Long-Time Survival of a Patient with Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer: A Case Report

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. It does not cause any symptoms in the early stage, and later symptoms are nonspecific, thus the disease is usually diagnosed when already advanced. In 2008, pancreatic cancer ranked eighth on the list of the 10 most common cancers among men in Croatia and tenth on the list of the most common cancers among Croatian women. Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis, with a survival time of only 6-8 months for metastatic disease. Gemcitabine is the standard chemotherapeutic option. Other chemotherapeutic agents includ

Quality of Life of Croatian Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Treatment – Comparison to Long-Term Breast Cancer Survivors

Quality of life (QoL) is an important outcome in assessment of breast cancer treatment. Data comparing QoL after different adjuvant treatments and QoL data on long-term survivors are modest. The aim of this study was to compare QoL scores of patients receiving adjuvant treatment with long-term breast cancer survivors, and to correlate QoL scores with clinical data. Sixty patients were recruited for the study: 20 during adjuvant radiotherapy, 20 during adjuvant chemotherapy, and 20 long-term breast cancer survivors. QoL was assessed using the self-administered EORTC core questionnaire QLQ-C30 and breast cancer-specific module QLQ-BR23. QoL scores between groups were compared using Kruskal-Wallis test and effects of clinical factors on QoL domains were tested using multiple regression analysis. No differences between three groups were observed in terms of all QoL scores. As measured by QLQ-C30, least affected QoL scales were cognitive functioning, social functioning, and physical functioning in all three patients group, while insomnia and pain scales were the most detrimentally affected. Among the groups, the highest scores of global health status and other functional scales were in adjuvant chemotherapy group. Measured by QLQ-BR23, body image scale was most affected, while sexual functioning scale was minimally affected, in all three groups. Multiple regression analysis has shown that the patient age were the only statistically significant predictor for global health status scale, and constipation scale. Our results demonstrated similar and favorable QoL in all three groups of patients and provided basic information on QoL in Croatian breast cancer patients

Adjuvant therapy with pegylated interferon alfa-2b versus observation alone in resected stage III melanoma: Final results of EORTC 18991, a randomised phase III trial

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Current status of endemic goiter in Croatia: The results of a nationwide study (1995)

In the beginning of the nineties, 40 years after introduction of iodine prophylaxis in Croatia, on a basis of a frequent reports coming from general practitioners about the presence of a rather high prevalence of goiter among schoolchildren, a nationwide study was initiated with the aim to determine the real prevalence of goiter in the country. A total of 2856 schoolchildren of both sexes, aged 7-15 years, were included into the study. Investigations were designed in a way to cover most of geographical regions in Croatia and subjects were randomly selected. The prevalence of goiter in schoolchildren was assessed by palpation and in part by ultrasonography of the neck. At the same time urinary iodine excretion was measured and iodine content in salt samples was determined. The results have revealed the persistence of mild endemic goiter in inland parts of Croatia with the prevalence of 6-29% in the age group 7-11 years and those of 10-43% among the age group 12-15 years. The overall goiter prevalence in schoolchildren in Croatia fluctuates from 8% to 35%. Such prevalence, most probably due to less than optimum iodine intake, is unlikely to change until iodine content of the salt is increased from its present level of 10 mg of Kl per kg of salt.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Association of <i>BRAF</i> V600E Mutant Allele Proportion with the Dissemination Stage of Papillary Thyroid Cancer

The early identification of aggressive forms of cancer is of high importance in treating papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Disease dissemination is a major factor influencing patient survival. Mutation status of BRAF oncogene, BRAF V600E, is proposed to be an indicator of disease recurrence; however, its influence on PTC dissemination has not been deciphered. This study aimed to explore the association of the frequency of BRAF V600E alleles in PTC with disease dissemination. In this study, 173 PTC samples were analyzed, measuring the proportion of BRAF V600E alleles by qPCR, which was then normalized against the proportion of tumor cells. Semiquantitative analysis of BRAF V600E mutant protein was performed by immunohistochemistry. The BRAF V600E mutation was present in 60% of samples, while the normalized frequency of mutated BRAF alleles ranged from 1.55% to 92.06%. There was no significant association between the presence and/or proportion of the BRAF V600E mutation with the degree of PTC dissemination. However, the presence of the BRAF mutation was significantly linked with angioinvasion. This study’s results suggest that there is a heterogeneous distribution of the BRAF mutation and the presence of oligoclonal forms of PTC. It is likely that the BRAF mutation alone does not significantly contribute to PTC aggressiveness

Adjuvant therapy with pegylated interferon alfa-2b versus observation in resected stage III melanoma: a phase III randomized controlled trial of health-related quality of life and symptoms by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Melanoma Group.

Interferon (IFN) -based adjuvant therapy in melanoma is associated with significant side effects, which necessitates evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Our trial examined the HRQOL effects of adjuvant pegylated IFN-alpha-2b (PEG-IFN-alpha-2b) versus observation in patients with stage III melanoma.Clinical Trial, Phase IIIJournal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Dried Blood Spot Thyroglobulin as a Biomarker of Iodine Status in Pregnant Women

DBS-Tg is a sensitive biomarker of iodine status in PW, the reference range in iodine sufficient PW is 0.3-43.5 μg/L and a median DBS-Tg <10 μg/L indicates iodine sufficiency in PW