Effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on physical symptoms in advanced cancer patients receiving palliative care

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is primarily used for pain, butmight be useful for various other physical symptoms, including nausea, fatigue,dyspnea, and constipation. However, few studies have used TENS for treating thephysical symptoms of patients with advanced cancer. In this crossover trial, we assessthe effects of TENS on pain and other physical symptoms in 20 in-patients withadvanced cancer receiving palliative care. For 5-day phases between wash out periodsof 5 days, patients received TENS or non-TENS. TENS was delivered at four points: thecenter of the back for mainly nausea and dyspnea, on the back at the same dermatomallevel as the origin of the pain (100 Hz), and on both ankle joints for constipation (10Hz). The intensity of pain and the total opioid dose used during phases were recorded.Physical symptoms were evaluated using the European Organization for Research andTreatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 15 Palliative Care(QLQ-C15-PAL). Hematological and biochemical data were recorded before and afterthe TENS phase. The average pain and total number of opioid rescue doses weresignificantly reduced by TENS. TENS tended to improve nausea and appetite loss, butnot constipation. There were no effects on hematological and biochemical parameters.Use of TENS could safely improve pain, nausea, and appetite loss in patients withadvanced cancer. Although it cannot be used as a substitute for opioids and otherpharmaceutical treatment, it may be useful to support palliative care

Valine 1532 of human BRC repeat 4 plays an important role in the interaction between BRCA2 and RAD51

The breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2 is essential for recombinational DNA repair. BRCA2 specifically binds to RAD51 via 8 BRC repeat motifs and delivers RAD51 to double-stranded DNA breaks. In this study, a mammalian two-hybrid assay and competitive ELISA showed that the interaction between BRC repeat 4 (BRC4) and RAD51 was strengthened by the substitution of a single BRC4 amino acid from valine to isoleucine (V1532I). However, the cancer-associated V1532F mutant exhibited very weak interaction with RAD51. This study used a comparative analysis of BRC4 between animal species to identify V1532 as an important residue that interacts with RAD51