Quality of life in long-term survivors of early stage endometrial cancer

Introduction. Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynaecological malignancy in developed countries. Effective treatment of the early stage of the disease is achieved by surgery alone. An increasing number of patients with EC become long-term survivors; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the quality-of-life (QOL) of EC survivors. Materials and Method. A total of 328 survivors who had completed cancer treatment more than 3 years ago, and had previously completed questionnaires concerning QOL – European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and depression – Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Patients were grouped into those with surgery alone or surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy. Responses were compared with 284 healthy women who were seen for standard gynaecologic screening examinations. Results. According to the presented results, the QOL of women with EC after surgical treatment was equal to that of healthy women in the control group. Treatment with adjuvant radiotherapy influenced the QOL, with the exception of emotional functioning (p=0.028). No statistically significant differences were found in scores on the BDI-II between groups for the cognitive-affective factor, the somatic factor, or the total sum score. Conclusions. The quality of life in EC survivors approximates that of healthy controls after 3 years post-surgical treatment. Patients treated for early stage EC should be informed about the anticipated good prognosis and the low risk of psychosocial and physical long-term effects. Cancer survivors who are treated by surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy may be especially at risk for emotional functioning problems

Prognostic significance of smac/DIABLO in endometrioid endometrial cancer.

Apoptosis may occur via a death receptor-dependent or independent (mitochondrial) pathway. The mitochondrial pathway is regulated by small molecules, such as smac/Diablo, which activates caspase cascades. This study examined smac/DIABLO expression in 76 patients with endometrioid endometrial cancers. Presence of smac/DIABLO was quantified by Western blot analysis using nonfixed fresh frozen tissues. Its appearance was found in 55 (72%) of examined tumors. Smac/DIABLO expression significantly correlated with tumor grade (

Potential Application of Curcumin and Its Analogues in the Treatment Strategy of Patients with Primary Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Recent findings on the molecular basis of ovarian cancer development and progression create new opportunities to develop anticancer medications that would affect specific metabolic pathways and decrease side systemic toxicity of conventional treatment. Among new possibilities for cancer chemoprevention, much attention is paid to curcumin—A broad-spectrum anticancer polyphenolic derivative extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. According to ClinicalTrials.gov at present there are no running pilot studies, which could assess possible therapeutic benefits from curcumin supplementation to patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer. Therefore, the goal of this review was to evaluate potential preclinical properties of curcumin and its new analogues on the basis of in vivo and in vitro ovarian cancer studies. Curcumin and its different formulations have been shown to display multifunctional mechanisms of anticancer activity, not only in platinum-resistant primary epithelial ovarian cancer, but also in multidrug resistant cancer cells/xenografts models. Curcumin administered together with platinum-taxane chemotherapeutics have been reported to demonstrate synergistic effects, sensitize resistant cells to drugs, and decrease their biologically effective doses. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that curcumin, due to its long-term safety and an excellent profile of side effects should be considered as a beneficial support in ovarian cancer treatment strategies, especially in patients with platinum-resistant primary epithelial recurrent ovarian cancer or multidrug resistant disease. Although the prospect of curcumin and its formulations as anticancer agents in ovarian cancer treatment strategy appears to be challenging, and at the same time promising, there is a further need to evaluate its effectiveness in clinical studies

The prognostic significance of the immunohistochemical expression of P53 and BCL-2 in endometrial cancer

The objective of this study was to verify the frequency of P53 and BCL-2 immunohistochemical expression in 98 patients with endometrial carcinoma, and to correlate it with clinical stage and patient survival. A significant difference was found regarding the frequency of P53 expression when comparing type I and II tumors (23.7% and 54.5%, respectively; p = 0.006). A positive correlation was observed between P53 immunoexpression and patient survival in type I and II tumors (p = 0.009 and p = 0.036, respectively). BCL-2 expression was significantly more frequent in early clinical stages in both types of endometrial cancer (p < 0.001 and 0.002) and correlated with a decrease in overall survival in type I endometrial cancer (p = 0.014). Thus, the prognostic value of these biomarkers in endometrial cancer needs to be further investigated. (<i>Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 631–635</i>

Quality of life in long-term survivors of early stage endometrial cancer

Introduction. Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynaecological malignancy in developed countries. Effective treatment of the early stage of the disease is achieved by surgery alone. An increasing number of patients with EC become long-term survivors; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the quality-of-life (QOL) of EC survivors. Materials and Method. A total of 328 survivors who had completed cancer treatment more than 3 years ago, and had previously completed questionnaires concerning QOL – European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and depression – Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Patients were grouped into those with surgery alone or surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy. Responses were compared with 284 healthy women who were seen for standard gynaecologic screening examinations. Results. According to the presented results, the QOL of women with EC after surgical treatment was equal to that of healthy women in the control group. Treatment with adjuvant radiotherapy influenced the QOL, with the exception of emotional functioning (p=0.028). No statistically significant differences were found in scores on the BDI-II between groups for the cognitive-affective factor, the somatic factor, or the total sum score. Conclusions. The quality of life in EC survivors approximates that of healthy controls after 3 years post-surgical treatment. Patients treated for early stage EC should be informed about the anticipated good prognosis and the low risk of psychosocial and physical long-term effects. Cancer survivors who are treated by surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy may be especially at risk for emotional functioning problems

Prognostic significance of smac/DIABLO in endometrioid endometrial cancer.

Apoptosis may occur via a death receptor-dependent or independent (mitochondrial) pathway. The mitochondrial pathway is regulated by small molecules, such as smac/Diablo, which activates caspase cascades. This study examined smac/DIABLO expression in 76 patients with endometrioid endometrial cancers. Presence of smac/DIABLO was quantified by Western blot analysis using nonfixed fresh frozen tissues. Its appearance was found in 55 (72%) of examined tumors. Smac/DIABLO expression significantly correlated with tumor grade (p<0.001). Patients with positive smac/DIABLO tumors had a longer disease-specific survival when compared with those with negative tumors in the 10-year follow-up (p=0.043). The study demonstrated that negative smac/DIABLO expression was a poor prognostic sign