BACKGROUND: Breast, cervical and oral cancers are the leading causes of cancers in India. High mortality with these cancers is due to presentation in the advanced stages. In India, doctors practically cannot treat each and every patient due to a huge doctor: patient ratio. In such a situation, nursing and paramedical staff can be helpful in providing their services in identication, screening and diagnosing of these cancers. AIM: The present study was undertaken with an aim to evaluate the awareness of nurses and paramedical staff regarding breast, cervical and oral cancers. STUDY SETTING AND DESIGN: The prospective, observational study was conducted at at Smt. Rajmata Vijyaraje Sindhia Medical College & Hospital, Shivpuri and at District Hospital, Shivpuri. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: 300 nursing and paramedical staff working in the above institutions were enrolled after verbal consenting. A self-administered structured questionnaire was administered to them. After an intervention in the form of discussion, the same questionnaire was readministered. The data from these questionnaires were evaluated and results presented. This questionnaire consisted of sections related to prevention, risk factors, associated symptoms and detection methods. RESULTS: Before intervention, 17.3% participants had knowledge about prevention, 19% about risk factors, 10% about the symptoms and 8% about early detection technique. After intervention, there was an improvement in these domains. The mean post-test knowledge score was signicantly higher than pre-test knowledge score (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall we found that nursing and paramedical staff lack knowledge about these three major cancers. After imparting knowledge, there was an improvement in their knowledge. To make these nursing and paramedical staff competent enough to identify, screen, diagnose these cancers, there is requirement of knowledge centers.
A case of 16-year-old girl with giant cell tumour of right fibula is presented to us with bilateral lung metastases. In view of widespread bilateral lung metastatic lesions, the patient was given multimodality treatment. Chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy to the local site as well as lung bath has been given and has shown good response.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is diagnosed more frequently in younger and premenopausal women. TNBC are biologically aggressive tumours, not benefited from hormonal or targeted therapy although some reports suggest that they respond well to chemotherapy. The aim of our study is was to assess the response of anthracyclines based adjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer. This is was a retrospective study conducted on 100 post-operative patients, histopathologically proven ductal Carcinoma Breast, from January 2016 to March 2017 presenting to tertiary care centre. All patients were triple negative as assessed by immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization technique. Patients were planned for six cycles of Anthracycine based combination adjuvant chemotherapy. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 and survival analysis was done. A total of 100 patients were included in this study. Out of these,18patients (18%) were defaulted after chemotherapy, 29 patients (29%) were lost during subsequent follow ups and 49 patients (49%) had disease free survival (DFS) and 4 patients (4%) survived with bone metastasis. The median survival was 18 months, disease free survival was 7.8 months and 3 year overall survival (OS) was 18.6 months. TNBC represent a challenge for the patients and the clinician due to its poor prognosis and fewer treatment options. The adjuvant Anthracycline -based combination chemotherapy predict improved long term outcomes for TNBC.
Background: Complications due to cancer arise at any stage of treatment. May it be prior, during or after the treatment. Cachexia is one such complication, which is multifactorial and has a debilitating effect. The initial presentation is anorexia, followed by weight loss and then muscle wasting. It is associated with reduced quality of life, lower tolerance to treatments such as chemotherapy and thereby reducing the chances of survival. It is more severe in cancers of non-gastrointestinal tract. In this study we evaluated the prevalence of cancer induced cachexia in non-gastrointestinal tract cancers. Methodology: We had included 203 patients of age more than 18 years of either sex, with histopathologically conrmed cancer of different sites in the body other than gastrointestinal tract, who presented with sudden onset weight loss. Descriptive statistics was used for the assessment of cancer induced cachexia. All the data was presented in the form of numbers and percentages. Results: There was a male predominance (56.7%) with non-gastrointestinal tract cancer. Of these 203 patients, 69% had head and neck cancer, 13.7% had breast cancer, 6.4% had lung cancer, 4.9% had ovarian cancer, 3.9% had cervical cancer and 2.0% patients had lymphoma. 100 Patients with cancer induce cachexia consist of 49.3% of the total number of cases. Lung cancer is the most common cancer after gastrointestinal cancer presented with cachexia. Cachexia highest with lung cancer 46.1%, head and neck cancer 45.7%, carcinoma of ovary 40%, cervical cancer 25.3%, carcinoma of breast 28.5%, and lymphoma presented with 25%. Conclusion: The patients with non-gastrointestinal tract cancer should be made aware that on seeing any untoward changes prior, during or after their treatment, they should immediately seek appropriate support so as to prevent debilitating condition such as cancer induced cachexia. Preventive measures help in improving the quality of life with better treatment outcome.
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