Description Of Cancer Research Articles

The vicissitudes of the reporting systems for cytodiagnosis and “General Rules for the Description of Cancer”

The vicissitudes of the reporting systems for cytodiagnosis and “General Rules for the Description of Cancer”

Understanding cancer and its treatment in Thai traditional medicine: An ethnopharmacological-anthropological investigation

Ethnopharmacological relevanceThai traditional medicine (TTM) is widely practiced in Thailand and continues to gain importance in cancer management, but little is known about the TTM practitioners’ emic concepts and practice. Aim of the studyWith this study we firstly aim to document the practice of cancer treatment and prevention by TTM practitioners and, secondly, to evaluate how such traditional concepts and practices are correlated with biomedical ones. This in turn can form the basis for developing novel strategies for designing pharmacological experiments and longer term strategies to develop TTM practice. MethodsSemi-structured interviews with 33 TTM practitioners were performed in five provinces in different regions of Thailand. The following information were recorded; basic information of informants, descriptions of cancer (mareng in Thai), causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Plants used in the treatment and prevention of mareng were also collected. ResultsUsing an in depth ethnographic approach four representative case studies to assist in a better understanding of the characteristics of mareng, its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention are reported here. Five characteristics of mareng – waste accumulation (khong sia), chronic illnesses (krasai), inflammation (kan aksep), bad blood (luead) and lymph (namlueang), and the imbalance of four basic elements (dhātu si) – have been identified. Explanatory models of cancer in TTM were linked with biomedical concepts and relevant pharmacological actions. Traditional uses and available scientific evidence of medicinal plants mentioned in the case studies for the treatment or prevention of mareng are presented and discussed. ConclusionHere for the first time five main characteristics of cancer based on Thai traditional medical concepts are analysed. Our findings are relevant not only for the planning of clinical studies or pharmacological experiment in the search for novel compounds for cancer treatment and prevention, but also for the integration of Thai traditional medicine in cancer care.

A description of cancer directed therapy within 14 days of death in a community cancer institute.

73 Background: It is recommend that no more than 10% of patients receive chemotherapy within 14 days of death. Aggressive end of life interventions like chemotherapy and hospitalization are used as measures of quality. However, cancer care now includes immunotherapy and targeted therapies. It is therefore important to understand how all cancer directed treatments are utilized at end of life, to better define the group of patients for whom they are indicated. Therefore, we sought to describe the people in our institution who received cancer directed therapy in the last two weeks of life. Methods: Adult patients who received cancer directed therapy for any malignancy in a single community cancer institute and died from July 2016-April 2017 were included. Retrospective data collection included clinical cancer stage and type, ECOG performance status (ECOG), last cancer therapy, date of death, dates of treatment, type of treatment, treatment goal, demographics and utilization of ED, hospital, palliative care and hospice. Results: A total of 218 patients were included. 13.7% (30/218) received cancer directed therapy within 14 days of death. Of those patients, only four had ECOG of 3, while 26 had ECOG 0-2. The average duration from treatment to death in this group was eight days, with one patient dying on the day of treatment. The average duration from treatment to death for all patients was 166 days (median 59). 20 patients receiving cancer directed therapy at end of life received chemotherapy, while the remaining 10 received targeted therapy (8) or immunotherapy (2). 40% (8/20) of patients in the chemotherapy group died in hospital as did 50% (5/10) of the remaining patients. Most patients in the overall sample (83%) were being treated with palliative intent. 20% (6/30) of the patients who died within 14 days of treatment were being treated with curative intent. Conclusions: Recommendations regarding cancer directed treatment near end of life need to include non-chemotherapy treatments such as immunotherapy and targeted treatments. Although a small sample size, our data suggest that patients on these treatments receive aggressive end of life care at a similar frequency as those who receive chemotherapy.

Healthy Canadian adolescents’ perspectives of cancer using metaphors: a qualitative study

ObjectivesCancer has been described using metaphors for over 4 decades. However, little is known about healthy adolescents’ perspectives of cancer using metaphors. This paper reports on findings specific to adolescents’...

The Eternal Fight against Cancer

Humans have had cancer throughout documented history; hence it is no surprise that people have written about this deadly disease through ancient history. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest description of cancer, was discovered around 3000-2500 BC in Egypt describing 8 breast tumors that were eradicated by cauterization with a fire drill. As expected back then, the statement of the Egyptian writers about the disease was, “There is no treatment” [1].

The Evolution of Research Design

Research focused on disease prevention and treatment has been a component of medicine since antiquity. Some of the earliest evidence of clinical research is seen in what may be the earliest known description of cancer by Imhotep in Egypt from around 3000 BC, as well as in records of experimentation

From Single-Cell Dynamics to Scaling Laws in Oncology

We are developing a biophysical model of tumor biology. We follow a strictly quantitative approach where each step of model development is validated by comparing simulation outputs with experimental data. While this strategy may slow down our advancements, at the same time it provides an invaluable reward: we can trust simulation outputs and use the model to explore territories of cancer biology where current experimental techniques fail. Here, we review our multi-scale biophysical modeling approach and show how a description of cancer at the cellular level has led us to general laws obeyed by both in vitro and in vivo tumors.

La etimología del cáncer y su curioso curso histórico

The first cancer descriptions in history are discussed according to recent findings and their interpretation, which show it as a group of unknown diseases until the 18th century, when it started to increase to actual levels. Medical literature shows a variety of what were considered cancer lesions, which are actually different lesions. This is partly due to an etymological misunderstanding of the Greek term karkinos that meant "cancer", in its modern sense, but also ulcerative lesion. This confusion is widely reviewed in the ancient medical literature and the main landmarks of modern cancer conception up to the 18th century are outlined.

The New Era in Cancer Research

For many years, discoveries about the genetic determinants of cancer appeared to be having only minor effects on efforts to control the disease in the clinic. Following advances made over the past decade, however, a description of cancer in molecular terms seems increasingly likely to improve the ways in which human cancers are detected, classified, monitored, and (especially) treated. Achieving the medical promise of this new era in cancer research will require a deeper understanding of the biology of cancer and imaginative application of new knowledge in the clinic, as well as political, social, and cultural changes.

Cancer‐Related Web Sites

In this bibliography, Shedivy includes selected Internet resources for four different audiences interested in cancer. Researchers will find sites for searching the CANCERLIT and Medline databases as well as how to apply for specific research grants, obtain human tissue for their studies, and contact fellow oncology experts. Health care professionals can search for related articles and find up‐to‐date cancer descriptions with standard therapy protocols plus documents they can use in patient education. Patients and their families can learn how to research specific cancers and can read documents on screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and more. The general public can access a wealth of highly readable factual information.

A Statistical Study of the Occurrence of Cancer and Tuberculosis in 11,195 Postmortem Examinations

The idea that cancer and tuberculosis are antagonistic diseases was introduced into medical literature chiefly by Rokitansky (3855) (1) who stressed the infrequent association of the two diseases in the same individual and the rarity of their coexistence in the same organ. Rokitansky noted also that cyst formation, typhoid fever, goiter, rickets and some other diseases were seldom found associated with tuberculosis. The problem has attracted some attention from time to time and has been given renewed interest by Pearl9s recent publication. It is unnecessary for us to give a detailed account of the previous work on this subject since the literature has been extensively reviewed by Pearl (2). The publications fall into three groups: (a) ease reports; (b) experimental studies; and ( c ) statistical studies. The case reports deal largely with descriptions of cancer and tuberculosis in the same individual or in the same organ. Evidence of this kind is valuable in showing that one disease does not always exclude the other, but it does not prove that there is no antagonism between them. The experimental method was employed by Centanni and Ilezzesi (3) in 1926. They used a strain of mice that were highly resistant to the tubercle bacillus. The tumor used was a transplantable adenocarcinoma that developed in nearly 100 per cent of animals inoculated. An emulsion containing both carcinoma cells and tubercle bacilli gave no tumors when injected into the mice. When tuberculin was substituted for the tubercle bacilli in the emulsion the growth of the tumor was retarded but not prevented. Injection of tubercle bacilli directly into the tumor destroyed it partly. Dead bacilli had no effect upon the cancer. When cancer cells and tubercle bacilli were injected simultaneously into different parts of the body, there was a temporary or permanent depression in the rate of growth of the cancer. When cancer cells were injected into animals that had been previously infected with tuberculosis the growth of the tumor was delayed.