Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of complementary and alternative medicine use and its association with time to conventional treatment. Design A cross-sectional study design was designed. Setting and participants The study was performed at the Chonburi Cancer Hospital, with chart reviews and interviews performed for 426 patients with various cancers between May and December 2018. Results The results indicated that 192 of the 426 patients (45.1%) reported using complementary and alternative medicines; herbal products were the most common type. Approximately 34.3% of these medicines involved unlabeled herbal products with unidentifiable components. The rates of complementary and alternative medicine use were significantly elevated for men and patients with stage IV cancer. The multivariable linear regression analysis of the relationship between factors and the time until conventional treatment was received revealed that the regression coefficient of the use of complementary and alternative medicine was 56.3 (95% confidence interval [27.9–84.6]). This coefficient reflected an additional 56.3 days of time until conventional treatment, relative to patients who did not use complementary and alternative medicine. Conclusions The present study revealed that complementary and alternative medicine use was fairly common among Thai patients with cancer and was associated with a prolonged time to receiving conventional treatment.

Objectives Tape measurement is a commonly used method in the clinical assessment of lymphedema. However, few studies have assessed the precision and reliability of tape measurement in assessing head and neck lymphedema. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and precision of using tape measurement, performed by different evaluators, for the assessment of head and neck lymphedema. Methods This study was conducted at a tertiary care cancer hospital. Between January and December 2019, 50 patients with head and neck cancers and 50 normal subjects were enrolled. Each subject was examined using tape measurements for 7 point-to-point distances of facial landmarks, 3 circumferences of the neck (upper, middle, and lower), and 2 circumferences of the face (vertical and oblique) by 3 random examiners. Test precision and reliability were assessed with the within-subject standard deviation (S w) and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), respectively. Results Overall, the standard deviation of the tape measurements varied in the range of 4.6 mm to 18.3 mm. The measurement of distance between the tragus and mouth angle (S w : 4.6 mm) yielded the highest precision, but the reliability (ICC: 0.66) was moderate. The reliabilities of neck circumference measurements (ICC: 0.90-0.95) were good to excellent, but the precisions (S w : 8.3-12.3 mm) were lower than those of point-to-point facial measurements (S w : 4.6-8.8 mm).

Background:Among developing countries, Thailand shows no increase in the incidence of human papillomavirus–driven oropharyngeal cancer. The causal role of human papillomavirus infection in this pathology has not been researched thoroughly.Methods:A hospital-based, case–control study was performed which included 104 patients with newly diagnosed oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas and 104 individuals without cancer. The Cervista high-risk human papillomavirus and 16/18 assays were used to detect human papillomavirus. Odds ratios were used to assess the association between high-risk genotypes of human papillomavirus and the cancers.Results:High-risk human papillomavirus was detected in 4 of 52 (7.7%) oral cancer cases, 6 of 52 (11.5%) oropharyngeal cancer cases, and 1 of 104 (0.96%) control subjects. Of 104 cancer patients in the study, 83 were smokers. High-risk human papillomavirus was significantly associated with oropharyngeal cancer (odds ratio = 13.44, 95% confidence interval = 1.6–114.8) but was nonsignificantly associated with oral cancer (odds ratio = 8.58, 95% confidence interval = 0.9–78.9). However, after adjustment for smoking, high-risk human papillomavirus was determined to be nonsignificantly associated with oropharyngeal cancer (adjusted odds ratio = 5.83, 95% confidence interval = 0.8–43.5).Conclusion:Although low human papillomavirus prevalence was observed, the rate of high-risk human papillomavirus infection in the cancer group was still higher than that in the control group. Smoking may have an influence on the etiology of human papillomavirus–related cancers. However, the study is underpowered to clarify the role of human papillomavirus as the independent risk factor for oral and oropharyngeal cancers in the Thai population.