect against breast cancer in women at usual or slightly reduced risk of the disease (p=0.215). Use of hormone replacement therapy increased risk of breast cancer, and users of such treatment who were randomly allocated to tamoxifen had a rate of breast cancer that was close to that of never-users. So far, no woman has died from breast cancer in this study. Decisions about introduction of tamoxifen to reduce risk of breast cancer remain important and open questions
Conservative mastectomy : extending the idea of breast conservation
No full textConservative mastectomy is a surgical technique to remove breast glandular tissue without disruption to the appearance of the breast. The main contraindication to this operation is involvement of the nipple-areola complex. Preservation of a healthy nipple does not affect long-term survival rates. Intraoperative retroareolar biopsy and accurate removal of all mammary tissue are mainstays to guarantee oncological safety of the technique. A complication, however infrequent, is nipple necrosis, which can be treated successfully by local excision. Several breast reconstructive techniques are used during conservative mastectomy and aesthetic results are good in most case
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