The evaluation of the effectiveness of a health promotion training on breast cancer survivors

BACKGROUND: Increased early diagnosis and improved treatment options have decreased the mortality rate of breast cancer and increased the survival rate. Healthy lifestyle behaviors are very important in breast cancer survivors as they reduce mortality and morbidity rates, cancer recurrence frequency, and side effects of treatment and improve health. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a health promotion training intervention in breast cancer survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is a quasi-experimental, pre-test–post-test and single-group study. It was conducted with 43 women breast cancer survivors. The “Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale II” was used to collect the data. Four sessions of training were given to the women once a week, and a 3-month post-training follow-up was performed. The t-test, Wilcoxon analysis, and Spearmen correlation analysis were used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: Pre-training and post-training scores in the sub-dimensions and total scores of the healthy lifestyle behavior scale showed that the training was highly effective. There was a significant increase in all sub-dimensions and total scale post-training scores (P < 0.05). In the correlation analysis, a negative correlation was found between age and physical activity, between elapsed time after diagnosis and nutrition, and between elapsed time after diagnosis and spiritual development (P < 0,05). However, there was a positive correlation between educational status and nutrition (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that a health promotion training program covering physical activity/exercise, healthy nutrition, effective communication, coping with stress, and increasing health responsibility had positive effects on healthy lifestyle behaviors in this population, and age, educational status, and elapsed time after diagnosis influence healthy lifestyle behaviors in survival

The prognostic factors for patients with glioblastoma multiforme

ÖZET Giriş: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), glial tümörler içinde en sık görülen ve en malign olanıdır ve medyan sağkalım bir yıldan azdır. Yapılan çalışmalarda yaş, performans durumu, mental durum, tümör derecesi ve histolojisi, yapılan cerrahinin genişliği, nöbet semptomlarının varlığı, semptomların süresi, hipovaskülarite, uygulanan kemoterapi ve radyoterapi şeklinin sağkalımı etkileyen faktörler olduğu gösterilmiştir. Biz bu çalışmada GBM tanısıyla tedavi ve takip ettiğimiz hastalarda retrospektif olarak sağkalıma etki eden faktörleri incelemeyi amaçladık. Materyal ve Metot: Ocak 1999 - Haziran 2012 tarihleri arasında Gazi Üniversitesi Hastanesi'nde glioblastoma multiforme tanısıyla tedavi ve takip edilen hastalar çalışmaya dahil edildi. Toplam 137 hastanın verileri retrospektif olarak tanı, aldığı tedaviler, klinik seyir, laboratuvar ve görüntüleme bulguları, tedavi sırasında gelişen toksisiteler açısından değerlendirildi. Sağkalımı bağımsız bir şekilde etkileyen faktörleri tespit etmek için Kaplan-Meier testi ve Cox regresyon analizi uygulandı. Bulgular: Hastalarımızda medyan genel sağkalım 62 (%95 CI; 51.05-72.95) hafta idi. Univariate analizde yaş, preoperatif KPS, tümör reseksiyon genişliği, steroid kullanımı, persistan hiperglisemi ve adjuvan temozolomid tedavisi sağkalım için istatistiksel olarak anlamlı faktörlerdi (p<0.05). Cox regresyon analizi; yaşın ?50 olması, preoperatif KPS'nin ?70 olması, persistan hipergliseminin olmaması ve 3 kürden faz temozolomid tedavisi almış olmanın hastaların klinik sonuçları açısından olumlu faktörler (p<0.05) olduğunu göstermiştir. Sonuç: Tanı anındaki yaş, preoperatif performans durumu, persistan hiperglisemi varlığı ve adjuvan temozolomid tedavisi prognozu etkileyen önemli faktörlerdir.SUMMARY Introduction: Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and the most malignant kind of glioma and median survival time is less than one year. Age, performance status, mental status, grade and histology of tumor, extent of resection, hypovascularity, presence of seizures, duration of synptoms, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been reported as the prognostic factors for survival. In this study we aimed to evaluate the factors influencing on survival of the patients with glioblastoma multiforme retropectively. Materials and Methods: The patients with the diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme who received surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy between January 1999 and June 2012 were included in this study. A total of 137 patients? clinical records, radiological records, management modalities, clinical courses and toxicities developed during tretment were evaluated retrospectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to find the factors independently influencing patients? overall survival time. Results: Median overall survival for our patients was 62 (%95 CI; 51.05-72.95) weeks. Age, preoperative Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score, tumor resection extent, maximal tumor diameter, steroid use, persistant hyperglycemia and adjuvant temozolomide therapy were statistically significant factors (P <0.05) for OS in the univariate analysis. Cox proportional hazards modeling revealed that age ?50 years, preoperative KPS score ?70, absence of persistant hyperglycemia and adjuvant temozolomide treatment more than 3 cycles were independent favorable factors (P <0.05) for patients clinical outcomes. Conclusion: Age at diagnosis, preoperative performance status, persistant hyperglycemia and adjuvant temozolomide therapy were the significant factors that correlate with prognosis

Wernicke's encephalopathy in a patient with unresectable gastric carcinoma and literature review

Rakici, Sema Yilmaz/0000-0002-5543-9761; Yazici, Zihni Acar/0000-0003-1603-6545WOS: 000349897200187PubMed: 25785154Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is a disease classically associated with nutrition deficiency. It is characterized by typical symptoms like confusion, ataxia and ophthalmoparesis, and developes due to thiamine deficieny in alcoholic patients. Recently, it has been shown that WE could ocur in patients with gastric carcinoma without a history of alcohol use. in this paper, we have made some suggestions about early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of WE by discussing the development of WE in a patient with unresectable gastric carcinoma, who had been inpatient for a long time and given radiotherapy and chemotherapy