Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027627 (metastases)
 103,950 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Between 1985 and 1987 quadrantectomy plus external radiotherapy and lumpectomy plus external and interstitial radiotherapy were compared in a randomized trial of patients with small carcinomas of the breast. Quadrantectomy involves excision of 2-3 cm of normal tissue around the tumour plus the removal of a sufficiently large portion of overlying skin and underlying fascia whilst lumpectomy removes only the tumour mass with a narrow margin of normal tissue. Patients in both groups also received total axillary dissection. 705 cases were evaluable, 360 quadrantectomies and 345 lumpectomies. No differences in distant metastases and survival were observed in the two groups. However, lumpectomy patients had a much higher frequency of local recurrences (7.0 vs. 2.2%). Since a local recurrence needs a second operation and creates severe psychological distress to the patient, conservative surgical procedures should include generous excision of normal tissue around the primary carcinoma plus intensive postoperative radiotherapy.
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PMID:Quadrantectomy versus lumpectomy for small size breast cancer. 214 53

Despite the importance of symptom control in the cancer population, few studies have systematically assessed the prevalence and characteristics of symptoms or the interactions between various symptom characteristics and other factors related to quality of life (QOL). As part of a validation study of a new symptom assessment instrument, inpatients and outpatients with prostate, colon, breast or ovarian cancer were evaluated using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale and other measures of psychological condition, performance status, symptom distress and overall quality of life. The mean age of the 243 evaluable patients was 55.5 years (range 23-86 years); over 60% were women and almost two-thirds had metastatic disease. The Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score was < or = 80 in 49.8% and 123 were inpatients at the time of assessment. Across tumour types, 40-80% experienced lack of energy, pain, feeling drowsy, dry mouth, insomnia, or symptoms indicative of psychological distress. Although symptom characteristics were variable, the proportion of patients who described a symptom as relatively intense or frequent always exceeded the proportion who reported it as highly distressing. The mean (+/- SD range) number of symptoms per patient was 11.5 +/- 6.0 (0-25); inpatients had more symptoms than outpatients (13.5 +/- 5.4 vs. 9.7 +/- 6.0, p < 0.002) and those with KPS < or = 80 had more symptoms than those with KPS > 80 (14.8 +/- 5.5 vs. 9.2 +/- 4.9, p < 0.0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Symptom prevalence, characteristics and distress in a cancer population. 792 Apr 92

The degree of psychosocial distress experienced by 15 cancer patients with newly diagnosed metastatic disease and their spouses was investigated. Of interest were mean changes over the six-month interval following diagnosis, and correlations between partners at 0, 3, and 6-7 months. The Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS) and the Family Environment Scale (FES) were used to quantify adjustment. Several PAIS subscales exhibited increasing distress over time for patients: Social Environment (p = 0.004), Vocational Environment (p = 0.028), and Psychological Distress (p = 0.029). FES Conflict increased over time (p < 0.005), while Intellectual Cultural Orientation declined (p = 0.02), both for spouses only. Of 24 patient-spouse PAIS correlations (7 subscales plus a global scale, at three times), 7 (29%) were 0.70 or greater (ps < 0.01). Of 30 FES correlations, 17 (57%) were 0.7 or higher (ps < 0.01). These results suggest that some stresses increase over time, and that spouses and patients share a similar perceived level of distress. Health professionals must address the psychological distress of the spouse as well as the patient.
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PMID:Psychological distress in cancer patients and their spouses. 848 10

The prevalence of pain in cancer patients is influenced by several factors, for example the cancer disease, stage of disease, metastases present and treatment. However, only very few studies take all these factors in account when presenting the prevalence of pain in cancer patients. Pain may be caused by direct tumour infiltration, but may also be indirectly related to the cancer disease, caused by the cancer treatment or unrelated to the cancer. The most frequent pain quality is somatic pain followed by visceral and neuropathic pain. Pain with certain qualities or characteristics, such as incident pain, tenesmi in the gastrointestinal tract or cramps located to the bladder or rectum are more difficult to relieve than other pains. Other factors, such as major psychological distress, fast increasing doses of opioids and a past history of addictive behaviour may also be predictive of a poor treatment outcome. Besides pain cancer patients may also suffer from other troublesome symptoms such as asthenia, anorexia, constipation, nausea and vomiting and poor quality of sleep. These symptoms have great impact on the patients' well-being and should be treated contemporarily.
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PMID:[Epidemiology of cancer pain]. 959 49

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of psychotropic medication in patients referred to a psycho-oncology service. While depressive disorders and psychological difficulties are being increasingly recognised in oncology patients, the use of psychotropic medication has not been frequently studied, nor has it been studied in patients who are subsequently referred for psychiatric assessment. The use of psychotropic medication in all patients referred to a psycho-oncology service over a 6-month period was examined prospectively. Details recorded included class of psychotropic medication used and by whom it was prescribed. Demographic details and clinical diagnoses were also recorded. Sixty-three patients were referred over the initial 6 months of the service and the majority had advanced or metastatic disease (62%). Clinically, 44.5% had some form of major psychiatric disorder, and 40% had an adjustment disorder. Over half (55.5%) were already on psychotropic medication at referral; mainly minor tranquillisers (51%) and antidepressants (24%); 22% were on more than one drug. Of those medications prescribed pre-referral, 46% had been prescribed by the oncology team and 31% were from the GP. Following psychiatric review, further medication was prescribed in 30% of the subjects, leaving a total of 79% on some form of psychotropic drug. While the overall psychotropic prescribing and the use of minor tranquillisers appears to be similar to those found in earlier studies, the high rate of use of antidepressants suggests psychological distress is being increasingly recognised, and pharmacotherapy is a commonly used strategy in this group.
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PMID:The use of psychotropic medication in patients referred to a psycho-oncology service. 974 Oct 69

Few surveys have been performed to define the characteristics and impact of breakthrough pain in the cancer population. In this cross-sectional survey of inpatients with cancer, patients responded to a structured interview (the Breakthrough Pain Questionnaire) designed to characterize breakthrough pain, and also completed measures of pain and mood (Memorial Pain Assessment Card (MPAC)), pain-related interference in function (Brief Pain Inventory (BPI)), depressed mood (Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)), and anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)). Of 178 eligible patients, 164 (92.2%) met the criteria for controlled background pain. The median age was 50.6 years (range 26 to 77 years), 52% were men, and 80.6% were Caucasian. Tumor diagnoses were mixed, 75% had metastatic disease, 65% had pain caused directly by the neoplasm, and a majority had mixed nociceptive-neuropathic pain. The median Karnofsky Performance Status score was 60 (range 40 to 90). Eighty-four (51.2%) patients had experienced breakthrough pain during the previous day. The median number of episodes was six (range 1 to 60) and the median interval from onset to peak was 3 min (range 1 s to 30 min). Although almost two-thirds (61.7%) could identify precipitants (movement 20.4%; end-of-dose failure 13.2%), pain was unpredictable in a large majority (78.2%). Patients with breakthrough pain had more intense (P < 0.001) and more frequent (P < 0.01) background pain than patients without breakthrough pain. Breakthrough pain was also associated with greater pain-related functional impairment (difference in mean BPI. P < 0.001), worse mood (mood VAS, P < 0.05; BDI, P < 0.001), and more anxiety (BAI, P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed that breakthrough pain independently contributed to impaired functioning and psychological distress. These data confirm that cancer-related breakthrough pain is a prevalent and heterogeneous phenomenon. The presence of breakthrough pain is a marker of a generally more severe pain syndrome, and is associated with both pain-related functional impairment and psychological distress. The findings suggest the need for further studies of breakthrough pain and more effective therapeutic strategies.
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PMID:Breakthrough pain: characteristics and impact in patients with cancer pain. 1035

Head and neck adenoid cystic carcinomas may invade the adjacent skull base by bone lysis and/or by perinervous and perivascular spread within the skull base foramina. Neurosurgical decision making is not well defined regarding the extent of intracranial tumor component removal, as neurosurgical expertise is limited for this peculiar type of tumors. The issue is to decide whether a radical supposedly locally curative surgery should be attempted, or if a large non disfigurating surgery is mandatory, keeping in mind the frequency of local recurrences and of distant metastases. Over a 13-year period, four adenoid cystic carcinomas invading the skull base were operated on at our institution: two tumors originated in the parotid gland, one in the sphenoid sinus, and one in the ethmoid sinus. Surgical removal was total in one case, subtotal in three cases. Post-operative irradiation was delivered in the four patients (two neutron irradiation, two conventional). One patient with advanced metastatic disease was submitted to chemotherapy. Three patients died from local tumor progression and distant metastases within three years after the intracranial tumor extension has been diagnosed. The patient with an ethmoid tumor is still alive seven years after surgery without any evidence of local tumor progression nor distant metastases. Surgery remains the gold standard treatment for adenoid cystic carcinomas invading the skull base. However, in our opinion a large tumor removal, without or with bone osteotomies, but without sacrifice of cranial nerves, cavernous sinus, internal carotid artery, and of the orbit allows patient survival with an acceptable comfort and absence of psychological distress due to disfigurating surgery nor surgically induced neurological functional deficit. Post-operative irradiation may sometimes stabilize locally the lesions. The place of chemotherapy has, yet, to be determined.
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PMID:[Adenoid cystic carcinomas invading the skull base. Apropos of 4 cases and review of the literature]. 1191 13

Approximately 5-10% of patients with metastatic cancer will develop a fungating wound. The disfiguring or unpleasant nature of these wounds can lead to complex psychosocial problems in patients, which mean that many will seek medical assistance only when the wound is advanced. Curative treatment is often not an option, although a range of palliative treatments may be tried. When the tumour does not respond to these treatments the patient will be left with a chronic complex wound with local wound management as the only option. It is at this time that the community nurse usually becomes involved with the patient. This article discusses the assessment of patients with fungating wounds in the community, taking into consideration the immense psychological distress that they can cause. It highlights factors that need to be taken into consideration when assessing these complex wounds. Many of them are heavily exuding, malodorous and bleed easily. Strategies that focus on managing these symptoms are explored and recommendations for clinical practice are made.
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PMID:Malignant fungating wounds: assessment and management. 1219 42

Axillary lymph node status is the most important prognostic marker in patients with breast cancer; the presence of axillary metastases impacts prognosis as well as subsequent systemic therapy. Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is associated with significant morbidity and psychological distress; the introduction of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy with lymphatic mapping affords the ability to identify those patients most likely to benefit from ALND, sparing node-negative patients. The lymphatic drainage of the breast is poorly understood, and the situation is further complicated by the lack of standardization of the SLN biopsy technique among institutions. Multicentricity has generally been considered to be a contraindication to SLN biopsy due to concerns about potential inaccuracies. Here we report five cases of patients with multicentric breast cancers (two tumors in two distinct quadrants). In each case, injection of one site with technetium-labeled sulfur colloid and the second site with isosulfan blue dye resulted in successful identification of at least one node that was both hot and blue within the axilla. These observations suggest that the lymphatic drainage of the entire breast coincides with drainage of the tumor bed, regardless of the quadrant. However, further studies are needed to validate the accuracy of SLN biopsy in multicentric breast cancers.
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PMID:Sentinel lymph node drainage in multicentric breast cancers. 1239 Mar 58

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is widely used as a tool for assessing psychological distress in patients and non-clinical groups. Previous studies have demonstrated conflicting results regarding the factor structure of the questionnaire for different groups of patients, and the general population. This study investigated the factor structure of the HADS in a large heterogeneous cancer population of 1474 patients. It also sought to investigate emerging evidence that the HADS conforms to the tripartite model of anxiety and depression (Clark & Watson, 1993), and to test the proposal that detection rates for clinical cases of anxiety and depression could be enhanced by partialling out the effects of higher order factors from the HADS (Dunbar et al., 2000). The results demonstrated a two-factor structure corresponding to the Anxiety and Depression subscales of the questionnaire. The factor structure remained stable for different subgroups of the sample, for males and females, as well as for different age groups, and a subgroup of metastatic cancer patients. The two factors were highly correlated (r =.52) and subsequent secondary factor analyses demonstrated a single higher order factor corresponding to psychological distress or negative affectivity. We concluded that the HADS comprises two factors corresponding to anhedonia and autonomic anxiety, which share a common variance with a primary factor namely psychological distress, and that the subscales of the HADS, rather than the residual scores (e.g. Dunbar et al., 2000) were more effective at detecting clinical cases of anxiety and depression.
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PMID:Factor analysis of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale from a large cancer population. 1239 62


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