ABSTRACT
Introduction: Cancer is the 3rd cause of death after heart disease and injuries in Iran. Radiotherapy is one of the most effective procedures in cancer therapy, but in spite of widespread usage, its nature and side effects are still unknown for many patients. The main goal of this survey was studying various educational needs among cancer patients with specific emphasis on radiation therapy and its side effects
Patients and methods: This study was a descriptive-analytical research based on the information extracted from personal interviews and files in order to determinate patients' educational needs and their relationship with different variables such as demographic characteristics and the kind of disease among those referred to radiation therapy department in Mashhad Omid Hospital during a 6 months period
Results: Our findings show that age and marital status have a statistically significant association with educational needs [P<0.01]. Also patients in early stage of their disease had higher educational requirements. Most of the patients had limited or moderate information about their disease and treatment effects [88%]. In addition 46% of patients mentioned the physician as their preferred source of information
Conclusion: Findings indicate lack of training about radiotherapy and its side effects among our cancer patients, and emphasizes the need for a structured program to alleviate this problem. It seems that the role of physicians in this field is more significant than other health care staff
ABSTRACT
Esophageal cancer is the 7th most common cancer in Iran. The northern part of the country shows the highest incidence for this malignancy. In this study we present some epidemiological and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with esophageal carcinoma in this region. In a cross sectional study, 238 Esophageal cancer patients were enrolled in a prospective study of neoadjuvant chemo-radiation treatment in a 4-year period [2006- 2009]. In an oncology clinic their epidemiologic characteristics and clinicopathological findings were registered in a preplanned file. Data consisted of age, sex, race, occupation, residential location, smoking, addiction history, signs and symptoms, blood biochemistry profile, imaging and endoscopic findings. The data were analyzed with the SPSS software. The mean age of the patients was [55% female] 59 years. They were mostly Fars [63%] and Turkmen [13%]. Seventy two percent were residents of rural area, 20% were smokers and 22.3% were opium addict and its analogues. Only 1.3% of patients consumed alcohol. The most common presenting symptom was dysphagia [93.7%], mainly grade III dysphagia [53%]. Location of tumor in esophagus was in the middle third in 53.4% and lower segment in 44.5%. 65% of the patients had an abnormal esophagogram. On endoscopic evaluation the most common types of tumors were polypoid, vegetative and fungoid, respectively. Mean tumor length was 5.7 cm. The most common histology type was squamus cell carcinoma [99.1%] which was moderately differentiated in 51.3% of these patients. No significant relationship was found between the grade of dysphagia with the macroscopic type and the pathologic grade of the tumor in this study. Squamous cell carcinoma comprised more than 99% of all esophageal cancers in our patients and this histological type is the prominent type in the Northeast of Iran. Middle esophageal segment is the major site for this type of cancer which unfortunately most patients present with grade III. Dysphasia reflects the advanced stage of the disease
ABSTRACT
Astrocytoma is the most common primary brain tumor, which comprises a wide range of neoplasms with different clinical courses. This study was performed to determine some epidemiological and clinical characteristics and treatment results of patients with astrocytoma. Some presumed prognostic factors were also evaluated. In this descriptive study we evaluated 324 patients with histological proven brain Astrocytoma who were treated in Qaem and Omid hospitals, Mashhad, between April 1991 and April 2001. Information regarding individual characteristics, age. Sex, clinical presentation, type of treatment and surgry, side effects, imaging finding, histological grad and follow up were collected. WHO classification was used for the uniforming of histological reports. The collected information were analyzed using chi-square and Kaplan-Meier tests and SPSS software. 189 male and 135 female patients entered the study. There were 31 cases with grade I, 118 with grade II, 54 with grade III and 121 cases with grade IV astrocytoma. The median age for low grade and high-grade astrocytomas was 25 and 45 years respectively. The 3-year survival rate for grade I to IV was 94.7%, 74.9%, 52.7% and 6.7% respectively. In rnultivariate analysis, for low grade astrocytomas, grade II, age > 50 and biopsy only and for high grade astrocytomas, grade IV and biopsy only were associated with adverse prognosis. The survival rate for grade I astrocytomas is excellent and for grade II astrocytomas is satisfactory. But high grade astrocytomas especially gelioblastoma multiform, have dismal prognosis. For both low and high-grade astrocytomas, tumor grade and extent of surgery had significant impact on prognosis. Age over 50 was associated with adverse prognosis for low-grade astrocytomas