Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM) on Anxiety and Depression of Cancer Patients

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral stress therapy on stress, depression and distress in patients with cancer.Cases Report: In a cross-sectional study of consecutive patients (Aged 32-70 years, progression of their disease was at levels 1 to 3, high cycle education, and 3 months of chemotherapy, of which 40, were randomly available from this group (20 experimental and 20 Control group). The instrument was a McGill Pain Questionnaire (1997) and the Hazards and Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using two methods of Kolmogorov-Smirnov inferential statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance using software software Spss17.Conclusion: Correlation analysis showed that the experimental group had a significant reduction in depression and anxiety in the posttest after the control group compared with the control group. The short-term cognitive-behavioral stress management program can reduce, depression and anxiety in cancer patients

Correlation between gastric volume and organs at risk dose in adjuvant radiotherapy for left breast cancer

BACKGROUND: The role of the gastric volume on the dose-effect relationship for these organs has not been investigated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between gastric volume and dose-volume histogram (DVH) parameters of the heart, left lung and stomach during left breast cancer radiotherapy (RT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-nine left breast cancer patients who got adjuvant radiotherapy were included. Study was classified into two groups based on treatment field arrangements: 1) breast tangential fields only (T) and 2) breast tangential and supraclavicular fields (TS). Organs DVHs were extracted. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear regression analyses, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed. RESULTS: There is a direct but not significant correlation between the gastric volume and doses to the stomach and left lung. For a 100-cc increase in the gastric volume, the stomach maximum dose and the V50 increased by 3 Gy and 4%, respectively. For the left lung, V4 and V5 increased by 1% for TS cases. Considering ROC analysis results, one can make a decision for about 74% of patients due to their left lung DVH parameters, using gastric volume as a known input data. The correlation between gastric volume and heart dose was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The gastric volume of about 170 cc or less can result in lower dose to the stomach and ipsilateral lung during left breast cancer radiotherapy, especially for TS cases. To reach this gastric volume threshold, patients should be fast for 2 hours before the procedure of CT simulation and treatment