Oncology
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Monitoring acute postoperative pain as the fifth vital sign is currently practiced in many developed countries. In Sarawak, pain is an important symptom as 70% of cancer patients present with advanced disease. As the existing validated pain assessment tools were found to be difficult to use, we studied the feasibility of modifying the use of a pain assessment tool, consisting of the short form of the Brief Pain Inventory and the Wong-Baker Faces Scale. ⋯ The staff found that the tool allowed continuous pain assessment in an objective manner.
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The femur bone cancer pain model was developed by implanting mouse osteolytic tumor cells (NCTC 2472) into the intramedulla of the femur in C3H/HeN mice. In vivo imaging analysis revealed that the implanted tumor cells grew progressively over 14 days. Associated with the tumor growth, guarding behavior, which was an indication of ongoing pain, time-dependently increased. ⋯ Moreover, oxycodone (5-20 mg/kg, s.c.) dose-dependently reversed allodynia without affecting the sham-treated mice. Morphine (50 mg/kg, s.c.) and fentanyl (0.075-0.2 mg/kg, s.c.) also reversed allodynia, but morphine (50 mg/kg, s.c.) tended to affect and fentanyl (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg, s.c.) affected the withdrawal threshold in sham-treated mice. These results suggested that oxycodone relieved not only ongoing pain, but also ambulatory and neuropathic pain, and that the analgesic profile of oxycodone could be different from that of either morphine or fentanyl.
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Multicenter Study
Chemotherapy use and associated factors among cancer patients near the end of life.
We investigated the frequency of chemotherapy use and its associated factors in patients in all age groups in the last year of life. ⋯ Despite the fact that most cancer patients are resistant to chemotherapy at the end of life, it was administered often to all age groups.
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Comparative Study
Cost consequences of adjuvant capecitabine, Mayo Clinic and de Gramont regimens for stage III colon cancer in the French setting.
To compare the cost consequences of oral capecitabine and two different intravenous regimens of 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid (de Gramont and Mayo Clinic regimens) as adjuvant therapy in stage III colon cancer in France. ⋯ In France, capecitabine is more effective and less costly than both the Mayo Clinic and de Gramont regimens as adjuvant therapy for colon cancer.
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To assess the efficacy of percutaneous cementoplasty for painful bone metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ⋯ Percutaneous cementoplasty can provide pain relief and improvement of quality of life, though without survival benefits, for HCC patients with painful bone metastasis.