Assessing activity limitation among cancer survivors in Korea using data from a nationwide survey.

BACKGROUND: More than 1 million cancer survivors reside in Korea. We here investigated activity limitations of cancer survivors compared to controls without a history of cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using the 4th and 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2012) data, we identified 1,155 adult cancer survivors. Activity limitations were defined as limitation in activities of daily living, experience of lying in a sickbed, and number of days lying in a sickbed during the last month. Descriptive analysis and multiple logistic regression compared these measures for survivors and controls by sex and age groups. RESULTS: Approximately 29.4% of cancer survivors reported limitation in activities of daily living, 14.6% experienced lying in a sickbed, and 4.3% experienced more than 15 days lying in a sickbed during the last month. After controlling for demographic and health-related factors, cancer survivors were more likely to report activity limitation than controls. The associations were similar across sex and age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer survivors have increased activity limitation compared to controls and these limitations persist across sex and age. Targeted interventions and improved management are essential for improving cancer survivor daily life.

The relevance of biopsy in tuberculosis patients without human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Although chronic granulomatous inflammation (CGI) with concomitant caseous necrosis (CN) is a characteristic histological feature of tuberculosis (TB), few studies have investigated its frequency or various pathologic findings. The medical records of 227 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -negative, culture-positive TB patients who underwent biopsy were studied. After the frequency of characteristic pathological findings of TB was determined, a pathologist reanalyzed the pathological findings with particular focus on necrosis and reclassified CGI, CN, or possible CN into possible TB pathologic findings. The initial biopsy interpretation revealed that 63 (34.8%) of 181 patients with pulmonary TB had caseating granulomas, 36 (19.9%) patients had only CGI, and 6 (3.3%) patients had only CN. Among 46 patients with extrapulmonary TB, 16 (34.8%) patients had only caseating granulomas, and 14 (30.4%) patients had only CGI. More patients who underwent percutaneous lung biopsy had CGI or CN (76.3%) than patients who underwent transbronchial lung biopsy (53.6%). The reanalysis confirmed all CN cases identified by the first interpretation, and 20 (95.2%) of 21 non-CN cases were reclassified as possible CN. Ten cases (three pulmonary and seven extrapulmonary) were reclassified as possible TB pathologic findings from just necrosis. Caseating granuloma was present in only one-third of TB cases. Even in cases where only necrosis was identified, CN may be present.