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BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in men and the eighth most common in women. It causes 8% of all malignancies in men and 3% of all malignancies in women. The trend of bladder cancer is increasing in Iran. This study was conducted to estimate the survival rate of bladder cancer based on life table method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, at first, data were collected based on individual variables of 514 patients suffering from bladder cancer and referred them to cancer registry center of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from 2001-2009. Data were collected at two stages and analyzed by life table method and Wilcox on test. Significant level considered at 0.05. RESULTS: Our findings showed that probability of survival accumulation at the end of 1, 3, 5, 10 years in patients with bladder cancer were equal to 0.8989, 0.7132, 0.5752 and 0.2459 respectively. There was significant difference in survival rate among age groups and treatment types (P < 0.05). However, we did not observe any difference in survival time based on smoking (P = 0.578), alcohol (P = 0.419) and education level (P = 0.371) of patients. CONCLUSION: The overall survival rate of bladder cancer in the present study was less than other areas. Patients' age and treatment type were the influential factor in survival time. So continuous screening for early diagnosis suggested for older people.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Satisfactory results have been seen with epidural steroid injections (ESI) in patients with herniated disks (HD), but the role in lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) has been less investigated. We compared long-term effects of ESI in HD and LSS patients. METHODS: In a prospective, single-blind uncontrolled study, 60 patients with radicular pain due to HD (n = 32) or LSS (n = 28) were enrolled over a 9-month period. Methylprednisolone acetate 80 mg plus 0.5% bupivacaine 10 mg were diluted in normal saline up to a total volume of 10 mL, and injected into the epidural space. The amount of pain based on numeric pain score, level of activity, and subjective improvement were reported by patients after 2 and 6 months by telephone. Demographic data were analyzed with the chi-square test. The differences in numeric pain scale scores between the two groups at different times were analyzed with the t-test. RESULTS: There were no differences between HD and LSS patients regarding age, sex, and average duration of pain prior to ESI. The degree of pain was significantly higher in LSS patients in comparison with HD patients in the pre-injection period. The amount of pain was significantly reduced in both groups 2 months after injection. This pain reduction period lasted for 6 months in the HD group, but to a lesser extent in LSS patients (P < 0.05). DISCUSSION: Epidural methylprednisolone injection has less analgesic effect in LSS, with less permanent effect in comparison with HD.
