• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.139-150
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• 2018

Averagely 80% to 90% of breastfeeding women experience the nipple pain and fissures. The important factor for successful breastfeeding is to treat this problem. This study has done as a review with the aim of analysis of the clinical trials in the field of the prevention and treatment of the nipple fissures and pain due to the importance of breastfeeding. For this purpose, the key words of sore, nipples, fissure, trauma, wound, prevention, treatment, therapeutics, therapy, clinical trial, breastfeeding and their Persian synonyms and all of their possible combinations were searched in the national databases: SID and Iran Medex and Magiran, and in the international databases: PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Science direct by May 2017. The Jadad criterion was used to assess the quality of the articles and the articles with a score of 3 or more were included in this study. Finally, 48 clinical trials were reviewed that 17 of them (sample size 1801) scored 3 or more based on the Jadad criterion. Seven articles were also in the non- drug treatment group (sample size 491) and 2 articles in the drug treatment group (sample size 337) and 8 articles in the herbal treatment group (sample size 973).The results show that menthol and warm water compress as well as teaching the correct breastfeeding methods are effective treatments to prevent and treat the nipple pain and fissures. Moreover, applying the herbal medicine for prevention and treatment of the issues raised from breastfeeding may have beneficial such as Aloe vera, Portulaca olearacea. However, more studies with a great methodology are necessary to obtain more accurate evidence.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.43-73
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• 2016

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the presence of core patient safety practices in Korean hospitals and assess the differences in reporting and learning systems of patient safety, infrastructure, and safe practices by hospital characteristics. Methods: The authors developed a questionnaire including 39 items of patient safety staffing, health information system, reporting system, and event-specific prevention practices. The survey was conducted online or e-mail with 407 tertiary, general and specialty hospitals. Results: About 90% of hospitals answered the self-reporting system of patient safety related events is established. More than 90% of hospitals applied incidence monitoring or root cause analysis on healthcare-associated infection, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls, but only 60% did on surgery/procedure related events. More than 50% of the hospitals did not adopted present on admission (POA) indicators. One hundred (80.0%) hospitals had a department of patient safety and/or quality and only 52.8% of hospitals had a patient safety officer (PSO). While 82.4% of hospitals used electronic medical records (EMRs), only 53% of these hospitals adopted clinical decision support function. Infrastructure for patient safety except EMRs was well established in training, high-level and large hospitals. Most hospitals implemented prevention practices of adverse drug events, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls (94.4-100.0%). But prevention practices of surgery/procedure related events had relatively low adoption rate (59.2-92.8%). Majority of prevention practices for patient safety events were also implemented with a relatively modest increase in resources allocated. Conclusion: The hospital-based reporting and learning system, EMRs, and core evidence-based prevention practices were implemented well in high-level and large hospitals. But POA indicator and PSO were not adopted in more than half of surveyed hospitals and implementation of prevention practices for specific event had low. To support and monitor progress in hospital's patient safety effort, national-level safety practices set is needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1683-1686
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• 2015

Different types of treatment are available for patients with breast cancer, the most being radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and combination therapy. Recently, nanoparticles have been emerging as promising agents for cancer therapy and are being investigated as contrast agents, drug carriers, radiosensitizers and also for hyperthermia effects. In this review the focus is on approaches for targeted treatment of breast cancer by combining nanoparticles, chemodrugs and radiation. The availble data suggest the possibility of increased roles for combined therapy, particularly by reducing the dose of each treatment modality, and consequently minimizing related side effects.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.461-470
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• 2017

Anticoagulant drugs, like vitamin K antagonists and heparin, have been the mainstay for the treatment and prevention of venous thromboembolic disease for many years. Although effective if appropriately used, traditional anticoagulants have several limitations such as unpredictable pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic responses and various adverse effects including serious bleeding complications. New oral anticoagulants have recently emerged as an alternative because of their rapid onset/offset of action, predictable linear dose-response relationships and fewer drug interactions. However, they are still associated with problems such as bleeding, lack of reversal agents and standard laboratory monitoring. In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, key steps of the hemostatic pathway are investigated as targets for anticoagulation. Here we reviewed the traditional and new anticoagulants with respect to their targets in the coagulation cascade, along with their therapeutic advantages and disadvantages. In addition, investigational anticoagulant drugs currently in the development stages were introduced.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6849-6853
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• 2014

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major impediment to successful chemotherapy of gastric cancer. Our aim was to establish an epirubicin-resistant cell subline (AGS/EPI) and to elucidate the mechanisms involved in acquired EPI resistance. The AGS/EPI cell subline developed by exposing parental AGS cells to stepwise increasing concentrations of EPI demonstrated 2.52-fold resistance relative to the AGS cell line, and mRNA expression of the ATP-dependent drug-efflux pump P-glycoprotein (Pgp), more recently known as ABCB1 protein, was similarly upregulated. An AGS/EPI cell subline could thus be effectively established, and MDR mechanism of these cells was shown to be related to the overexpression of mRNA of the ABCB1 gene.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8307-8311
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• 2016

Lung cancer is one particular type of cancer that is deadly and relatively common than any other. Treatment is with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery depending on the type and stage of the disease. Focusing on drugs used for chemotherapy and their associated side effects, there is a need to design and develop new anti-lung cancer drugs with minimal side effects and improved efficacy. The pharmacophore model appears to be a very helpful tool serving in the designing and development of new lead compounds. In this paper, pharmacophore analysis of 10 novel anti-lung cancer compounds was validated for the first time. Using LigandScout the pharmacophore features were predicted and 3D pharmacophores were extracted via VMD software. A training set data was collected from literature and the proposed model was applied to the training set whereby validating and verifying similar activity as that of the most active compounds was achieved. Therefore pharmacophore develoipment could be recommended for further studies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3629-3633
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• 2015

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are rare subpopulations within tumors which are recognized as culprits in cancer recurrence, drug resistance and metastasis. However, the molecular mechanisms of how CSCs are regulated remain elusive. Kr$\ddot{u}$ppel-like factors (KLFs) are evolutionarily conserved zinc finger-containing transcription factors with diverse functions in cell differentiation, proliferation, embryogenesis and pluripotency. Recent progress has highlighted the significance of KLFs, especially KLF4, in cancer and CSCs. Therefore, for better therapeutics of cancer disease, it is crucial to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of how KLF4 regulate CSC functions. Herein we summarized the current understanding of the transcriptional regulation of K LF4 in CSCs, and discussed the functional implications of targeting CSCs for potential cancer therapeutics.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6535-6539
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• 2015

This study was designed to assess, whether a new chemotherapeutic microtubule inhibitor, Epothilone B (EpoB, Patupilone), can induce DNA damage in normal ovarian cells (MM14.Ov), and to evaluate if such damage could be repaired. The changes were compared with the effect of paclitaxel (PTX) commonly employed in the clinic. The alkaline comet assay technique and TUNEL assay were used. The kinetics of DNA damage formation and the level of apoptotic cells were determined after treatment with IC50 concentrations of EpoB and PTX. It was observed that PTX generated significantly higher apoptotic and genotoxic changes than EpoB. The peak was observed after 48 h of treatment when the DNA damage had a maximal level. The DNA damage induced by both tested drugs was almost completely repaired. As EpoB in normal cells causes less damage to DNA it might be a promising anticancer drug with potential for the treatment of ovarian tumors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1705-1708
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• 2012

The inception of targeted agents has revolutionized the cancer therapy paradigm, both for physicians and patients. A large number of molecular targeted agents for cancer therapy are currently available for clinical use today. Many more are in making, but there are issues that remain to be resolved for the scientific as well as social community before the recommendation of their widespread use in may clinical scenarios can be done, one such issue being cost and cost effectiveness, others being resistance and lack of sustained efficacy. With the current knowledge about available targeted agents, the growing knowledge of intricate molecular pathways and unfolding of wider spectrum of molecular targets that can really matter in the disease control, calls for only the just use of the agents available now, drug companies need to make a serious attempt to reduce the cost of the agents. Research should focus on agents that show sustained responses in preclinical data. More needs to be done in laboratories and by the pharmaceutical industries, before we can truly claim to have entered a new era of targeted therapy in cancer care.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3561-3568
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• 2012

The calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is a member of the largest family of cell surface receptors, the G protein-coupled receptors involved in calcium homeostasis. The role of the CaSR in neoplasia appears to be homeostatic; loss of normal CaSR-induced response to extracellular calcium is observed in cancers of the colon and ovary, while increased release of PTHrP is observed in cancers of the breast, prostate and Leydig cells. Currently CaSR can be considered as a molecule that can either promote or prevent tumor growth depending on the type of cancer. Therefore, recognition of the multifaceted role of CaSR in gliomas and other malignant tumors in general is fundamental to elucidating the mechanisms of tumor progression and the development of novel therapeutic agents. Emphasis should be placed on development of drug-targeting methods to modulate CaSR activity in cancer cells.