Evaluation of knowledge and practice of handling chemotherapy agents by nurses: a multi-centre studies in Bangladesh

Background: Along with several significant factors in chemotherapy treatment management’s nurses plays the pivotal role. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of nurses in relation to handling chemotherapy and the current practice of cancer centers in different hospitals in Bangladesh.Methods: The cross-sectional study was designed based on anonymous self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed from literature and expert input and validated by subject experts.Results: A total of 96 nurses were the respondents in this study. Around half of them already exposed directly with chemotherapy agents. Some 72.9% of nurses had not any training and 58.3% of respondents were not aware about use of closed system transfer devise in chemotherapy. A greater proportion 58.3% of nurses did not know the same health hazard of both oral and parenteral drugs. One third (33.3%) respondents used biological safety cabinet for doing preparation. Nurses’ did not use especial personal protective equipment and the designed treatment room also was absent. None of nurses went through regular medical checkup.Conclusions: The evidence-based results suggested that nurses have average knowledge about chemotherapy handling, however, use of personal protective equipment and biological safety cabinet, follow guidelines, medical surveillance and training are appeared to be a hindrance. More fundamentally, nurses need more education and professional training about chemotherapy agents handling in nursing school and through in-service continuing education as well as adopt required facilities are necessary.

Uveoretinal Adverse Effects Presented during Systemic Anticancer Chemotherapy: a 10-Year Single Center Experience

BACKGROUND: The present study describes our 10-year experience with uveoretinal adverse events that manifest because of chemotherapy. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients who presented to the ophthalmologic department while undergoing systemic chemotherapy between July 2005 and June 2015. RESULTS: A total of 55 patients (mean age, 51.2 years, 38 women [69.1%]) suspected of having uveoretinal disease owing to the use of chemotherapeutic agents alone were enrolled. Breast cancer was the predominant disease (36.4%); noninfectious anterior uveitis (21.8%) was the most common condition. Bilateral involvement was observed in 16 patients (29.1%). Although cisplatin (21.8%) was the most commonly used drug, daunorubicin, cytarabine, tamoxifen, toremifene, and imatinib were also frequently used. The median duration until ophthalmologic diagnosis was 208.5 days (range, 19–5,945 days). The proportion of patients with final visual acuity (VA) < 20/40 Snellen VA (0.5 decimal VA) was 32.7%. However, no relationship was observed between final VA < 20/40 and age, sex, therapeutic agents, and metastasis. CONCLUSION: Uveoretinal complications were mostly mild to moderate and exhibited a favorable response to conservative therapy. A considerable number of patients exhibited significant irreversible loss of vision after cessation of the causative chemotherapeutic agent. Ophthalmological monitoring is required during chemotherapy.

Studies on cell death and survival regulatory protein c-FLIP as a target for cancer treatment / 中国药理学通报

Many tumor cells are resistant to cell apoptosis through the expression of antiapoptotic proteins. c-FLIP is a ma-jor resistance protein of antiapoptosis. In human cells, there are three types of c-FLIP, c-FLIPL , c-FLIPS and c-FLIPR . The c-FLIP binds to FADD to prevent the formation of procaspase-8-DISC and the subsequent activation of caspase cascade. Further-more, c-FLIPL and c-FLIPS have multifunctional roles in various cellular signaling pathways, as well as up-regulating several cyto-protective signaling. Studies show that upregulation of c-FLIP has been found in various tumors, and its downregulation has been shown to restore apoptosis triggered by various chemothera-peutic agents, like the transcriptional regulating agents, trichos-tatin-A, camptothecin, cisplatin, doxorubicin, etc. or other new biotechnologies, such as the specific siRNA. Therefore, c-FLIPS are important targets of cancer therapy. This review summarizes the results on the role of c-FLIP in cancer chemotherapy of tradi-tional antitumor agents and siRNA, and to provide new ideas and rationales of searching for the antiapoptosis effective compounds that can specifically antagonize c-FLIP.

Quimioterápicos y cardiotoxicidad: un enfoque actual y práctico para el clínico de una disciplina en pleno desarrollo / Chemotherapy agents and cardiotoxicity: a current and user-friendly approach for the clinician, a developing discipline

La cardiotoxicidad por fármacos quimioterápicos es un efecto adverso frecuente y esperado. En este sentido se ha creado una especialización, la cardiooncología, que tiene como principal objetivo la prevención de estos efectos. La forma de expresión de este fenómeno es muy variada, pudiendo manifestarse como: insuficiencia cardíaca, hipertensión arterial, eventos coronarios agudos y/o trastornos del ritmo. La clave en la prevención está en la idividualización del riesgo cardiotóxico de cada paciente (en base a factores reconocidos como edad, sexo, irradiación mediastinal previa, tipo de fármaco, dosis acumulada, cardiopatía asociada previamente) y el riesgo potencial cardiotóxico de cada quimioterápico. En este sentido se han creado algoritmos de actuación fundamentados en la monitorización y el inicio de tratamiento precoz y oportuno de cada efecto, previniendo el mal mayor en cada paciente.

Basic research of the interaction between chemotherapy agent and magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate / 中华肝胆外科杂志

Objective Under the circumstance of continuous arterial infusion,role of magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate combined with different kinds of chemotherapy agents respectively were detected on the HepG-2 and 7702cell lines.Method MTT assay in cultured HepG-2 and 7702 in vitro were used to detect different chemotherapy agents combined with transemetil with different sequence; interaction of MgSO4 with chemotherapy agents were observed in HepG-2 cell lines.Results When combined with docetaxel,gemcitabine,epirubicin,5 fluorouracil,pemetrexed disodium,magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate had synergistic effect; when combined with other agents,there were no antagonism effect; 4 kinds of chemotherapy agents had slight synergistic effect with magnesium sulfate.Conclusion Magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate showed obvious synergistic effect when combined with chemotherapy agents; different sequence between magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate and chemotherapy agents showed different effect; the mechanism need more study.

Comparation of magnetic activated cell sorting and chemotherapy agent DDP in enriching cancer stem cell of laryngeal carcinoma cell line Hep-2 / 肿瘤研究与临床

Objective To compare effect of chemotherapy agent DDP to MACS in sorting cancer stemcells (CSC) of laryngeal carcinoma cell line Hep-2. Methods CD133 magnetic beads were applied to sort Hep-2 cells. Different dosages of DDP were used to treat Hep-2 cells for 48 hours. Enrichment rate of CD133+ cells by MACS and after DDP treatment was detected by Flow Cytometer (FCM). Morphologic change was observed under inverse-phase microscope. Results FCM showed that the sorting rate of CD133+ cells through MACS was 64.33 %, while after DDP treatment for 48 hours, the rate of CD133+ cells was enriched significantly in each dosage of DDP, with the maximal rate was 50.7 %, in the dosage of 4 μg/ml. There was a significantly difference between MACS and each of DDP group (P <0.01). Cells treated with DDP were abnormal in morphology. Conclusion MACS and DDP sorting has respective advantages in enriching CSC in Hep-2 cell lines.