Tobacco smoking influences the side effects of radiation therapy-managed patients with various malignancies: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking may decrease the effectiveness of radiation therapy. This is because tobacco smoking can cause inflammation and damage to surrounding tissues, which may interfere with radiation delivery to the tumor. Our aim of this study is to investigate the effect of tobacco smoking use on complications in radiotherapy as a systematic review. METHOD: The articles searched from the MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases. The search terms used were "radiotherapy", "outcome", "radiation therapy", "tobacco", "smoking", "complications", "side effects", "cancer", and "malignancy". PRISMA check list was used to assess the overall quality of evidence for each outcome. RESULT: The outcomes of radiotherapy-inducing tobacco smoking in smokers are more than non-smokers including; high SPC (second primary cancer), decreased median overall survival, higher infections during treatment, increased fatigue (p = 0.027), increased pain (p = 0.009), poorer cognitive function (0.041), affected mouth opening (0.049), more speech disturbances (p = 0.017), higher metastasis risk (p = 0.031 and 0.019), higher locoregional recurrence risk (p = 0.027), oral mucositis (p = 0.03), mucositis severity related to higher tobacco exposure (p = 0.008), severe acute radiation skin reactions, and myocardial infarction. DISCUSSION: Tobacco smoking appears to be the most significant modifiable factor influencing cancer treatment outcomes. As such, healthcare providers should take detailed notes on patients' smoking histories during both routine and future clinical studies. Beyond immediate cessation, cancer patients should undertake comprehensive smoking cessation programs. These programs can significantly boost the efficacy of radiotherapy and enhance overall patient outcomes.

Correlation between Supportive Care Needs of Women with Breast Cancer and Quality of Life of their Family Caregivers.

BACKGROUND: Breast Cancer is highly prevalent among women. The supportive care needs of such patients not only affect their quality of life (QoL) but also that of their family caregivers. The present study aimed to assess the correlation between the supportive care needs of women with breast cancer and the QoL of their family caregivers. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2017 to June 2018. The target populations were breast cancer patients (N=150) and their primary family caregivers (N=150) who attended the Omid Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy Center affiliated with Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Data collection tools included a demographic information form, the Supportive Care Needs Survey-Short Form 34, and the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22.0) with descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 45.76±10.44 years. Of the family caregivers, 99 (66%) were the patients' spouses. Of the different dimensions of the supportive care needs, the score for the physical needs (40.60±23.50) was the highest. In terms of the QoL of the family caregivers, mental and emotional burden scored the highest (20.19±7.38). There was a significant correlation between the caregivers' mental and emotional burden and the physical needs of the patients (r=0.19, P=0.02). CONCLUSION: The result of the present study showed that physical needs were the most common supportive care needs of patients with breast cancer. Such needs also significantly undermined the QoL of the caregivers in terms of emotional burden and financial concerns.

Intracardiac Thrombosis in Sickle Cell Disease.

In patients with sickle cell disease, thrombotic microangiopathy is a rare complication. Also in sickle cell disease, intracardiac thrombus formation without structural heart diseases or atrial arrhythmias is a rare phenomenon. We herein describe a 22-year-old woman, who was a known case of sickle cell-ßthalassemia, had a history of recent missed abortion, and was admitted with a vaso-occlusive crisis. The patient had manifestations of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, including laboratory evidence of hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, respiratory distress, fever, jaundice, and abnormal liver function and coagulation tests, accompanied by clot formation on the Eustachian valve of the inferior vena cava in the right atrium and also a long and worm-like thrombus in the right ventricle. Therapeutic plasma exchange improved her clinical condition, and her intracardiac thrombus was completely resolved after 1 week. Echocardiography, as a simple and inexpensive imaging modality, had a significant role in the diagnosis and follow-up of this patient.