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Gynecological cancers are preventable and treatable diseases in case of early diagnosis. However, lack of knowledge is one of the factors preventing women from benefiting from early diagnosis. Increasing women's knowledge of gynecological cancers contributes to improving the health of both women and the community. The purpose of this research study was to determine the affecting factors and knowledge level of Turkish women-related gynecological cancer prevention.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study and was carried out at a state hospital's outpatient clinic between May and June 2019. The sampling included 496 women who are not diagnosed with gynecological cancer in the individual or in the family. Data were collected using the personal information form and Gynecological Cancer Prevention Information Scale (GCPIS). Data were evaluated using the SPSS 22.0 software program. Frequencies, mean and standard deviation were used for the descriptive variables. For the data that met the parametric conditions, those with two groups were analyzed using independent samples t-tests and those with more than two groups were analyzed using F-test.

In this study, the GCPIS total mean score of women was found 16.22 ± 8.21 (min: 0, max: 35). A statistically significant difference was found between the women's level of knowledge according to the age group of the participants, education level, economic status perception, regular pap-smear test, regular vulva examination and getting information about prevention from gynecologic cancers (p < 0.05).

This study was conducted on a group of Turkish women and cannot be generalized to other cultures.

This study can be beneficial for determining the Turkish women's knowledge levels about gynecological cancers of women and for providing data for health education programs planning to be created.

The data of this study can be used to improve women's knowledge and examination skills of gynecological cancers. Thus, the quality of life of women can be improved.

Healthcare professionals can play vital roles in presenting needed knowledge about gynecological cancers and raising awareness in women. It is extremely important for women to be informed about gynecological cancers for prevention of gynecological cancers and health improvement.

In Thailand, most patients with cancer primarily receive in-home care from their family members. However, information regarding the quality of life (QoL) of the primary family-member caregivers is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to assess primary family-member caregivers’ QoL and its association with self-efficacy and social support using a Thai version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC).

This hospital-based cross-sectional study was performed at a teaching hospital in Bangkok. Questionnaires were administered to 178 primary family-member caregivers of patients with cancer between June 2015 and July 2016, and their QoL was measured using a Thai translation of the CQOLC made by the research team. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed using SPSS software (version 18).

Approximately 79.8 percent of primary family-member caregivers were female, 86.0 percent were 18-51 years old. In total, 52.8 percent reported having a good QoL, 60.1 percent reported a moderate level of perceived self-efficacy, and 56.7 percent reported a high level of perceived social support for providing care. Primary family-member caregivers, who provided care for male cancer patients and were co-responsible for covering the patient’s cost of care, had a lower level of perceived self-efficacy and perceived social support. They also reported having poorer QoL. The patients’ characteristics were more strongly associated with the family-member caregivers’ QoL, than the family-member caregivers’ characteristics, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived social support.

Approximately 50 percent of primary family-member caregivers reported having a good QoL. Healthcare providers should incorporate the self-efficacy concept to help improve primary family caregiver’s self-efficacy to provide care to patients with cancer, especially for individuals who are caring for male patients, and provide counseling for primary family-member caregivers regarding ways to obtain the necessary social and financial support to improve their QoL.

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. This study aimed to compare the level of knowledge and attitude of females regarding Breast cancer and to determine the role of knowledge, attitude and barriers in performing regular self-examination.

Non-physician females aged 18 years old or above were enrolled in this cross-sectional study in two groups of usual clients and healthcare staff from January 2018 to January 2019 from a healthcare center in Sari, a major city in the northern district of Iran. A questionnaire was used to score the participants’ knowledge and attitude levels using questions about the participants' knowledge and attitude towards Breast cancer along with their status on Breast self-examination and barriers. Mean scores were used for statistical analysis using SPSS V25. p < 0.05 was considered significant.

A final dataset of 279 females were collected. A significant difference in the knowledge and attitude regarding breast cancer was found between the two study groups (p < 0.001). The practice of BSE was significantly lower in the usual clients compared to non-physician healthcare staff (p < 0.001). The most frequent barriers for not performing a regular BSE were fear of finding a mass in usual clients (17.8%) and lack of confidence in healthcare staff (3.8%).

Limitations include single-centered sample selection.

Given the importance of early detection in breast cancer prevention and the general taboo regarding breast cancer screening methods in certain parts of the world, leading to poor results in early detection and prevention, the authors believe that it is of superior importance to address and promote positive attitudes in general population towards breast self-examination.

Given the importance of early detection in breast cancer prevention, and the general taboo regarding breast cancer screening methods in certain parts of the world, leading to poor results in early detection and prevention, the authors believe that it is of superior importance to address and promote positive attitudes in general population toward breast self-examination. The authors of this study believe that the manuscript represents honest and original work.

Background: Quality of life is a core concern for cancer patients, which can be negatively affected by illness-related death anxiety; yet understanding of how to appropriately target psycho-oncological interventions remains lacking. We aimed to explore experiential acceptance in cancer patients, and whether acceptance – as an alternative to avoidant coping – was related to and predictive of better quality of life and death anxiety outcomes.

Methods: We used a longitudinal, quantitative design with a follow-up after three months. Seventy-two participants completed a questionnaire-battery measuring illness appraisals, acceptance and non-acceptance coping-styles, quality of life, and death anxiety; 31 participants repeated the battery after three months.

Results: Acceptance was an independent explanatory and predictive variable for quality of life and death anxiety, in the direction of psychological health. Acceptance had greater explanatory power for outcomes than either cancer appraisals or avoidant response styles. Avoidant response styles were associated with greater death anxiety and poorer quality of life.

Conclusions: The findings support the role of an accepting response-style in favourable psychological outcomes, identifying a possible target for future psychological intervention. Response styles that might be encouraged in other therapies, such as active coping, planning, and positive reframing, were not associated with beneficial outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the levels of awareness and knowledge about oral cancer, its causes and or risk factors among Ugandan patients seeking oral healthcare.

This was a cross-sectional study on adult patients who attended a free dental camp. An assistant-administered questionnaire either in English or Luganda was provided to every even-numbered registered adult who consented to participate in the study. Information on demographics and known risk factors for oral cancer were captured. The two knowledge questions on oral cancers were scored by adding up all the correctly identified causes, non-causes and risk factors then scored out of the total. Data analysis was done by calculating proportions, Student’s’ t-tests and χ² tests with significant p-value set at 0.05.

The results showed a low level of awareness/knowledge about oral cancer in studied population. In total, 60 percent and less than 50 percent of respondents identified smoking and alcohol use as risk factors for oral cancer, respectively. Majority of respondents (88.8 percent) would seek help from medical personnel if diagnosed with oral cancer. Screening for cancer was low despite awareness and knowledge that it improves the chances of successful treatment.

Emphasis on risk factors including alcohol use in public health messages, use of mass media, religious and community leaders to disseminate messages to the communities and further research were recommended.

We need to emphasize the role of alcohol in oral cancer causation just as we do for tobacco consumption.

No study has been conducted in Uganda on the level of awareness yet the incidence of the disease and use of high-risk products are rising.

The purpose of the study is to assess the differential impact of gender and cancer sites on mental burden across different types of cancer and control patients.

The paper is based on a primary survey undertaken in 2015–2016 of 600 cancer and 200 control patients across five hospitals of Nepal. The data was analyzed using propensity score matching methods and treatment effect weighting estimators.

The authors find that of all the types of patients covered under this study, cervical cancer patients suffered from a greater intensity of anxiety and lack of functional wellbeing. On an average, all other female, male cancer patients, and control patients experience significantly lower intensity of mental burden in the range of 1.83, 2.63 and 3.31, respectively when compared to patients of cervical cancer. The results are robust across all the four treatment effect estimators and through all the measures of mental burden. The implications of suffering from cervical cancer, as a unique gynecological cancer was studied in-depth. An effect size analysis pointed out to the dysfunctional familial relationship as additional causes of concern for cervical cancer patients.

An important finding that emerged is that female cancer patients especially those who have cervical cancer should be given special attention because they appear to be the most vulnerable group. Further work is needed to delineate the reasons behind a cervical cancer patient facing higher amount of stress.

The study aims to summarise the literature on cancer care pathways at the diagnostic and treatment phases. The objectives are to find factors influencing the delivery of cancer care pathways; to highlight any interrelating factors; to find gaps in the literature concerning areas of research; to summarise the strategies and recommendations implemented in the studies.

The study used a qualitative approach and developed a causal loop diagram to summarise the current literature on cancer care pathways, from screening and diagnosis to treatment. A total of 46 papers was finally included in the analysis, which highlights the recurring themes in the literature.

The study highlights the myriad areas of research applied to cancer care pathways. Factors influencing the delivery of cancer care pathways were classified into different albeit interrelated themes. These include access barriers to care, hospital emergency admissions, fast track diagnostics, delay in diagnosis, waiting time to treatment and strategies to increase system efficiency.

As far as the authors know, this is the first study to present a visual representation of the complex relationship between factors influencing the delivery of cancer care pathways.

This chapter summarises the role of EU actions in supporting healthcare policies in the EU Member States, both looking at implemented actions and describing current priorities for the future. It argues that these coordinated actions can be beneficial for EU Member States by helping them to avoid duplication of effort and to attain economies of scale. Moreover, data sharing with proper safeguards can unleash vast amount of ‘learning what works’ both for medical treatments and for healthcare sustainability measures. The need for this common learning appears ever more urgent while facing the health and economic consequences of the present pandemic.

Breast cancer is a global public health dilemma and the most prevalent cancer in the world. Effective treatment plans improve patient survival rates and well-being. The five-year survival rate is often used to develop treatment selection and survival prediction models. However, unlike other types of cancer, breast cancer patients can have long survival rates. Therefore, the authors propose a novel two-level framework to provide clinical decision support for treatment selection contingent on survival prediction.

The first level classifies patients into different survival periods using machine learning algorithms. The second level has two models with different survival rates (five-year and ten-year). Thus, based on the classification results of the first level, the authors employed Bayesian networks (BNs) to infer the effect of treatment on survival in the second level.

The authors validated the proposed approach with electronic health record data from the TriNetX Research Network. For the first level, the authors obtained 85% accuracy in survival classification. For the second level, the authors found that the topology of BNs using Causal Minimum Message Length had the highest accuracy and area under the ROC curve for both models. Notably, treatment selection substantially impacted survival rates, implying the two-level approach better aided clinical decision support on treatment selection.

The authors have developed a reference tool for medical practitioners that supports treatment decisions and patient education to identify patient treatment preferences and to enhance patient healthcare.

Depression and insomnia are very significant pathologies in cancer patients as they contribute to the patient's overall cure and quality of life. Moreover, untreated depression and ongoing insomnia are associated with decreased immune responses and lower survival rates. With all disease states and especially with cancer, close attention to drug-drug interactions and the potential impact on the efficacy of therapy is paramount. One area of particular interest due to the lack of well-done clinical trials is drug-drug interaction(s) between antidepressants and cancer treatment. Pharmacokinetics of a certain drug allows for prediction of certain drug interactions based on chemical properties of the agents involved. If the agents depend on their metabolites for activity, active drug level will be decreased through this enzyme inhibition. In this paper, we looked at the cytochrome-P450 drug interactions between antidepressants and sleep aids with Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERM). Newer SERM metabolisms are less influenced by interactions with medications used to treat depression. However, tamoxifen metabolism could be severely altered by several antidepressants. This has direct consequences as patients on tamoxifen and antidepressant can have double the risk of relapse to cancer in two years. We discussed those interactions and made recommendations for clinical use.