Lung cancer: Presentation and pattern of care in a cancer center in South India.

BACKGROUND: In India lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in males and an increasing trend in the incidence is reported from the National Cancer Registry programme. AIMS: The aim of this study is to find out the recent trends in presentation and management of lung cancer at Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum. METHODS: Published reports of hospital based cancer registries (HBCR) and population based cancer registries (PBCR) of Trivandrum were compared with reported statistics from other parts of India and global data. RESULTS: Lung is the leading site of cancer in males (15%) getting treatment at Regional Cancer Centre , Trivandrum in 2013 as per the HBCR. There is an increase in the age adjusted incidence rate of lung cancer among males in the Trivandrum PBCR from 14.6 to 18.5 during 2012 -2014. Among the patients who were treated at the Center majority (55.2%) presented with distant metastases with adenocarcinoma as the most common histological type (28.5%) and only 15.7% had undergone treatment with curative intent. CONCLUSIONS: Lung cancer is the major cancer affecting males in India with a high incidence in Trivandrum and a very low percentage of patients receiving curative treatment which could be due to the high prevalence of tuberculosis and scarce availability of facilities and trained manpower for thoracic oncology.

Factors affecting health related quality of life of rectal cancer patients undergoing surgery.

Maintaining quality of life (QOL) is one of the important aims of cancer treatment. Quality of life of a cancer patient is affected by various factors, which may be disease related, patient related, or treatment related. To study changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) brought about by treatment of rectal cancer and factors affecting the changes using Malayalam translation of FACT-C (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal) Questionnaire. Also to detect the minimally important clinical changes (MICC) in health-related quality of life of patients with carcinoma rectum, who have undergone surgery. Forty-five patients diagnosed with carcinoma rectum, who have undergone curative surgery, were studied. HRQOL was assessed at baseline 2 weeks after surgery and 3 months after surgery. The changes in scores were correlated with various demographic factors like age, sex, marital status, number of children, number of married children, and education and occupation of the patient and spouse. Also the treatment-related factors like presence of stoma, presence of morbidity, previous treatment, stage of disease, and administration of chemotherapy before and after surgery were correlated. All the subscales of FACT-C tool, except emotional well-being, were significantly reduced 2 weeks after surgery and increased slightly above pre-treatment level 3 months after surgery. The Chronbach α values were 0.88, 0.89 and 0.86 on three occasions, respectively, establishing internal validity of the test. Baseline HRQOL scores were better in males compared to females. Among the various subscales, the drops in SWB, FWB, FACT-G, total Score and TOI were significant (P < .05).There were no significant differences in scores between patients who have undergone open surgery and minimally invasive surgery or patients who had permanent colostomy versus no colostomy. The HRQOL scores after surgery reduced 2 weeks after surgery and improved above pre-surgical levels 3 months after surgery. The approach of surgery (minimally invasive versus open) or presence or absence of permanent colostomy didn't make any significant change in HRQOL. But since the sample size of the study was small, we need further larger studies to arrive at definite conclusions.

Metastable patterning of plasma nanocomposite films by incorporating cellulose nanowhiskers.

A new method is presented for developing patterned, thin nanocomposite films by introducing cellulose nanowhiskers during the pulsed plasma polymerization of maleic anhydride. Metastable film structures develop as a combination of dewetting and buckling phenomena. By controlling the maleic anhydride monomer to cellulose nanowhisker weight ratio, the whiskers can be incorporated into a homogeneously covering patterned polymer film. Excess nanowhiskers are required to prevent complete dewetting and deposit dimensionally stable films. The formation of anchoring points is assumed to stabilize the film through a "pinning" effect to the substrate. The latter control the in-plane film stresses, similar to the effects of surface inhomogeneities such as artificial scratches. The different morphologies are evaluated by optical microscopy, AFM, contact angle measurements, and ellipsometry. Further analysis by infrared spectroscopy and XPS suggests esterification between the maleic anhydride and cellulose moieties.